News
4 September, 2024
How to fix the housing crisis?
Alarming statistics about the Moreton Bay homelessness and housing problems were presented on August 27 at Terry Young’s Homelessness and Housing Vision Builders breakfast in Caboolture.
New data shows that between 400 and 500 people will have been sleeping rough this year, with the number of people requiring short-term emergency accommodation having grown by almost 280 per cent between 2018 and 2023.
But those figures are thought to only scratch the surface of a crisis, which has seen official homelessness figures double across Moreton Bay each year for the last two years, with over 2,500 people in Moreton Bay currently on the Department of Housing waitlist.
Within the last 12 months, only 75 of those were accommodated. The most common reasons cited for seeking assistance are housing affordability and interpersonal relationships (domestic violence).
Division 3 Councillor Adam Hain, who was one of the panel speakers, said the statistics don’t reflect the actual amount of people experiencing homelessness, as those are based on the amount of residents who declare themselves homeless to Council.
“Once someone declares themselves homeless they are on the waiting list and have rights. These are the people Council can work with,” he said.
“There are a whole lot of people who don’t declare themselves and those numbers are very hard to record.”
Panellist Michael Cox, Director of Eats 4 the Streets, estimated that the actual number of people sleeping rough were in the thousands, based on how many meals he delivers.
“The situation is significantly worse than you think,” he said.
While Property Management Director for Richardson and Wrench Caboolture, Karen George, said that out of the 1000 rental properties the firm manages, there are only three on the market and all over $700 per week.
These same homes would have been renting for $500 per week before COVID.
“Gone are the days of any rental houses under 400. And I’m talking townhouses are 420, 440 now,” she said.
Federal Member for Longman, Terry Young, added that the homelessness and housing issue does not have a simple solution and is a problem that needs to be addressed by all parties, across all levels of government.
“State governments around the country have got, regardless of what colour they are, to work together,” he said.
“It’s not just Labor governments, it’s in everything as far as politics goes.”
Mr Young said that, while the panel was painting a very bleak picture, there are a lot of solution ideas and little initiatives being done to help the situation.
Mr Young’s suggestion was to “get immigration under control”, canning foreign property ownership for a period of time.
Another idea that came about was investing in conatiner homes and tiny homes.
This, however, raised the issue of no land being available to place these homes on.
“One block of Council land is sought after for many different uses, including schools and community facilities,” Cr Hain said.
When asked about why showgrounds can’t be used as temporary housing areas, Mr Hain added that Council is not getting answers from the State Government on the issue, as the state actually owns the land.
Another issue raised, when talking about building more retirement villages or affordable housing complexes, is the cost of building material and lack of trades people.
“We need to place more emphasis in school for kids to take up a trade and incentivise employers to put apprentices on, so we can get a bigger workforce,” Mr Young said.
Some of Moreton Bay Council’s initiatives have included waiving infrastructure fees in some cases, which in turn, however, takes money away from Council, which pays for services such as road works or maintance.
This raised the suggestion of waiving or lowering inspection fees, so it’s more affordable for investors to build homes.
Ms George also emphasised how real estate’s can help, by educating home owners on their expectations of tenants.
“It’s not mum and dad and two kids, but rather two single moms with two children each sharing resources and coming together,” she said.
“We need to change real estate ideas to rent to a bigger family in a home, but then also educating those people that when doing house inspections make sure everything looks good.”
Lastly, Mr Cox also shared how him and his team are working on developing an app that opens a map showing people where support services exist around them, including food, counselling and clothing.
“If enough people use it, we have a live census of who’s where, looking for what, what their demographic is, are there epi centres we don't know about... We don’t have to wait for the next census,” he said.
“When we don’t know what the problem is and we don’t have a clear picture, it’s very hard to tailor solutions for it.”
If you are at risk of becoming homeless or currently experiencing homelessness, please call the state government’s Homelessness Hot line on 1800 474 753.
Anyone in the Moreton Bay and Somerset Region who requires housing assistance can contact their local Housing Service Centre by calling 13QGOV or qld.gov.au/housing/ public-community-housing/housing-service-centre.
