Some rough it for a decade
Cook ups on the park barbecues
The Gold Coast’s most public homeless camp, facing the Broadwater Parklands, is the new home for rough sleepers, some of whom have ten years surviving without shelter.
Welfare agencies, on the latest count, say there are 42 people who are camping in parks and shop laneways between the Sundale Bridge and Charis Seafoods at Biggera Waters.
The bigger picture sees more than 900 people homeless across the city.
Despite disturbing images in Southport, city leaders say the homeless crisis is worse on the Coast’s southern end.
All stakeholders agree it will be at least two years before low cost housing is built and provides decent accommodation for the Southport homeless.
Carey Park is the perfect location, a bike ride or quick stroll from shops.
The Bulletin has spotted campers arriving back with food. They can cook their
steaks on council barbecues. This small group of men and a woman have moved from their most recent location in the Nerang Street mall. Previously they were at the Cascade Gardens at Broadbeach.
Southport councillor Brooke Patterson late this week met with the homeless and spoke to an older man who recognised her after she helped fill out his welfare housing application.
“He has not heard anything (from the government) for the past two years,” she said.
Another man sleeping under a long grey tarp had been without a home for four years. His mate estimated it had been 10 years on the road.
Ms Patterson has met with the Council’s acting chief executive and another senior executive to determine the next steps.
Residents on her Facebook page have called Southport “a toilet” and say they fear for their safety as vagrants drink and “shoot up” in CBD streets.
A former police officer wrote: “I walk down Nerang Street most evenings and see offences being committed. I volunteer at Australia Fair and observe theft every single day by the same group of people that charity groups and others support.”
Both Ms Patterson and Southport MP Rob Molhoek believe the homeless crisis has become worse in the past 12 months on the southern Coast.
An experienced MP with strong links to welfare groups, Mr Molhoek knows there is a core group of homeless who are “very difficult to house”.