Sad two-word message on tent as Aussies forced onto streets
Paul Slater provides food and shelter to those doing it tough in Brisbane. He said he's never seen the situation this bad before.
An inundated Aussie charity worker who provides food and emergency shelter for those in need is warning the nation's devastating housing crisis is "for sure worsening".
Paul Slater, who runs the Northwest Community Group and manages a makeshift "tent city" in Musgrave Park, in Brisbane's south, said he's struggling to keep up with the enormous demand for his services, which he said has dramatically increased this year.
Slater gets dozens of messages every week from those seeking help and has supplied over 500 tents to battling Australians this year alone. Speaking to Yahoo News Australia, Slater said this is reflective of the fact that "within the last couple of decades, there's been an absolute failure on all levels of government" when it comes to social housing.
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"It's clear to me we're in an emergency situation," he told Yahoo. "I've got people calling me multiple times per day, sleeping on concrete with nowhere to go, no emergency accommodation.
"I've got a lady that's been messaging me over the last couple of weeks, she's been searching every day for rentals. She's been to 100 inspections and can't get anywhere within her budget for her and her two children. She's not getting any support and she has two weeks until she's homeless.
"I got a call last night from another woman out at Redcliffe who's sleeping in her car with three children, 8, 10, and 14 — three girls. She's been sleeping in her CAR...There's just a serious lack of infrastructure around homelessness at the moment that needs to be urgently looked at."
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While working tirelessly multiple times per week, and relying solely on donations to give back to the community, Slater said as much as he'd like to do more, he can only give so much.
"In last week alone, I put up 25 tents," he said, explaining that when people turn to him, he's their "very last hope". Slater explained that he doesn't advertise his services, meaning that the people who find him do so only "through word of mouth".
He said often, it can be dangerous out in the suburbs at night, with "safety certainly a concern". Arguments and physical altercations among rough sleepers, he said, is a common occurrence.
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And it's not just his own safety he fears for, Slater said people in tents are often targeted as well. It's something that occupants in "tent cities" have widely reported, prompting one tent dweller to spray paint theirs with the words "go away".
"These guys in tents are constantly having to deal with people that don't even live around the area. They just come into their tent areas and cause problems," he said. Tragically, people inside are often families and couples in addition to those newly-released from prison.
"Generally, I'll find that the families do get put up into hotels pretty quickly. Because, you know, whenever there's kids involved, they do look after them," he said.
"It used to be a lot of the more long-term homeless people that get bounced around from place to place that I would see. But now, it could literally be anyone. Even people who have jobs."
How bad has the housing crisis in Australia become?
Slater said, "to be fair, the housing department are dealing with a huge number of people that they're juggling around hotels" and that "they can't keep on top of everyone". But, he argued, more must urgently be done from governments, not just in Queensland, but all over the country to fix the problem.
In Queensland, there's a two and a half year wait to get on the social housing register, with some 25,000 people in the queue — and that figure is worse in other states. In NSW for example, there's a mind-blowing 60,000 people waiting for government homes.
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