There are people living in tents in cities all across Australia – they can’t wait 10 years for more affordable housing. Photo: Ian Bushnell.
The ugly spectacle of a regional council bulldozing a campsite and issuing eviction notices to rough sleepers near the Wagga CBD this month should become a watershed moment in Australia’s homelessness debate.
If governments cannot provide everyone with a roof over their head, the least they can do is ensure nobody is forced to sleep through freezing winter temperatures without access to some form of shelter, a toilet, a shower or basic safety.
It’s time for the federal, state, territory and local governments to work together to establish their own temporary serviced camps for people experiencing severe homelessness.
Australian leaders have long rejected such an idea, insisting the answer is to build more affordable and social housing.
The problem is we’ve spent decades talking about that solution while drifting further away from it.
Public housing has steadily shrunk as a proportion of the nation’s housing stock. Rents have risen faster than wages. Buying a home is out of reach for many working Australians, let alone people living on income support.
Even if governments suddenly found the political will to build enough affordable housing, it would take years for supply to catch up with demand.
The thousands of people across the nation sleeping in tents, cars and bus shelters don’t have years to wait. They need somewhere safe to sleep tonight.
That is why Wagga has become the uncomfortable symbol of a national crisis.
Following the tragic death of a newborn baby in a riverside camp, there was hope that governments would finally confront the reality of a growing homelessness crisis. Instead, the main response has been to push people away from locations near the CBD – where tents and shopping trolleys are seen as an eyesore and homeless people are often viewed as a safety risk by families using public spaces.
A skip bin full of items cleared from a Wagga Beach homeless campsite this month. Photos: Marguerite McKinnon.
But moving people on doesn’t solve the problem.
The NSW Government’s primary emergency response is to pay for people experiencing homelessness to stay in motel rooms. This costs taxpayers hundreds of dollars a night and depends on motels agreeing to accommodate vulnerable guests – something they are often reluctant to do. Even when hotels do accept them, they’re only there for a few days. Before long, many people end up back where they started.
Housing advocates Richard Foley, Vickie Burkinshaw and Chris Roche have put forward a simple alternative: construct temporary, serviced camps until permanent housing becomes available.
Australia already establishes temporary accommodation villages for disaster victims, seasonal workers and major renewable energy projects. We install portable buildings, toilets, showers, kitchens and security when there is a workforce shortage or a flood. This is often done within a matter of weeks.
Surely we can show the same urgency when Australians have nowhere to live.
Critics will argue that government-sanctioned camps normalise homelessness. I believe the opposite is more likely. Nobody wants enclaves of tents, dongas or caravans in Australian towns and cities. Their very existence would be a visible reminder of our housing failure and intensify pressure on governments to deliver permanent solutions.
Authorities may also be reluctant to establish camps for fear of liability if things go wrong.
But governments already manage those risks every day through caravan parks, evacuation centres, social housing and temporary worker villages. A camp could be operated by an experienced homelessness provider with clear rules, security, insurance and wraparound support services. The Commonwealth should step in to underwrite the scheme if necessary.
The greater liability is pretending it’s acceptable to leave thousands of people out in the cold in one of the wealthiest countries in the world.
So before we spend more money on another affordable housing summit or white paper that leads nowhere, let’s deal with the most urgent problem first.
Australia has shown it can find $368 billion for AUKUS submarines that may be obsolete by the time they arrive in several years’ time. Surely we can find a fraction of that to ensure our most vulnerable citizens have somewhere safe to sleep tonight.
Original Article published by Oliver Jacques on Region Canberra.
