25/08/2025
Thankfully a community group is calling out the government and breaking down the situation.
Queensland is engineering rough sleeping — and pretending it isn’t
We’re seeing more people sleeping rough. Not because people “choose parks”. Because policy is shoving them there, then airbrushing them off the books.
What the “anti-social behaviour” policy actually does
On 1 July, the government re-upped the anti-social behaviour framework and turned the screws. Three breach notices in 12 months and your tenancy can be ended. For “severe/illegal” behaviour, you can be exited immediately and banned from social housing for two years. You’ll also be told to prove 12–24 months of “good tenancy” in the private market before you can get back on the list - a fantasy for anyone on Centrelink or low wages.
The categories are elastic - from “nuisance” to “serious” to “dangerous” - and the policy makes tenants responsible for the behaviour of visitors. Accusation can be enough to trigger action. That’s collective punishment dressed as neighbourhood safety.
How IHR locks people out while claiming to help
The Immediate Housing Response (IHR) is sold as emergency relief. Read the fine print.
You must be eligible for social housing and lodge an application within 7 days or your motel booking can be cancelled. If you’re later found ineligible, your IHR ends.
If you left unsafe accommodation, declined a “reasonable” offer in the previous six months, or had IHR previously terminated for behaviour/property issues, you can be excluded. One “reasonable offer” only; refuse it and that’s it. ID is required. Initial bookings are typically no more than two weeks. Alleged illegal activity can end your stay.
So when the anti-social policy kicks someone out - and that tenant is banned from reapplying for two years - they lose the very thing IHR requires: an active, eligible housing application. Result: no tenancy, no waitlist, no emergency support. Disappeared by design.
Ministerial Media Statements
Meanwhile: councils are criminalising existing
City of Moreton Bay repealed its previous framework and made camping/sleeping on public land illegal, with fines flagged up to $8,000. Rangers have already thrown tents into garbage trucks. After this, Brisbane City Council moved to remove tents within 24 hours and “move on” rough sleepers.
Dress it up how you want - this reframes homelessness as a policing problem, not a housing failure.
The numbers back the street view
47,820 people were on Queensland’s waiting list earlier this year; average wait about 2.5 years. More recent ministerial data puts the list at ~52,000. Different dates, same story: demand dwarfs supply.
20% rise in homelessness since 2018; 112,000+ Greater Brisbane households in housing stress (up 22,000 since the 2021 Census); people at risk statewide up ~80% to ~715,000.
And the old income limits haven’t kept pace with reality: the $609/week cap for a single has been essentially unchanged since 2006 — a neat way to keep people off the register.
Why rough sleeping is rising
Put the pieces together:
Exit mechanisms got harsher (three strikes, immediate evictions, two-year bans).
Re-entry is blocked (private rental history requirements no one can meet).
Emergency support is conditional on being on the very system you’ve been pushed out of.
Public-space bans push people around like chess pieces and hide them from view.
Eligibility settings (like 2006-era income thresholds) keep the waitlist artificially tidy.
The data doesn’t shrink. Only the visibility does.
Nothing accidental here. The policy architecture manufactures rough sleeping - then the comms team calls it “fairness”.
What needs to happen
Pause evictions and bans tied to the new anti-social settings while independent harm/impact reviews are conducted. Publish the data.
Reinstate due process: clear appeal rights, external review, and support-first responses before any tenancy action.
Queensland Government
Update income limits to contemporary costs of living and index them annually.
End council-level criminalisation of survival. Repeal or suspend local laws used to fine people for sleeping. Redirect those dollars into housing supply and outreach.
Build and acquire at speed, and ring-fence long-term tenancies for the highest-need households. (Spare us the vanity “starts” count; deliver keys.)
What you can do today
Contact your MP & the Housing Minister: call for a pause on evictions/bans and for IHR reform.
Back legal support for tenants and rough sleepers fighting unlawful moves-on and unfair evictions.
Support frontline orgs actually housing and feeding people (and yes, keep receipts for when government says “all were offered accommodation”).
Document: photos, dates, names of housing centre staff, offers made/declined and why. Paper beats spin.
