Brisbane’s squalid tent cities are multiplying as homelessness surges due to Australia’s immigration-fuelled housing crisis.
A visitor sent Noticer News this clip of an encampment in Musgrave Park where an Indian man can be seen urinating in the open.https://t.co/LmtxzmfiQe pic.twitter.com/j5z8J5QH8a
— The Noticer (@NoticerNews) August 22, 2024
New tents cities are popping up across the Brisbane CBD as homelessness surges due to Australia’s mass immigration-fuelled housing crisis.
One of the biggest encampments was removed from Musgrave Park, South Brisbane, for a festival in May, but 40 tents have returned, while a new cluster has emerged in E.E McCormick Place near the William Jolly Bridge.
A visitor to the city told Noticer News he saw four homeless junkies wandering around Musgrave Park on the weekend, and filmed an Indian man urinating in the open.
Amy McVeigh from the Queensland Council of Social Service told 7 News that “Queensland is the epicentre of Australia’s housing crisis” while charity worker Paul Slater said he had handed out 500 tents in the last 12 months.
“We’re seeing an insane amount of people who have nowhere to sleep,” he said.
Housing Minister Meaghan Scanlon said government employees had been out offering tent city dwellers alternative accommodation, but only one person had accepted.
Brisbane City Council claims there is nothing it can do if people living in tents refuse to be housed elsewhere, and can only remove tents that have been abandoned for 48 hours.
Brisbane overtook Melbourne and Canberra in June to become the city with the second highest home prices in the country, with prices up 65% since 2020 and rental vacancy rates at 1.1% in July.
According to the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics overseas migration data, Queensland accepted 83,990 immigrants in the 2022-23 financial year, and Brisbane’s population grew by 81,220 in the year to June 2023.
51,801 were overseas migrants, 15,332 moved from other parts of Australia, and there was a natural increase of 14,087 people.
These figures are mirrored nationwide, with Australia accepting 737,000 immigrants over the same period, a net gain of 518,000.
In March this year Big Four financial services firm Deloitte described Australia’s housing market as “uncomfortably tight” due to demand far exceeding supply.
“The root of Australia’s housing crisis is that supply is failing to keep up with rising demand. Demand has escalated in line with strong population growth driven by record high net overseas arrivals through 2023,” Deloitte said in a note.
“Recent growth in housing commencements has failed to keep up with this population growth, let alone start to address the structural undersupply.”
