Brisbane’s rough sleepers will be moved on under a crackdown by council, with the mayor insisting that “parks and playgrounds should be safe spaces for everyone to enjoy”.
Brisbane’s rough sleepers will be moved on under a crackdown by council, with the mayor insisting that “parks and playgrounds should be safe spaces for everyone to enjoy”.
By Felicity Caldwell
Updated March 13, 2025 — 12.52pmfirst published at 11.48am
Brisbane’s rough sleepers will be given 24 hours to move on, with empty tents removed from parks, under a crackdown from the city council.
Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner said the state government had advised “virtually every rough sleeper in Brisbane was offered secure accommodation before Tropical Cyclone Alfred, but shockingly the vast majority refused”.
“We won’t let Brisbane turn into the San Francisco Bay Area, where encampments have grown out of control and become magnets for crime, violence and illegal drugs,” he said.
“Our parks and playgrounds should be safe spaces for everyone to enjoy.”
Council officers, working with police and state housing agencies, will begin talking to rough sleepers in parks on Thursday, and they will be given 24 hours to leave.
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Empty tents will be removed to “prevent the creation of more dangerous encampments”.
A Queensland Housing Department spokesman said every person who was willing to talk to officials was offered temporary accommodation through the department or referred to state-funded specialist homelessness services.
In the lead-up to Cyclone Alfred, the department sent 50 staff to hotspots from the Sunshine Coast to the Gold Coast, including Musgrave Park, the Kurilpa Bridge and Wickham Park.
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As at 5pm on Wednesday, the department had accommodated 150 people affected by the storm, including 30 children, in temporary emergency accommodation.
Brisbane Times also asked how many people refused offers of accommodation, but the questions were not answered.
Schrinner said the council would continue to have a compassionate approach, and would connect people with support services.
Brisbane’s crackdown follows a decision by the City of Moreton Bay Council, which came into effect on March 12, to make it illegal to camp on public land, with a fine of up to $8065.
Speaking on 4BC, Schrinner said that on one day before the cyclone 100 people were approached, and only four accepted accommodation offers.
“The state government’s telling us they do have crisis accommodation available, and it’s being knocked back,” he said.
Schrinner said after the Moreton Bay crackdown, homeless people said they were moving to Brisbane.
“We obviously can’t let that happen, you know, we’ve got enough challenges with the people already in the parks in tents,” he said.
“We’re now withdrawing the option to live permanently in a park in a tent.”
But Paul Slater, from Northwest Community Group, insisted people were not being offered accommodation.
“I was out with people last night, and I was talking to them about putting the tent up because I didn’t want to put all the tents back up after the cyclone,” he said, speaking on 4BC.
“But they have nowhere to go, they’re literally just going to sleep on the footpath.”
Slater said he had no idea where people would go when they were moved on from Brisbane’s parks.
“I guess they’ll have to go down to Sydney or Melbourne or something,” he said.
Schrinner put the issue on the state election agenda in October when he called for action on homelessness, labelling some inner-city parks “no-go zones”.
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Council’s Labor opposition has asked the lord mayor to reconsider his decision, with deputy leader Councillor Lucy Collier describing the move as “heartless”.
Micah Projects CEO Karyn Walsh said the council’s response was reasonable, as people should not be living in parks, but it was emblematic of the housing crisis.
Walsh said many wanted a long-term rental, but vacancies were low and costs sky-high.
There were 47,820 people on the Queensland social housing waitlist in September, growing 11 per cent in just one year.
Pam Barker, from the Brisbane Youth Service, said there was an unprecedented number of young people seeking housing support, and on many nights, all available beds were taken.
In late February, Brisbane Times asked south-east Queensland councils if they were concerned about the flow-on effects of the Moreton Bay crackdown.
A spokesman for Redland City Council said it did not plan to change its policy, which included compassion and a balanced approach to upholding the needs of all community members.
A Logan City Council spokeswoman said people experiencing homelessness often preferred to be close to existing support services, and it would be unusual for them to move between regions.
with Rosanna Ryan and AAP
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