Council urged to step up over encampments

Helen Tagg: “Residents want visible park management, safe play areas for children and a community environment that feels secure.”

Sunshine Coast Council’s management of long-term encampments in Nambour is under scrutiny, with questions about how unsafe conditions have been allowed to develop and persist for years in parks and flood prone creek corridors and why recent improvements have occurred quietly without clear public explanation.

Community advocate Helen Tagg has been raising concerns for four months, following the launch of her petition in late July. The petition,which attracted 1600 signatures, outlined escalating risks in Nambour’s parks and public spaces. During this time, many encampments remained in high flood risk and high visibility locations or in un-designated camping areas, which require proper planning, sanitation and oversight. 

Mrs Tagg presenting her petition to Div 10 Councillor David Law in late July.

Some areas now appear more orderly, though Mrs Tagg said this should be viewed as early improvement rather than evidence that deeper issues have been resolved, particularly while housing availability remains tight. Several camps remain entrenched, especially in Petrie Park, where risks are still present and long term management plans have not been communicated. She said the situation was showing the first signs of progress but were still fragile. She worried that without clear accountability the situation may not hold.

Mrs Tagg said the community was seeking clarity on what was being done to ensure that improvements continued. Lasting progress, she said, relied on “a clear plan, consistent oversight and open communication so residents can see that the changes represent a sustained approach and not a temporary clean up”. 

“Residents want visible park management, safe play areas for children and a community environment that feels secure,” she said.

Mrs Tagg said people sleeping rough also needed safety, which meant ensuring no one was staying in mapped flash-flood zones where a weather event could trigger a fast moving surge and place lives at risk.

She said this raised a broader question about the kind of community Nambour wanted to be, “because accepting unsafe or substandard living conditions for anyone is not consistent with dignity, fairness or safety”. 

Mrs Tagg said whatever angle people come from, whether homelessness, community safety or environmental protection, the basic issue did not change. The local parks were unsafe as living spaces because they sit within mapped flood zones.

She does not understand how an issue with such clear and longstanding risks was allowed to remain under-addressed for years. “I cannot understand how the encampments were able to remain in these parks long enough to reach a crisis point, given the well-known risks. 

“Camps should not be located next to schools or playgrounds. Not because every homeless person is a danger by default, but because repeated incidents have shown that those sensitive areas need appropriate separation from rough sleeping sites.”

Despite her ongoing requests for Council to manage the camps safely, Mrs Tagg said responsibility continued to be confused and shifted to police or the State, which contradicted Council’s own authority to manage its parks. Council has also stated that “we do not treat or consider sleeping rough as camping” which has created further confusion about its enforcement approach when issues arise.

She said the lack of effective management created conditions that drew in people willing to exploit the gaps and behave disrespectfully in the town. “This has affected the wider community and has also harmed the local homeless population through intimidation, turf conflicts and violence.”

“The enforcement issue is not about powers but about willingness,”

Council’s Responding to Homelessness Operational Guideline outlines several circumstances in which officers may support relocation from public spaces. The guideline states that relocation may be supported when behaviour threatened safety, when behaviour was likely to damage property or the environment, when a person was sheltering in circumstances that threaten health or safety, or when established camps prevented the public from safely using the space.

Mrs Tagg said all of these conditions were present at various times in Nambour. Further, despite Council’s public position that people experiencing homelessness were not “camping”, the guidelines required officers to log reports as “illegal camping” before assessing risks. 

“The lack of enforcement of these guidelines has placed the community at risk and enabled unsafe living conditions for the homeless population.”

Mrs Tagg said the deterioration seen earlier this year reflected a long period with no consistent management, which left both park users and people sleeping rough without clarity or safety. “This was not fair on anyone,” she said. “The worsening housing crisis has also placed mounting pressure on the streets, contributing to an increasingly unstable situation.”

Nicklin MP Marty Hunt has said Council had authority it was not using and that police could support temporary safety measures around sensitive sites if asked. He acknowledged that housing was a State responsibility, but said management of parks belonged to Council. 

“The enforcement issue is not about powers but about willingness,” Mrs Tagg said. She said the absence of early visible intervention contributed to risk escalation, growing stigma and frustration among residents who felt they had been left without information about what was happening or who was responsible. 

“Everyone benefits when communication is clear,” she said.

Mrs Tagg said she continued her advocacy because the “usual processes” did not provide timely action or clarity. “I never planned to be in this position,” she said. “I stepped in because the systems that should have managed this did not. There was no clear line of accountability and no clear plan.”

Meanwhile, she has asked Division 10 Councillor David Law for her original petition to be addressed at a councillor level rather than through an operational response and is still waiting for a reply. She has also requested an urgent accountability meeting between State and Council leadership, including the CEO, the Mayor, Mr Hunt and Councillor Law, to determine immediate steps and clarify responsibilities and inconsistencies about Council’s management of parks.

Council has stated that homelessness involves multiple agencies and that the State Government was responsible for housing services.