Petitioner fears bureaucratic inertia will leave Nambour waiting on short-term action

“Everyone wants to help, but without legislative change there’s no mechanism to cut through the red tape,” she said. “We allow emergency shelters during floods or bushfires, but not for people living in tents along creeks. To me that makes no sense.” – Helen Tagg

By Cameron Outridge

Petitioner Helen Tagg says progress on Nambour’s homelessness crisis risks being paralysed by red tape and legislative gaps, leaving the community without urgently needed short-term solutions.

Mrs Tagg, whose petition signed by 1500 people helped trigger the recent Nambour Homelessness Response Forum, said while long-term housing plans were being advanced, immediate measures were again running into the same bureaucratic roadblocks that have derailed past efforts.

“This isn’t a new issue – we’ve tried to establish refuges in Nambour multiple times over the years,” she said. “Every time, the same problems come up. Fire safety regulations, zoning restrictions, and no legislative framework for treating homelessness as an emergency mean nothing gets off the ground.”

Short-term solutions stalling

One proposal discussed at the recent forum – opening car parks or other facilities at night as temporary “bed down” shelters – had been suggested by homeless advocate Abigail last year, Mrs Tagg said, but was blocked then and remains unresolved.

“Everyone wants to help, but without legislative change there’s no mechanism to cut through the red tape,” she said. “We allow emergency shelters during floods or bushfires, but not for people living in tents along creeks. To me that makes no sense.”

Helen Tagg’s address to the Nambour Homelessness Response Forum:

Two weeks ago, I started a petition — not because I wanted signatures, but because I wanted change. In just 14 days, nearly 1500 people signed. That tells us something important: this community is ready to do things differently. 

And that is exactly what my plan does.
My plan brings issues together, not apart. For too long, homelessness, safety, and the environment have been treated as separate problems, managed in silos. My plan unites them under one umbrella: community. Because when you strengthen community, you solve all three.

My plan prevents crisis, rather than simply reacting to it. Right now, people are rough sleeping in flood zones, with their lives at risk. The usual response is to wait until tragedy forces action. My plan moves people into safe spaces, into shelter and dignity, and it connects them directly into housing pathways so that we stop managing crisis and start breaking the cycle. Prevention is not only more humane, it is also more cost-effective.

My plan identifies the need for real, practical solutions — built on step-by-step processes. It doesn’t rely on vague promises or long reports. It sets out clear actions: from emergency shelter to safe zones, from outreach to housing hubs, from community safety officers to long-term housing. Each step builds on the last, so progress is measurable and momentum is never lost.

My plan is led by community, not outsiders. For years, the people on the front line have known what works but haven’t been backed. This plan changes that. It harnesses the strength of what we already have and builds upon the vision of leaders who have been carrying this work for years. The knowledge, the experience, and the networks are already in this community. What has been missing is the structure and the support to let them succeed.

My plan shares the burden regionally, not just locally. If Nambour acts alone, the problem simply shifts back onto us. That is why this plan calls for cross-council agreements – because homelessness does not stop at one town’s border. By working regionally, we balance resources, build consistency, and prevent simply shifting the problem from one postcode to the next.

And my plan builds accountability, not excuses. It establishes a crisis response manager, a taskforce of government and community partners, and transparent reporting so that progress is consistently visible. This is how leaders, services, and the community will all know when things are working — and when they need to change. That level of honesty and transparency is rare in community responses, and it is exactly what’s required to restore trust.

So today, I am not proposing another patch-up. I am proposing a shift: safe spaces for those in crisis and for the wider community, protecting people in immediate danger while restoring parks, creeks, and public areas so families feel confident returning to them; a community-led management team to drive the response; regional agreements across councils to share the responsibility; and long-term housing solutions that break the cycle, not just manage it.

But above all, I want to stress this point — the services in Nambour know what they need. They are the ones on the ground every day. They are the experts in their field. Please trust them, respect their knowledge, and give them the resources to do the work that will make Nambour stronger for everyone.

This is bigger than Nambour. Because if we can show that a small town can act with coordination, discipline, and compassion, we set a model that others can follow. This plan is not theory. It is practical, step-by-step, and ready to implement. It protects lives, restores public confidence, and builds pathways out of crisis. That is what leadership requires. That is what this moment demands.

She warned the lack of progress was exposing people to serious risks. With many homeless camping along Nambour’s low-lying creeks, she said the prospect of spring or summer flash flooding was an imminent danger. “Lives have almost been lost before. With the numbers we’re seeing now, I fear there won’t be enough time to alert everyone if a flood comes through.”

Red tape versus practical options

Mrs Tagg said it was “illogical” that current laws allowed people to camp with no sanitation or facilities, while safer alternatives such as tiny houses were tied up in regulatory restrictions.

“Simple solutions like tiny homes or portable living options could be deployed tomorrow if the rules were loosened,” she said. “But instead, people are left living by creeks in unsafe and unsanitary conditions, because that’s technically acceptable.”

She argued that the absence of any provision to treat homelessness as a crisis was the central issue. “We need reform at a legislative level. They would have to reform their legislation … currently it only includes events such as bushfires and floods but in my opinion we are currently in a humanitarian crisis. It is an emergency in my opinion.”

Burden on residents

The lack of short-term options, Mrs Tagg said, was forcing people with complex needs into unsafe public spaces. “It’s not ideal to have people with nowhere else to go living near schools or children’s playgrounds,” she said. “But if they can’t get into social housing, find emergency accommodation unsuitable, or have even been blacklisted from housing, where are they going to go? In the end, they will simply continue to camp there.”

She praised local support groups such as The Shack and the Nambour Community Centre, but said they were under-resourced and needed government to match the effort already being delivered by the front-line community volunteers.

“You can see the will is there, but the rules and procedures keep slowing everything down,” she said. “Without innovation and urgent reform, we’ll just keep circling wagons. This is a life-threatening situation, and it needs to be treated that way.