‘Clearing camps without providing housing just shifts the problem,’ says Councillor

Cr Taylor Bunnag

From Cr Taylor Bunnag, Nambour State High School graduate and School Captain, Councillor for Division 8, A Strong Community Portfolio

More forums and meetings will not fix Nambour or the Sunshine Coast homelessness problem. That’s something I came to realise soon after I attended one of the Homelessness Forums last year. 

Statements about different levels of government ‘working together’ generally don’t last very long when it’s time for someone to pay for something to address the homelessness crisis facing our region.

The primary responsibility for responding to homelessness rests with the state government. 

You may not like this as it sounds like a political handpass, but I’ll be blunt, it’s less of a handpass than it is a shirtfront. 

The problem that we have as a region is that current and previous state governments have not done enough to address the issues that cause and contribute to homelessness. 

Homelessness is the end-product of shortcomings as a society and sometimes, misfortunes for people – health both physical and mental, domestic and family violence, insecure employment, workplace injury, insecure housing, housing supply etc.

‘The primary responsibility for responding to homelessness rests with the state government.’ 

I acknowledge there isn’t a silver bullet that ‘fixes’ the homelessness crisis but the State Government can help to reduce the impacts of homelessness in communities like Nambour with the provision of safe and secure emergency and supported accommodation, along with other supports such as a Day Hub.

Council, the State Government and a Federal MP have to date held three homelessness working forums to specifically address homelessness in Nambour after the State Housing Minister visited to review the situation in August 2025.

While I acknowledge the more recent and hopeful comments about support being offered by the State Housing Minister, it’s important to take stock and ask to date, what funding has the State Government through the Minister provided to address homelessness in Nambour? Zero. After six months of crisis talks, zero dollars.

To date, only one level of government has contributed towards a response to homelessness in Nambour and that is Council, both financially and in-kind, to the volunteer run Sunny Coast Sleeper. Council, at my request, asked the State Government to contribute towards this service and they declined. 

In addition, it’s been council’s frontline employees from response services who are out in the community each day, speaking with people sleeping rough, checking in on their wellbeing, and trying to connect them with the limited services that are available. 

Therefore, when well-meaning community advocates who just want their kids to be able to go to a park safely say that council should be removing homeless camps, I agree to the point of asking, where do these people go next? 

In circumstances where the state government has failed to provide emergency and supported accommodation, are we moving them to another creek, in another town down the road?

The question needs to be asked – if State MPs and other well-meaning community advocates want our parks clear (something I know every councillor would like to see), when is the state government going to provide a solution that doesn’t involve shifting this problem to the park down the road? 

Let’s remember, the Sunshine Coast’s homelessness issue has been exacerbated and created by the failure of the state government to provide meaningful emergency accommodation and supports for homeless people in other regions like Moreton Bay and Brisbane.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, expecting a different result.