Rough sleepers clear out of CBD
THREE longer-term homeless people remain on the streets of the CBD after a crackdown on an illegal camping tent site in Southport.
Southport councillor Brooke Patterson said she was still dealing with two hot spots – at Woodroffe Park in Lawson Street and another on the corner of Young and Scarborough streets – where the homeless gather during the day.
Cr Patterson, police and the Gold Coast Youth Service launched a campaign to house illegal campers last September.
The Bulletin had earlier published photographs of at least seven tents in which dozens of people were camping in Carey Park, opposite the Broadwater Parklands, setting up couches and using shopping trolleys to store belongings.
Welfare staff have noticed a spike in demand for services in Surfers Paradise, and youths continue to be spotted camping in bushland on the edge of the CBD and Labrador.
Cr Patterson said about the drop in homeless numbers in Southport: “The difference is now when this sort of thing arises we are all on to it straight away. The agencies are all there, rather than let it build up to something.
“There is still homelessness. The group that is currently meeting, we think some of them have housing, then there are some that refuse.”
Cr Patterson said the step forward with the Carey Park tent city intervention was the number of people who took up housing offers.
“They have to build the trust with these guys before they are willing to accept (housing),” she said. Officers were backed by “data and knowledge” and through profiling knew their clients.
“We are pretty clear on who they are. Right now there are three people in Southport CBD. If we could provide them housing and they take it up, it would make a huge difference,” Cr Patterson said.
The three “visible” homeless were a young woman in her 20s, and a man and another woman.
The Mayor’s Safer Suburbs Forum had “connected all the relevant decision makers around the table” including support agencies such as the Housing Department, police and council.
“And now we have, for the first time, the City Homelessness Action Plan, with a clear protocol and dedicated employees addressing homelessness,” Cr Patterson said.
“Since I started 10 months ago, complaints to my office about anti-social behaviour in the CBD have reduced from an average of a dozen per day to one or two per week.
“Given the results we have seen in this short period of time, the possibility of having a clean and safe CBD is real.”
GRIFFITH and Southern Cross universities will soon welcome back students, but not until orientation week celebrations are complete.
COVID restrictions have put an end to traditional on-campus events, with
Southern Cross University hosting campus tours with student ambassadors from February 22-26, bookings are essential. A site has also been created, MySCU Orientation, where students can access their online course information as well as sessions from academics that will be
livestreamed and recorded so they can be watched later.
Griffith University’s O-Week celebrations, from March 1-5, are being held on campus, online or in a blended format. There’ll also be market days, campus tours, free show bags, sports days, study skills and a beach party. Other activities include a dive-in movie night and a roller disco. Griffith will make use of online platforms including Microsoft Teams and virtual classrooms. O-Week leaders and the Griffith mates will also be available on campus and online every day to support new students.