Frontline of the housing crisis | A Current Affair

Added: 2026-05-06

[00:00:01]Desley is a pensioner who's always giving back to her community, a selfless volunteer. And she's never been without a home until now. Forced to live in a tent alongside young families, when she needed it, the help wasn't there.

[00:00:20]Instead of throwing things at us, give us a hand up, not a hand out.

[00:00:24]>> Where do [music] you go?

[00:00:25]Tell me and we'll both know. It's humiliating.

[00:00:28]>> [music] >> It's dehumanizing. The homelessness crisis in Australia is absolutely a humanitarian disaster.

[00:00:36]>> At the present moment, I've lost count of 60 people and eight kids.

[00:00:40]And that includes a little baby.

[00:00:46]This is the desperate front line of the housing crisis. What started as just a [music] few tents has exploded into a full-blown camp taking over a local tennis court. This family's [music] living here with kids that still need to go to school and parents with jobs.

[00:01:05]Makeshift camps like this one are popping up elsewhere and charities are warning it could get worse.

[00:01:13]This bleak scene is in Redcliffe, 45 minutes north of Brisbane and now a home for 66-year-old Desley and her brother Colin, both pensioners and former SES volunteers.

[00:01:27]People older than me are living in their cars. Why is no one doing anything? Why is no one listening to those who need help? I've never been without a home and now I'm 66, I'm out here in the streets.

[00:01:40]In the tent nearby is this mother who we will call Jane, living here with her partner and her eight and 11-year-old children.

[00:01:48]>> [music] >> Do you and your partner both have to still go to work? My partner does, yeah.

[00:01:54]He He gets up at 4:00 a.m. every day. He has to come home to this. It's chaos.

[00:01:58]Most of us we try to keep to ourselves, the ones that have children. Then you have your others that are shouting, ranting, yelling.

[00:02:05]Um there's drug use. None of these people believe this should be Australia's answer to the housing crisis, including the people who are living near these tent cities. I have the shade cloth down most of the time cuz it's just a complete eyesore.

[00:02:21]Further north on the Sunshine Coast, another cluster of tents [music] and more concerned neighbors. There's been a Yeah, a lot of complaints about them.

[00:02:30]It's It's not a good look.

[00:02:32]>> It really is a struggle and everyone just seems to keep pushing you away.

[00:02:36]>> Homelessness can happen to anyone and it is not pretty. Alicia [music] Xarkas is from Backpack Bed for Homeless, a charity which provides a lightweight portable shelter and bed that converts to a backpack. And they can't keep up with demand. We distribute [music] a backpack every 2 hours, but the need is actually every 11 minutes. If something doesn't get done by the government or the powers to be, that storm is going [music] to drown all of us.

[00:03:06]I'm so sorry, Des.

[00:03:08]You don't deserve to be here.

[00:03:10]Nor do a lot of people, Darlen. As I said, not those with little kids and not those with families. They shouldn't be here.

[00:03:19]Breaks your heart, doesn't it? And where is the safety net when people like Desley need it? Well, coming up