ROSIES and St Vincent de Paul’s Society are seeing unprecedented levels of need as the housing crisis deepens across Queensland this Homelessness Week, running August 5 to 11.

Rosies chief executive officer Jayne Shallcross said their teams were seeing more people reaching out for help than ever before.

Numbers had skyrocketed 30 per cent on average across all outreaches with some of those outreaches rising by as much as 50 per cent.

She said a lot of the people they encountered at their street vans had never experienced homelessness before.

“We’ve got a lot more families, young people, older women that are now presenting at outreach,” she said.

They had also been fielding more calls from people who were concerned about people sleeping rough in their community parks and areas – communities, she said, that had not usually been strongly impacted by homelessness.

She said their supplies were “flying off the shelf” and they would be looking at ways to expand their outreach to meet the growing need.

SVDP state president Trish McMahon said what they knew from the 2021 Census was there were about 22,000 people experiencing homelessness across Queensland.

The numbers had grown a lot since that census, she said.

Ms McMahon works out of the Spring Hill support centre, where they support about 200 people a month, with the majority experiencing homelessness.

Like Rosies, she said St Vincent de Paul’s Society were seeing a wide range of people experiencing homelessness.

She said the number of women and children was growing – and growing fast.’

Queensland’s housing crisis had many causes, she said, but a lack of sufficient social housing was one of the most important.

Ms McMahon was hopeful for the Miles Government’s plan to build a million new homes by 2046 – which included 53,000 dwellings earmarked for social housing.

Part of the plan was 500 homes in five years, she said, but that was only a “Band-Aid” solution.

She said there were already 43,000 people on the state social housing watch list.

“There’s been an awful lot of housing in the pipeline for the last 10 years, but nothing’s actually happened,” she said.

“That’s what scares me – they can see this and that, but are they actually going to do it? That’s my concern.”

Ms Shallcross said the spotlight on homelessness in recent years meant more money pouring into emergency and crisis accommodation.

She said that was “fabulous” but “the challenge is there is actually limited ability for people to move out or transition out of that crisis and emergency accommodation because there isn’t sufficient long term accommodation”.

Right now, outreach providers are reporting lots of families living in tents in Musgrave Park or in cars.

Ms McMahon said homelessness was a complex issue.

She was talking to a man recently who said he was content with his life living out of a tent in a park, going to outreach centres for food and making friends.

She said he was not interested in discussing ways to find a more secure living situation.

Ms Shallcross said there were small things everyone could do to make life easier for people experiencing homelessness.

She said a simple thing was saying “hello” if someone looks like they are interested in engaging with you, while also remaining respectful of their privacy if they did not.

She said when people walk past all day everyday, looking away, it could perpetuate feelings of invisibility.

To find out more ways to get involved, reach out to Rosies or St Vincent de Paul’s Society via their websites and social media.

Homelessness Week aims to raise awareness of the impact of homelessness on Australia via national and local community events, including providing information on the importance of housing as a solution and educating communities on how they can make a difference.