A woman is close to giving up as she sits under a tarp in the rain with her husband, two dogs and remaining belongings just hours after their tent was bulldozed.
Deborah Louise, 57, was one of 15 people living in tents at Eddie Hyland Park in Moreton Bay, Queensland, after she was left homeless in August last year.
All of them were forced to leave on Thursday by the local council.
Moreton Bay Council voted in February to make it illegal for people to camp on public land with letters to those living in ‘tent cities’ threatening fines of up to $8,000.
‘I just want to give up, enough is enough,’ Mrs Louise told Daily Mail .
‘I was just trying to get on with life, be happy, and then they took that from me today.
‘We weren’t threatening anyone. We haven’t been offered housing. We haven’t been offered one place. I just find it poor of ns to be like this.’
Mrs Louise asked council representatives on Thursday whether they had accommodation she could go but they reportedly said there was nowhere.
The 57-year-old also said she had never heard of emergency housing until Thursday and it had never been suggested to her and her husband, Albertus.
Beau Hayward, 47, runs homeless food initiative Nourish Street Inc and was at the campsite when an excavator was used to move the larger items from the scene.
‘It’s pretty heartless,’ he told Daily Mail . ‘A Thursday right before Anzac day; I can’t help but think it’s not in the Anzac spirit of things.’
He said housing services had visited the site two weeks before to issue a warning and offer referrals, but had not been down since then.
‘Engaging and offering referrals is a lot different to any sort of temporary or permanent accommodation,’ he said.
‘There is no temporary or permanent accommodation to be offered.’
He said one of the key factors barring Mrs Louise and her husband from finding somewhere to stay is that they have dogs.
‘[It] cuts off any opportunity for accommodation. There is very little pet-friendly accommodation that will take homeless people.’
But Mrs Louise is not prepared to separate from her dogs, which she raised from their father.
‘They are all I have left of him,’ she said, referencing the now deceased parent dog.
‘They’re my babies, I can’t let them go.’
Mrs Louise and her husband had spent years living in a caravan until they just couldn’t continue to move from showground to showground anymore.
‘It got too much, we’re getting too old to move all the time,’ she said.
Mr Louise, 61, is on a disability pension and Deborah is his carer, meaning she cannot work.
Mr Haywood uploaded a video speaking to social media just after 9am on Thursday speaking to Tracey, who has also been camping in the park.
‘I’m sitting in there and I’m not moving. I’m not letting them take my stuff to impound it,’ she said.
‘[They’re] gonna lock it in a room or something and I’m gonna go with no tent, no cooking stuff, no clothes, no shelter.’
When the council visited Eddie Hyland Park to issue a warning to those living in tents and issuing notices, Deborah said the visit took its toll on her husband.
‘My husband passed out and had to be taken to hospital. It was the shock. Ranger officers, council officers and police officers – it was too much,’ Mrs Louise said.
A City of Moreton Bay spokesperson said on April 9 that the council had issued people camping illegally on public land at Eddie Hyland Park with notices to move.
‘City of Moreton Bay’s local laws reflect community needs and Council has overwhelming support for these,’ they said.
‘Our community has raised significant concerns about the decline of public space access, amenity and safety in relation to people sleeping rough.’
All of those issued notices were offered a referral by the council to specialist homelessness services and the Department of Housing and Public Works, they said.
Queensland Police also attended due to the park being a ‘location of high risk following aggressive and antisocial behaviour including assaults’.
‘The role of QPS is to assist the City of Moreton Bay during their engagements with rough sleepers to make sure all persons, including both rough sleepers and council employees, are kept safe,’ a spokesperson said on Thursday.
Daily Mail has contacted Moreton Bay Council for comment.
The Moreton Bay LGA has Queensland’s longest social housing wait list of 4,421, with homelessness having risen by 90 per cent in the past decade.