Hasel Liu is a single father of one. He's also one of the thousands of faces of Queensland's drastically deteriorating homelessness crisis.
Hasel and his young child were living in a car near The Spit before a charity put them up in a hotel room for a week.
"Where I was staying, I've seen a few cars and vans with little kids staying," he said.
"This has become normal really and it's shocking and it's scary sometimes because you don't know what's going to happen tomorrow or the day after."
The ranks of Queensland's homeless are growing.
A new report released today found the number of homeless has shot up more than 20 per cent in five years — almost triple the increase nationally.
The report, from Queensland Council of Social Services (QCOSS) and The Town of Nowhere campaign, predicts more than 220,000 households in the state will not have affordable housing within 20 years.
In Logan, Beaudesert and the Gold Coast, 10 per cent of households are homeless, or living in unaffordable housing.
Mr Liu said he felt he, and other homeless families, were being ignored.
"The decision-makers really don't care where you stay, where you sleep or where you go — you're just another case number to them, not a human," he said.
"Some days I want to break down but I just have to stay strong for my child."
City residents turning to public parks
New tents pop up in Brisbane's Musgrave Park every week.
At 42, carpenter Lance Bath is homeless for the first time in his life.
He puts it down to a bad "set of circumstances" which stacked up within a month, and put him and his wife on the street.
They've been living in a tent for 10 weeks.
"They gave us two hours [to leave]. So my wife and I sort of went from having somewhere stable to stay to 'where do we go?'," he said.
"A friend that we knew said we could probably come here."
Mr Bath and his wife have now joined about 46,000 Queenslanders on the public housing waitlist.
Regional Queensland's 'dramatic' increase
Homelessness has risen by 8 per cent nationally since 2017, according to the report's author, University of New South Wales' Professor Hal Pawson.
In Queensland, it's gone up by 22 per cent.
In regional Queensland, the increase is "even more dramatic", up 29 per cent in four years, he said.
"In Brisbane rents are up by well over 30 per cent since the outbreak of COVID," Professor Pawson said.
"It is one of the pressures that is probably pushing homelessness increases higher in Queensland than in other parts of the country."
In the 2017-18 financial year homelessness services in regional and metro Queensland combined, saw on average 10,477 people a month.
In 2021-22 it was 12,739.
Given current trends, Queensland needs 11,000 affordable and social homes each year for the next 20 years, Professor Pawson said.
About 2,700 of those would need to be social housing.
Last year, the government promised 13,000 social and affordable homes by 2027.
The report found in 2020-21, the number of people with "very high need" for social housing was 37 per cent higher than the system could accommodate.
In the decade leading up to 2017, there was "minimal" investment by state and federal governments in affordable and social housing, Professor Pawson said.
He said investment was still "modest" given the scale of need.
"Unless they can get a grip on the situation, it's a problem that over the next generation will continue to become more stressed and more pressurised," he said.
"I think there will be regret that the opportunity to act was not taken."
'We need a crisis approach'
QCOSS CEO Aimee McVeigh said the report shows the scale of the state's housing crisis.
"There are about 300,000 Queenslanders currently experiencing housing insecurity.
"To put that into perspective, that's twice the population of Cairns," Ms McVeigh said.
"We need to approach it as a crisis. We need an ambitious strategy, and we need investment to match it."
Included in the report's recommendations is private landlord tax concession reform, for land tax to replace stamp duty, and a requirement for social and affordable homes to be built on formerly government-owned land.
In Townsville, 24-year-old Spencer Rushton is living out of bags.
It has been five years since he had a stable home.
"I'm now back with my family. It's cramped. I'm so very, very grateful for where I am now, somewhere safe," he said.
"I've seen friends build homes and they're not able to afford the mortgages. I know that's my future as well if we don't fix the housing crisis."
Vulnerable groups at risk
In Townsville alone there are over 4,000 people on the waitlist for housing.
Brenda Lucas is the Domestic and Family Violence Programme Manager at Yumba-Meta.
She said people move from all over the state to North Queensland in the hope of finding an affordable home.
The affordable housing shortage could force people back to their abuser, she said.
"Because they have nowhere else to go, they will return back to their partner. It may take them five or seven times before enough is enough, but because they have nowhere else to go, they might return home."
Sometimes families are lucky and get a home within weeks, but they can also be in the shelter for six months or more.
"They get to view the properties, but they never get to hear [back]. They're disappointed, because sometimes they may have their hopes up," Ms Lucas said.
"It's stressful for the woman. It is very disheartening. Thirty applications sometimes."
Government open to rental caps
Housing Minister Leanne Enoch said the government's $4 billion Housing Investment Fund was the "largest concentrated investment" in Queensland's history, and housing was "at the top" of its policy agenda.
"Over the past two years, we have provided almost 200,000 forms of housing assistance per year to Queensland households or individuals, including emergency housing, social housing, private market assistance and homelessness services," she added.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said she was concerned about housing stress in Queensland and that the state government was looking at buying more than 5,000 properties currently part of a federal government rental support scheme which is coming to an end.
"Queensland stands ready to purchase those houses," she said.
"We do need additional support from the federal government, and where the federal government is stepping out, we are stepping up.
"We will be working with those people to look at those houses we can actually acquire to ensure there is more affordable housing stock."
The National Rental Affordability Scheme (NRAS) is starting to wind up for some people on rental arrangements, with the last subsidised rental properties set to exit the scheme in 2026.
Ms Palaszczuk said caps on rental prices was also being considered but could not provide more detail with the idea to be discussed at a housing summit next Tuesday.
