Unfinished Brisbane quarantine hub no ‘quick fix’ for domestic violence crisis housing, critics say

Queensland’s first quarantine facility, just outside of Toowoomba. Brisbane’s mayor has suggested that a second facility under construction near the city’s airport could be used as crisis accommodation for families fleeing domestic violence. Photograph: Queensland government

A proposal to turn an unfinished, 1,000-bed quarantine facility near the Brisbane airport into crisis housing for women and children escaping domestic violence has been met with a mixed response by the city’s housing and homelessness service sector.

Brisbane’s mayor, Adrian Schrinner, told the Courier-Mail the $400m Pinkenba facility could be retrofitted to tackle the “twin scourges of a housing crisis and domestic violence” this week.