{"id":838620,"date":"2026-08-01T22:29:07","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T22:29:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/838620\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T22:29:07","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T22:29:07","slug":"at-waggas-camp-for-rough-sleepers-locals-step-in-to-help-as-authorities-flounder-housing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/838620\/","title":{"rendered":"At Wagga\u2019s camp for rough sleepers, locals step in to help as authorities flounder | Housing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Leigh Swansborough has just pulled into Wilks Park, one of the biggest homeless encampments<\/a> in regional New South Wales.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou would think that people would be here today,\u201d says Swansborough, an advocate for the people at Wilks Park. \u201cBut no one has shown up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tuesday was meant to be D-day for residents at the camp in Wagga Wagga. Compliance action requests \u2013 eviction notices by another name \u2013 had been given out by the council, asking those living there to move by 28 July or face a $1,100 fine.<\/p>\n

The encampment has been in the headlines since May, when a newborn baby died<\/a> just 300 metres away on the riverbank after their mother gave birth in a tent.<\/p>\n

Almost three months later, the response to the growing crisis is fractured and confusing. The community is divided over how to manage the camp. Some, like Swansborough, have jumped in to help. Others side with the council: clear them out.<\/p>\n

This is the housing crisis in regional Australia. Once-affordable towns and regional centres have drawn in newcomers escaping the soaring house prices of the cities, in turn driving up local prices. Rents have soared, vacancy rates have plummeted, homelessness has grown and services are stretched to breaking point.<\/p>\n

Council reprieve and community help<\/p>\n

In Wagga Wagga, a small group of concerned citizens have stepped in to help \u2013 effectively acting as quasi social workers. They\u2019re dropping off food, making sure people get to medical appointments, setting up meetings with Centrelink, visiting people in hospital, and one is even housing a resident.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had hoped that there\u2019d be a definitive moratorium on not moving people on,\u201d Swansborough says. \u201cBut we still aren\u2019t sure or positive that they would keep their word. So we all showed up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead of a moratorium, the residents of Wilks Park who had been issued with a move-on notice were granted a brief reprieve. At a council meeting on Monday night, less than 12 hours before the residents were due to be kicked out, Councillor Richard Foley successfully moved a motion to delay the evictions.<\/p>\n

\u2018We all showed up\u2019: advocate Leigh Swansborough speaks at Wilks Park. Photograph: Hilary Wardhaugh\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

So on Tuesday morning the handful of people left in the park were going about their business. Kim, an 82-year-old with dementia, was feeding the birds. Lincoln had started a fire for some to sit around. One young woman, in severe distress, was calling her mother, the police, an ambulance, anyone for help. Swanborough was with her, doing what she can.<\/p>\n

JJ was cooking up a meal with food dropped off from OzHarvest. She and her partner had lived in the camp for 14 months before they moved a week ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cI packed up because I don\u2019t want to have any problems,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

The 68-year-old has been homeless and living on the road for six years after rental prices in Sydney started going up beyond what she could cover with cleaning and kitchen work. They moved across regional NSW, eventually making Wilks Park home.<\/p>\n

JJ was a long resident sleeping rough at Wilks Park and now visits residents to help them. Photograph: Hilary Wardhaugh\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Like many former residents, JJ moved out of the park to avoid the fine. She\u2019s now parked at Narrandera, about 100km away, paying $300 a week to camp.<\/p>\n

At Wilks Park, JJ was known as the manager. You needed a cup of tea? A meal? Help late at night? To know the right person to call? She had it covered.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d call it JJ\u2019s kitchen,\u201d she joked. \u201cSome people come from Canberra, some people come from Brisbane, for the cup of coffee \u2013 but it was only in my tent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Between cutting up meat and putting out bread rolls, she explained that she comes back to help. She was the only resident from the camp to speak at the council meeting on Monday night \u2013 and not a single councillor asked her a question. Another woman, who told the meeting she was worried about parking on her street if a church developed their Sunday school, was asked seven.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to fight with the council,\u201d JJ says. \u201cHousing NSW, they say they\u2019ve got a house for these people, but so far they\u2019ve got nothing for them. They are all talk, no action.\u201d<\/p>\n

Life at Wilks Park<\/p>\n

John, 38, is staying put, undeterred by the council\u2019s repeated eviction notices. Because of his dog, 18-month-old YouWin, he can\u2019t get into a motel.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like I can stand my ground, or go into a motel, but if I do, what happens to little miss? She goes into a home or possibly gets put down,\u201d he says. \u201cShe\u2019s my support animal, therapy, the whole nine yards.\u201d<\/p>\n

John with his dog YouWin at Wilks Park. Photograph: Hilary Wardhaugh\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Asked what would help, John says flatly, \u201cmore homes\u201d. But until they arrive, he\u2019s stuck waiting on the social housing list, hoping not to be moved on.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey said they had something for everyone. I\u2019m part of everyone. Indefinite [accommodation] for people with dogs? Yeah, great. But otherwise, don\u2019t pull wool over people\u2019s eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n

A few tents down, Mark has set up his caravan. He is tall and articulate; between puffs of his rolled cigarette, he punches the air with jokes, winking when they land.<\/p>\n

Asked if he would go into a motel, he says he would prefer to \u201cdie on my feet with a smile on my dial, and be beholden to nobody\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t like to ask for help because I have in the past and been knocked back,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Cockatoos perch on trolleys at the encampment. Photograph: Hilary Wardhaugh\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

His dog is walking around his legs, waiting patiently for him to kick a toy. She also wouldn\u2019t be able to go into the motel. And Wilks is close to central Wagga, where Mark, who is on the disability support pension, can get to his medical appointments.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it\u2019s offered, that\u2019s lovely, that\u2019s wonderful. I\u2019ve got the option of politely declining, which I\u2019ve done. I don\u2019t need assistance as long as I can get to my feet and get to that car.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018A desperate shortage of homes\u2019<\/p>\n

The expected wait time for social housing in Wagga is now between five and 10 years, and the town\u2019s biggest social housing project \u2013 Tolland estate \u2013 won\u2019t be completed until 2030. The number of dwellings went from 1,449 in 2021, to 1,310 in 2025, while priority waitlist applicants went from 17 in June 2021 to 102 in June 2025.<\/p>\n

Dom Rowe, the CEO of Homelessness NSW, said Wagga was \u201csuffering from a desperate shortage of homes\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe city has recorded the fastest increase in priority social housing demand anywhere in NSW, rising 500% in just four years, while median rents increased by 41%,\u201d Rowe says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is what happens when the cost of private housing races ahead but the social housing safety net does not grow with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The NSW housing minister, Rose Jackson, who visited Wagga and set up an emergency taskforce after the baby\u2019s death in May, promised the delivery of 12 prefabricated modular homes starting in June 2026. Four have arrived.<\/p>\n

Instead, the government\u2019s \u201clast resort\u201d, putting people up in motels, has become its only answer.<\/p>\n

Lived experience helper Angelo visits Wilks Park. Photograph: Hilary Wardhaugh\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

The messaging is confusing. Council has said the state government has temporary accommodation for everyone. But while they have also said they won\u2019t move on anyone who doesn\u2019t have stable housing, they have sent out eviction notices.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe decision to live in accommodation which is being provided by the government is ultimately a matter for the individual, however the public park is everyone\u2019s space and at some stage Council will look to exercise the regulatory provisions which apply to these public places,\u201d the Wagga Council general manager, Peter Thompson, said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has, however, made it clear that this will not happen if the person sleeping rough has no government provided accommodation to go to and it will also not happen if those people are engaging with government to identify accommodation which is actively being provided to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

But some have been knocked back from motels, community organisers say. Angelo drove one man to a motel where he was turned away, because he \u201chad too many bags\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had four little half-full shopping bags,\u201d Angelo says. \u201cHe was ecstatic in the vehicle as I was driving him out there, that he was going to get to have a hot shower and jump straight into a warm bed.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then looking at him as the person from the hotel was saying no, seeing him break. It was terrible to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Others are grateful to be in a motel, imperfect though it may be. Young couple Krystal, 20, and Jamie, 24, are paying about $180 a week for Ubers back and forth from their new motel room to town; the microwave doesn\u2019t work so they\u2019re stuck with two-minute noodles, and it\u2019s small for two. But it saved them from being in the park.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it didn\u2019t happen, honestly, we would have just sat at hospitals,\u201d Krystal says.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause after my terrifying experience last year \u2026 where I spent seven months homeless on the river \u2026 I would never, never, ever do that again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jamie and Krystal outside their motel room. Photograph: Hilary Wardhaugh\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

In the past five weeks, the pair say they have applied for 600 private rentals across the country, but haven\u2019t got a single one. Jamie is on jobseeker and looking for work; Krystal has a casual job in town. With no rental history and small incomes, the pair can\u2019t get into the private market.<\/p>\n

The average weekly rent in Wagga has jumped 59.3% in the past decade to $550 \u2013 while jobseeker pays as low as $740 a fortnight.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll work our asses off,\u201d Jamie says. \u201cAnd own a house, eventually. Our kids will never have to deal with this type of situation because I would hate for them to go through this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jackson told Guardian Australia the state government was \u201caddressing growing homeless encampments in the community because of the clear evidence they weren\u2019t safe \u2013 for the people living there and the broader community\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always said that hotels and motels should be a last resort,\u201d she said. \u201cPurpose-built crisis accommodation is always preferable, because it comes with those wraparound supports that help people get back on the path to stable housing.<\/p>\n

She added that the government had allocated a combined $230m to responding to homelessness and \u201chave actively invited Wagga community organisations to be partner with us in accessing this funding\u201d.<\/p>\n

Back at Wilks Park, Swansborough has spent the day making calls to the hospital to check on the distressed young woman who left the camp in an ambulance.<\/p>\n

The next morning, she has a long list of things to do: locate that young woman, who police took from the hospital and dropped off outside Wagga\u2019s only homeless shelter at midnight; check in on another young woman who is pregnant; organise a food drop; give someone a lift to a medical appointment; and check on a man living further in the bush because no one has heard from him.<\/p>\n

\u201cHomelessness is a serious issue in Wagga,\u201d she says. \u201cIt hasn\u2019t been addressed. It\u2019s been disregarded and dismissed. And the response from council and the state government has been one that\u2019s more punitive than therapeutic and leading with compassion.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leigh Swansborough has just pulled into Wilks Park, one of the biggest homeless encampments in regional New South…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":838621,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-838620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=838620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/838621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=838620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=838620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=838620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}