{"id":867200,"date":"2026-08-24T23:12:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T23:12:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/867200\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T23:12:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T23:12:17","slug":"single-mother-rejected-by-homeless-services-as-more-people-live-in-tents-and-cars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/867200\/","title":{"rendered":"Single mother rejected by homeless services as more people live in tents and cars"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tiffany Emmerson and her four children started couch surfing in December 2025 after she separated from her partner.<\/p>\n

The single mother said the looming threat of having to live out of her car filled her with fear.<\/p>\n

The 33-year-old said she tried to protect her children from the reality of their situation but said they were confused by the instability.<\/p>\n

“You can’t really explain to a two-year-old, a four-year-old and a seven-year-old what’s going on,” Ms Emmerson said.<\/p>\n

“They just have questions of, ‘Why are we at this person’s house? Why are we staying here? Why are we staying there?'”<\/p>\n

Her youngest is six weeks old.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Tiffany Emmerson packs a bag for her children. (ABC News: Isabella Garrido)<\/p>\n

‘Dire’ situation<\/p>\n

Ms Emmerson said she had reached out to every homeless and housing service across Townsville but had been knocked back by each one.<\/p>\n

She said one told her to “buy a tent and find somewhere to go and pitch it”.<\/p>\n

“There’s just no houses available, there’s just nothing. Apparently, there’s no shelters for people to go to, there’s no emergency accommodation,” she said.<\/p>\n

“There’s absolutely nothing. People are living in tents.”<\/p>\n

Ms Emmerson said RentConnect, a service helping people find private rental housing, told her they could not help her because she did not meet the financial threshold.<\/p>\n

For now, she is staying with her aunt, Kristy Emmerson, who lives in public housing.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

Kristy Emmerson tries to keep a sense of normalcy for the children, keeping them entertained with toys and puzzles. (ABC News: Isabella Garrido)<\/p>\n

It is a temporary fix with no long-term solution and, if her aunt decided to move out of the property, Ms Emmerson and her children would have nowhere to go.<\/p>\n

Kristy said she felt terrible about the situation and it was affecting her mental health.<\/p>\n

“This is Australia. When was it ever OK for people to not have a home, a roof over their heads?” she said.<\/p>\n

Although Tiffany has an approved application for public housing, she still does not know when or if a property will become available.<\/p>\n

She said many others were in a vulnerable position similar to hers.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Every time Tiffany Emmerson moves to a different location, she has to repack all her belongings, including a steriliser and clean bottles for her bottle-fed newborn baby. (ABC News: Isabella Garrido)<\/p>\n

‘Huge gap’ in Townsville<\/p>\n

Townsville Housing and Homeless Network (HaHN) chair Kym Musumeci said, despite lobbying for a dedicated homeless shelter for more than two years, no progress had been made.<\/p>\n

“We’ve taken it to Canberra, we’ve taken it to the [housing] department, we’ve taken it to any local member that will listen to us, basically anyone who will listen to us,” she said.<\/p>\n

She warned there was a huge number of people seeking support.<\/p>\n

“We have families sleeping in cars, we have seen an increase in tents popping up around Townsville,” she said.<\/p>\n

Last Thursday, more than 1 tonne of “rubbish, abandoned belongings, and other waste” was cleared from three “unoccupied, illegal” camps across the city, according to Mayor Nick Dametto.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The photo was posted to social media by Mayor Nick Dametto. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

Ms Musumeci said 50 to 80 people turned up to the Red Cross homeless hub each day, but it did not have the resources to support them.<\/p>\n

Seeking somewhere safe to sleep<\/p>\n

“If we’ve got a stable shelter where people can go to be safe and secure and access supports whenever they need them, it’s going to go a long way,” she said.<\/p>\n

HaHN has launched a petition for a shelter.<\/p>\n

In response, a spokesperson for Queensland Housing Minister Sam O’Connor thanked the community for their advocacy but did not clarify whether the government planned to establish a homeless shelter.<\/p>\n

The spokesperson said in Townsville, the government had added 110 social and affordable homes since being elected, with construction on a further 349 homes underway.<\/p>\n

In 2025\u201326, $32.6 million was allocated to fund 17 specialist homelessness services in Townsville, providing 175 places of temporary supported accommodation, alongside outreach and support services, according to the statement.<\/p>\n

Statewide, there are more than 44,000 people on the public housing list.<\/p>\n

In Townsville, there are 3,558, down from 4,023 last year.<\/p>\n

Funding cuts<\/p>\n

The opposition’s housing spokesperson, Meaghan Scanlon, said the government had changed the rules around eligibility for crisis accommodation.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Meaghan Scanlon says the state government is actively cutting the supports that would help people who are struggling right now. (ABC News: Luke Bowden)<\/p>\n

“There’s a number of people who are being exited from social housing, and so that’s why Queensland is experiencing homelessness in our streets and in our parks,” she said.<\/p>\n

“It’s so frustrating that the Crisafulli government have decided to cut $42 million of funding from crisis accommodation in just this year alone.”<\/p>\n

She said the government was trying to suggest everything was OK but said she had spoken to many single mothers and their kids who were sleeping in cars.<\/p>\n

“It’s just not acceptable that a mum and her kids are being told there’s nothing the government can do to help,” Ms Scanlon said.<\/p>\n

“That is just not OK in a wealthy state like Queensland.”\"Two<\/p>\n

Tiffany Emmerson says she has seen other mums posting on social media about their struggles to find housing. (ABC News: Isabella Garrido)<\/p>\n

Tiffany Emmerson said it had all been an “absolute stressful nightmare”.<\/p>\n

“We need more emergency temporary housing that’s safe and suitable for families until they can get back on their feet and find a place,” she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tiffany Emmerson and her four children started couch surfing in December 2025 after she separated from her partner.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":867201,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,104265,11152,436213,436214,44,57412,57670,41598,436215],"class_list":["post-867200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-homeless-women","tag-housing-market","tag-living-in-car","tag-living-in-tent","tag-news","tag-rental-market","tag-rental-shortage","tag-sleeping-rough","tag-townsville-homelessness-and-housing-network"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867200","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=867200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867200\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/867201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=867200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=867200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=867200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}