Another council bites the dust sleepers:-

https://au.news.yahoo.com/homeless-to-be-fined-belongings-confiscated-under-tough-new-crackdown-by-aussie-council-225848605.html?guccounter=1&.tsrc=1274&ncid=crm_-1657288-20250514-1--A&bt_user_id=da0m5rxIpg3cmBrukKjE9eH%2BMPHY%2B8B7X8U3S7mKhLg0M%2FzhVRBW2fyUUzTPH%2FV2Q2aniKQu7DssKIAN%2BFaWlPPbacGoa2ye0Jtzd02NVb1dZkdenhwZ9Mv29cUU2RO0&bt_ts=1747208775504

"Rough sleepers could soon face fines and have their belongings confiscated if they refuse to move on, under a raft of new measures introduced by a major city council as part of a crackdown on public space compliance.

On Tuesday, Gold Coast City Council voted to abandon its welfare-first approach to homelessness in public spaces, instead shifting to a compliance-led strategy.

Under the new policy, people sleeping rough in council-managed areas, including parks, could face fines and have their belongings confiscated if they refuse to move on within a set timeframe.

Before the policy was adopted, councillors added two amendments — one to maintain collaboration with homelessness services, and another to ensure frontline staff receive appropriate training when dealing with rough sleepers.

The move follows similar decisions by the Brisbane City and Moreton Bay Councils in recent months, which attracted significant backlash at the time. Back in April, the "tent city" at Eddie Hyland Park in Lawnton was cleared out.

Beau Hayward, founder of the charity Nourish Street, said Queensland's ongoing housing crisis, "marked by a severe lack of affordability", had left individuals and families with "no viable options".

"As local councils move forward with evictions, the situation has become even more dire, with housing services overwhelmed and facing a significant backlog of referrals," he told Yahoo recently. "For many of those affected, this means facing an uncertain future with very few options available.

On the Gold Coast, Mayor Tom Tate said he believed the right decision had been made this week, but admitted the matter is complex. "I say to critics, come and see me with your better solution and I'll look at it," he said in a media conference on Tuesday following the decision."

Tates an absolute moron. In an interview I saw a few weeks ago when he was asked where the homeless were supposed to move to, he said he'd provide a bus and ship them all to Byron Bay :D :D