12:00a.m. 19th July 2008

| By Bill Hoffman

Derelict caravans at the Woombye Gardens Caravan Park reveal the harsh reality of Queensland’s affordable housing crisis.

The harsh reality of Queensland’s affordable housing crisis is the tarpaulins covering the bunch of leaky, cockroach-chewed, derelict caravans with just a microwave to cook on and plywood covering the holes in the floor at Woombye Gardens Caravan Park.

Forget the so-called Bligh Queensland Housing Affordability Strategy – which at best may, at some stage in the future, deliver $450,000 homes in greenfield sites across the Sunshine Coast for 75,0000 people.

This is about now, and the best the state government can do to help those who want jobs but can’t find them, who want a chance but can’t catch the lucky break that will end their dependence on the welfare system.

It’s about a state government that trumpets what it’s doing for the poor with the purchase 10 months ago of a rundown van park where it charges people on $270 a week Newstart allowances $120 a week to live in aluminium boxes where the leaks have swollen the chipboard cupboards, making them unusable to store food.

Photo Gallery: Caravan housing disgrace

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It’s about having to buy expensive, low-nutrition microwavable meals because the only other heating element lacks the capacity to fry a piece of meat.

It’s about having the pride to scrub and clean a living area in which most would not keep a pet and telling your children and grandkids they can’t visit because of shame and the fear they may fall through the floor.

It’s about when the roof over your head buckles under the weight of water caught by a tarpaulin provided to keep the leaks from dripping on your bed at night.

It’s about having the courage to say this isn’t right after your neighbours have been cowered by the threat that if they don’t like it, there’s always the front gate.

It’s showering in a shared ablutions block, dressing in your best and mustering your nerve to catch the noon bus because you can’t rely on the one at 1pm to arrive on time to take you the seven kilometres into town for a 2.15pm showdown in Nambour Magistrates Court with the Public Trustee and the Department of Housing.

Nicklin independent member of parliament Peter Wellington says the circumstances of people living in the park and other accommodation provided by the Queensland government is appalling.

"I couldn’t have members of my family living like that,’’ he said.

"I’ve inspected that accommodation and believe it is unacceptable. I’m very disappointed we have people residing in this standard of accommodation in a government-managed facility.

"This is a wealthy state. This is simply a disgrace.

“I have raised my concerns in the strongest way possible and am extremely angry and disappointed that action hasn’t been taken.

"This should have been settled the moment it was raised. Now the government is spending money to defend the matter.

“I would have thought we could do better than this."

Residents have been told the accommodation in which they have endured a year of hell is temporary: new mobile homes are on the way.

However, they will cost $170 a week, leaving just $100 to catch buses, look for work and put food on the table.

Meanwhile, one woman will wait until August 7 to again dress in her best and catch the early bus into Nambour for the resumption of the adjourned hearing against the Public Trustee and the Department of Housing into the standard of accommodation in which she is forced to live.

She will do so in the hope that the state will at least do her and the court the courtesy of sending a representative who has read the file, has inspected the accommodation and can justify why she is worth so little.