MORE Queenslanders are becoming homeless than ever before, with new figures revealing the number of people already without a home when seeking help has more than doubled in less than a decade.
New Specialist Homelessness Services data paints a stark picture of a system under immense pressure, with 20,124 Queenslanders seeking assistance in March 2026 alone compared with 10,382 in July 2017, an increase of 93.8 per cent.
Even more concerning, the number of people who were already homeless when they turned to support services surged by 121.4 per cent.
Almost six in every 10 Queenslanders seeking homelessness assistance are already homeless by the time they reach a service provider.
The growing crisis is being felt across communities, with charities and frontline organisations reporting increasing demand from families, older Australians and people who have never previously experienced homelessness.
Lyn Merrell, known simply as Grandma, from Grandma’s Kitchen, a volunteer street feed program operating every Monday afternoon at Bob Gamble Park, said the number and diversity of people seeking support continued to grow.
“Every week numbers vary, but we see 45 people plus each week,” Grandma said.
“Last week we had 20 children at our feed.
“We also have quite a few older people. Our oldest is an 83-year-old man.”
During March, 6175 Queenslanders received short-term or emergency accommodation, staying an average of 24 nights, five nights longer than the national average of 19 nights.
The data also highlights the disproportionate impact homelessness is having on vulnerable groups, with more than one in three Queenslanders accessing homelessness services identifying as First Nations, doubling over the past nine years.
Perhaps most confronting is the number of children appearing throughout the figures.
Among male clients, boys aged up to nine were the single largest age group requiring assistance, followed by boys aged 10 to 17, highlighting the growing number of children caught in housing instability and family homelessness.
For female clients, the largest cohort was women aged 35 to 44 years, followed by women aged 25 to 34 years and women aged 18 to 24 years.
Ron Ward from Rise Up Homeless Charity said demand for support had steadily increased throughout the organisation’s 15 years of operation.
The charity is collecting food, blankets and essential supplies to create 200 hampers that will be distributed at the Redbank Plains School of Arts on June 27.
“We will be giving away 200 hampers,” Mr Ward said.
For homelessness providers, charities and volunteers on the frontline, the figures provide compelling evidence that Queensland’s housing crisis has evolved into something far more severe.
It appears we are facing a homelessness crisis, with record numbers of Queenslanders finding themselves without a home.
