WHEN Ash Leigh talks to families facing homelessness, she is not speaking from theory but from lived experience.
After losing her family’s home during the devastating 2022 floods, Ash, her partner and their three young children found themselves sleeping rough around Goodna, moving from place to place simply to find somewhere safe.
Today, she is on the frontline with Goodna Street Life (GSL), supporting people experiencing homelessness across Ipswich and the western suburbs. But the memories of those weeks living without a home remain vivid.
“We ended up out on the streets, sleeping outside the netball courts at Goodna and just moving around because when you’re homeless, there’s that unsettling feeling of never knowing if you’re safe,” she said.
It is an experience that now shapes the compassion she brings to every person who walks through Goodna Street Life’s doors.
As Local Ipswich News continues its campaign highlighting the growing homelessness crisis, Ash said the biggest problem was no longer recognising the issue – it was responding quickly enough.
“The needs need to be met immediately,” she said.
“With the wait times and the time it takes to build new housing, it’s just not viable. It’s not working.”
Her comments echo concerns raised by homelessness providers across Ipswich, who say demand has surged to unprecedented levels while emergency accommodation and affordable housing struggle to keep pace.
Despite the uncertainty surrounding her own family’s future, Ash was determined to shield her children from the trauma unfolding around them.
“I kept a positive mindset,” she said. “I told our children we were off on an adventure.
“They were only young, so they thought it was just a big fun time where they could play at the park all day.”
Behind that optimism, however, was the harsh reality of trying to rebuild a life after losing everything.
“I don’t think people accounted for the fact that it would become a rental crisis after that because the demand went up so high,” she said.
Working daily with vulnerable families, she said homelessness was no longer confined to traditional stereotypes.
Increasingly, she sees working families, single parents, domestic violence survivors and people who simply can no longer keep up with soaring rents.
“Families with children are coming to us more and more for food because they’re just trying to make ends meet with their bills,” she said.
She said domestic and family violence remained another major driver of homelessness.
“The ones that are fortunate enough to find emergency accommodation are very fortunate, but it’s not long-term.
You’re still unsettled.”
For those living without a home, safety often outweighs comfort.
“People stay where they feel safe,” she said.
Ash believes one of the greatest strengths she brings to Goodna Street Life is that she understands exactly what many clients are experiencing.
Rather than offering sympathy alone, she offers proof that recovery is possible.
