The St Vincent de Paul Society Queensland welcomes the announcement of a landmark Housing Summit in hopes to see further relief for the thousands of vulnerable Queenslanders struggling to find a place to call home.

CEO Kevin Mercer said with the crisis reaching breaking point across the state in both metro and regional areas, this summit was a critical step in the right direction.

“This is a big crisis – and it deserves a big response,” Mr Mercer said.

“I applaud Premier Anastacia Palaszczuk for calling this summit and we look forward to joining the Premier, and various community and industry organisations at the preliminary discussions on Friday as the first step in solving this crisis. 

“All across the state, our Members have been hearing from an alarming number of Queenslanders who can no longer find affordable accommodation in their region.

“Many of them have been resorting to living in cars or tents just to get by.

The complexity of the housing crisis needs all three levels of Government, community and industry organisations to work together to find an innovative solution that will lead to long-term, sustainable change and this Housing Summit is the first crucial step to achieving that.”

Mr Mercer also applauded the efforts of other organisations who have helped vocalise the urgency for Government action including the Queensland Council of Social Service and the Local Government Association of Queensland.

 “For 128 years, our Society’s mission has been to prevent homelessness and poverty in Queensland- but it’s something we can’t do alone, this problem is bigger than any one organisation or Government.” Mr Mercer said.

“This Summit is a great encouragement to both our Society Members and the Queenslanders they support every day, that hope is on its way.”