Living in Limbo: Nambour’s homeless seek shelter solutions

Dean Hartley said a safe parking area, where people living in their car could camp and have a shower was desperately needed.

by Janine Hill

EIGHTEEN months ago, Dean Hartley had a job and a roof over his head. 

Now he lives in a tent and survives on sausage sizzles, church burger nights, food hampers and whatever else he might be offered by a passer-by.

Dean, 57, is one of the homeless folk in the Nambour area who have been campaigning for disused buildings to be turned over as shelter and for the provision of safe parking for those living in their cars.

Dean became homeless when working as a cleaner when 13 hours a day became too much and he threw in his job.

“The cleaning just got too busy – six days a week,” he said.

He had been living on a boat for $200 a week because renting a room had been too expensive. But he realised he could not keep that up without a job.

“I was sleeping in my car for a while. It’s probably been a year in the tent.”

While homeless, he has written two books which he said he had been tasked to write by the Creator: The Defiance of the Human Soul, available for free through Booktopia, and The Salvation of the Human Soul, which he has only just finished.

“The words come and I write it on paper. Then I go to the library and type them and then I use Canva. I do all the book,” Dean said.

He intends to get a job again one day, when he is ready. He said he was not hooked up with Centrelink and instead obtained food offered for free by the churches and other services for the homeless. 

“I had a couple buy me a foot-long sub from Subway and a drink once. That was nice of them,” he said.

He washes his clothes at the mobile Orange Sky laundry and showers several times a week at the pool or at any free shower. “You get used to it, I guess,” he said.

Dean said he felt safe but he was worried about others.

“There are women living in their cars with children,” he said. “There’s a lady I see go up and down the street every day, I think she’s from a DV situation. She wears the same clothes all the time. I feel sorry for her.”

Dean is furious about council buildings sitting empty while people sleep rough.

He said a safe parking area, where people living in their car could light a fire or have a shower without paying tourist rates in caravan parks was desperately needed but nothing had materialised.

“That was last summer. We want something before winter, before it gets cold.”