Homelessness in the Douglas region is rarely discussed openly, but it is a real problem for many who have no permanent place to call home.

And contrary to popular perception, homelessness is not just confined to people living on the streets or under bridges.

"When I came here three years ago I thought there'd be a bit of homelessness around," said Reverend Paul Beasley who was involved in Anglicare's Homeless Hub in Cairns and now runs Douglas Community Housing Group.

"People started coming out of the woodwork saying 'we're homeless, can you help us?'"

The Homeless Hub were able to assist in the short term, but a lack of funding for the Douglas region due to an alarming misconception meant that ongoing support was non-existent.

"There is no funding to help with homelessness up here and I said why is that? They said 'well there is no problem in Mossman and Port Douglas.'" Rev Beasley said.

According to Rev Beasley, statistics on homelessness were based on those who had registered for emergency housing, a process which was out of reach and unworkable for many.

"What we found was that we have a fairly large literacy and numeracy problem. The form you have to fill in is 20 pages and it's not just a matter of filling out the form, you have to have a stack of stuff to go with it.

"That's a nightmare for most of the people we're dealing with.

"Then the real problem started to come out in that once you'd filled in the form, every two or three months you had to follow up your application.

"They sent you a reminder every three months and if you didn't have a house to live in, where is the reminder going to go?" he said.

A severe lack of resources meant there was little assistance to help those in need complete the process.

Rev Beasley said the most common form of homelessness in our region creates overcrowding of houses and brings with it an unsafe environment.

"There are two kinds of homeless; there are people who have nowhere to go, and there's the people who couch sit and overcrowd houses which is the biggest problem here in Mossman.

"You've got 20 people living in a house which is just unacceptable because it creates a problem with drugs and alcohol, and domestic violence, and child abuse. It's just writhe within this environment."

Rev Beasley said there is also a transient population of around 20 people who live under bridges, as well as people who have come to Port Douglas and have been unable to find work.

"They think we'll pop up to Port Douglas and get a job nice an easy. They turn around and they've got nowhere to live.

"We've got people living on the beaches in tents on Wonga Beach and Cooya, so it is a fairly significant problem."

Finally, some financial support is beginning to trickle through to the Douglas Community Housing Group. A $15,000 State Government grant, a $6,000 Council grant, and the potential for some corporate backing will help fund a study into the true picture of homelessness in the region.

Reverend Beasley hopes that once this picture is revealed, more funding will be made available to begin to fix the other problems that surround the issue.

"Once we get this behind us we can start working on some of the other issues, we can start feeding some of the people." 

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