Knox City Council has updated its Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Policy at the Monday 29 September council meeting, with a view to refreshing an endorsed approach and better reflect the current climate for homelessness in the region.
Knox first adopted a policy in 2021, a year where census data revealed homelessness had risen by nearly 20 per cent in the area since 2016.
Baird ward councillor Peter Lockwood said homelessness has increased fairly steeply post-Covid and as time has gone by, there has been increased demand for short-term and emergency accommodation, creating huge queues.
“A lot of people lost their jobs, they were in casual employment, rents have gone up steeply and people who were never in this situation before, suddenly find themselves homeless and struggle to cope with it,” he said.
“It’s good that we have a policy to manage that, and not a confrontational policy, but a helpful policy, I know at the local relief agency in Boronia, when people who were homeless came in, the best that can be done initially, of course, was they were referred to homelessness agencies…in the end, they were being given waterproof sleeping bags, and if they wanted a waterproof tent, although a tent has its own dangers because they can’t see people coming,”
“The best solution is to help people and get them out of that and into housing, but when that’s not available, we end up with people on the streets or our ovals, our school halls, in all sorts of places and some people don’t appreciate it and complain, but we need to respond in a thoughtful and sympathetic way to a lot of these problems.”
Reports of rough sleepers in Knox have increased in recent years, rising from 54 in 2022-23 to 88 in 2023-24 and again to 112 in 2024-25 and likely to be more. Data reported in July 2025 to the council shows hotspots for rough sleeping throughout most of the region, with Boronia, Ferntree Gully and Upper Ferntree Gully among the most prevalent.
Dinsdale ward councillor Robert Williams said having a guidebook and procedures, but also the ability to have all the staff and officers equipped with contacts and referral systems, is vitally important.
“As someone who is an emergency responder at Knox, I’ve probably been to four or five
rough sleepers along the bike track of recent times, in the last month, unfortunately, lighting campfires and things like that to keep their warmth,” he said.
“They’re very friendly people when you actually have a talk to them and I think understanding the circumstances and what’s going on and then providing a little bit of guidance is what we’re all here for,”
“One of the biggest things through the report is also for our staff and officers to have safety while delivering those services… one thing that we’re taught through emergency services is always protect yourself first, because if we’re not up for the job, we’re not going to be able to do the job.”
The updated policy contains more recent statistics to reflect the current climate for homelessness in Knox, links to more recent editions of important council plans and includes a section dedicated to outlining the council’s commitment to appropriate safety measures for staff.
Taylor ward councillor Susan Pearce, Collier ward councillor Chris Duncan and Cr Lockwood also spoke to the motion befre it was carried.
“I got to find out just how wide this problem is and how having this policy so important, so I just want to thank Cr Lockwood for his guidance and help in helping me be educated on something that I didn’t know a lot about before I got onto council,” Cr Pearce said.
“I’m actually really impressed with this new policy… the new policy actually has some really clear actions that we as a council will fight for, and some advocacy points that we’ll be pushing, irrespective of whether we’re interacting directly with homeless or rough sleepers,” Cr Duncan said.
“Before Covid, 122,000 people were typically found to be homeless, not having a residence at night, however, that’s inadequate, because there are 380,000 people registered with homeless services more recently…there are many more 1000s who can’t even get registered with homeless services because they’re overwhelmed sowe’re looking at somewhere around half a million people in Australia who are homeless one way or another,” Cr Lockwood said.
