Deadline arrives for homeless to leave campsite

Homeless campers at Wagga Wagga under pressure as deadline to leave site arrives Tue 7 Jul 2026 at 6:15pm In short: People camping in a Wagga Wagga park say they have nowhere to go, despite the council ordering them to move by today. The NSW government says they been offered alternative accommodation, but some say it is not suitable. What's next? People camping along nearby Wagga Beach have been ordered to leave by July 21. The deadline for people to vacate a homeless camp near Wagga Wagga's CBD has passed but some rough sleepers say they have nowhere else to go. Wagga Wagga City Council rangers issued compliance action requests at Wilks Park less than two weeks ago. The move-on orders were issued as part of a NSW government emergency response prompted by the death of an infant at a camp on Wagga's riverbank. That tragedy triggered a major push from the community to address the city's homelessness crisis. Among those who chose to defy today’s deadline was JJ, who declined to use her full name. She said she started packing when she received the notice but had been unable to secure alternative accommodation "We plan to get out of here but it's too soon and too quick to get out. It's too much pressure," JJ said. "The community have nowhere to go, they have no job, they have no income. It's been very hard. "They [Homes NSW] have been talking to me for the last two years. So far, it's nothing at all." 'Where can we go?' NSW Housing and Homelessness Minister Rose Jackson said people living at the campsite had been offered support. "Every homeless person camped in Wilks Park and Wagga Wagga Beach has been offered accommodation,” she said. “Not everyone accepts our offers of support, but Homes NSW staff will keep trying. "Our immediate priority is making sure everyone has access to safe accommodation and the support they need." During a visit to the city in May Ms Jackson said people would need to "go with police" if they continued to refuse support following the deadline. There was a police presence near the site today, but no-one appeared to have been forced to leave. Vickie Burkinshaw from the Wagga Women's Health Centre said she was concerned that some of the accommodation being offered was unsuitable. “If you have to forego most of your belongings, your pets, and the things that make you feel you are at home, that is certainly not something people will willingly go into," she said. "We've had a couple of situations where people have agreed to pack up their tents and go into temporary accommodation, only to be kicked out. "They're ticking a box saying we have offered people housing, and their definition of housing is not our definition of housing. "They need to be offering people a home, and a home should be something safe, suitable and sustainable." Ms Burkinshaw said the remaining campers were still unclear about where they would be moving to. "That's the question everybody is asking … 'Where can we go?'" she said. Jonathan Jeanes, who has been living at Wilks Park, said he had been on waiting lists for housing in NSW and Queensland for decades. "I've been on the list from Townsville since I was 18. I'm now 40," he said. Mr Jeanes said he had packed up but had no home to go to. "I've rang Link2home and they've got nothing,” he said. Excavators on Wagga Beach Another round of notices has been issued to people living to people living along Wagga Beach, about a kilometre from Wilks Park. They have been ordered to leave by July 21, but council staff, police and excavators were on site today. Advocate and Wiradjuri elder Hewitt Whyman arrived at Wagga Beach when he heard camping equipment was being removed. He said he was assured the items were only from abandoned sites, but his questions about where people would be moved to next were left unanswered. "There are suggestions the people sleeping rough in the Wagga Beach area here can move to a location that's much more suitable and out of a flood-prone area. We don't know where," Mr Whyman said. Wagga Wagga City Council has been contacted for comment.