The Homeness Trust: Designing an Inclusive Brisbane 2032

Homelessness should be rare, brief, and non-recurring, but in Southeast Queensland, homelessness does not discriminate: it affects approximately 10,000 people daily. As we near 2032, this will escalate. Many residents will be burdened or displaced, and city aesthetics are likely to take precedent over the rights of individuals. Additionally, funding constraints and a disconnect between resources further hinder effective solutions. Addressing the wicked problem, this project seeks to tackle the growing demand for social housing and support services. We aim to overcome the limitations of current funding and government-led efforts, whilst ensuring a more sustainable and inclusive community solution.

The Homeness Trust provides a comprehensive and collaborative solution to homelessness with the aim for Brisbane to be the most inclusive city, by design, by 2032. The team's scalable blueprint includes generating, capturing, and utilising data to monitor, identify, and predict housing and services needed to benefit informed decision-making. It will also work to secure funding to develop new housing and transition people into secure shelter. The Trust will advocate for "ending homelessness" to be a contractual obligation for Olympic and Paralympic Host Cities, and its ‘Homeness Pledge’ will invite Brisbane residents and visitors to participate as ‘Homeness Stewards’.

The Homeness Trust's blueprint serves as a central legacy framework that generates meaningful, multi-level, and tangible outcomes. At the individual level, the Trust helps people experiencing homelessness by providing them with sheltered accommodation and needs-based support services, as well as empowering Brisbane residents and visitors as ‘Homeness Stewards’ to take responsibility for ending homelessness. Through initiatives such as creative placemaking and community activation, the Trust fosters social capital, making the invisible visible and educating, engaging, and empowering the community on a neighbourhood-by-neighbourhood basis. Embedding “ending homelessness” as a contractual obligation for future host cities promotes inclusivity and zero homelessness worldwide.

It is intended to scale this solution by making it a design criteria condition for every city that bid to the IOC for future Olympic and Paralympic Games.