Tiny homes make big difference

Eight new tiny homes have been moved into the former Gympie caravan park in Jane Street, called the Gympie Recovery Accommodation Park (GRAP) which was initially created to house people displaced by the floods, but as those people move into permanent accommodation, it is now serving to ease the housing crisis in Gympie.

The Gympie Recovery Accommodation Park (GRAP), set up on the site of the former Gympie Caravan Park, received eight additional homes last week.

The park was set up after the 2022 floods to serve as emergency accommodation for families displaced by the floods.

Now, the new homes, which were built in a factory in Brisbane have been trucked to the site.

As flood-affected residents continue to be helped to transition out of the park into longer-term housing, the site is now being used to help people in the region who are feeling the impact of national housing pressures.

One of the new tiny homes grateful tenants is Gympie man Don.

Don said he’d been sleeping in his van at a roadside rest area when he was offered one of the tiny homes.

“I thought I’d won the lotto,” he said.

He said he never thought he’d find himself losing everything.

“I had a high-profile job and businesses, then I had a nervous breakdown after having a heart attack.

“I lost the farm, the house, my cars – and everything that goes with it,” he said.

Brendale business Alphaline Tiny Homes constructed the homes that have joined 26 other buildings on site which comprise of one, two and three-bedroom homes.

Minister for Housing Meaghan Scanlon wasn’t in Gympie for the announcement on Thursday, but she did make a statement in Parliament about the project.

“Not long after these homes rolled into GRAP, we had people in need being welcomed through their front doors, with the team on site also working with those residents to help find them longer term housing,” she said.

She said a further 1848 social homes had been delivered outside south east Queensland with “…many more in the pipeline.”