We need Housing First
On 3 May 2026, a woman gave birth to twins alone in a tent on the banks of the Murrumbidgee River in Wagga Wagga, NSW. One baby died. The other was rushed to Wagga Wagga Base Hospital before being airlifted to Sydney in a critical condition. The mother was also hospitalised.
This is not an isolated tragedy. It is the logical endpoint of a housing system that has been deliberately dismantled; public housing stripped, essential services outsourced, and the basic duty of care handed to a market that has failed the people who need it most.
What the evidence shows
The encampment where this woman gave birth sits up to a 15 minute walk from the nearest public toilet or running water. There is no sanitation. There is no electricity. The Department of Communities and Justice no longer conducts outreach to homeless people on the Murrumbidgee River; a withdrawal of basic state duty of care that left this woman, and dozens of others, entirely without support. The Riverina Police District is operating at approximately 74 per cent capacity, meaning police are not accompanying DCJ workers even when outreach does occur. Following the death, Homes NSW’s emergency response amounted to offering people a hotel room for 72 hours, so inadequate that people are abandoning their tents rather than accepting it.
This is the context in which a woman gave birth alone in a tent. Not a failure of individual circumstance. A failure of government.
The policy choices that caused this
This crisis did not arrive without warning. It is the accumulated consequence of governments at every level choosing to subsidise property investors through negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount, while failing to expand, maintain, and deliver public housing and the outreach services that keep people alive.
The federal budget was not enough, it made partial changes; limiting negative gearing on established properties and reforming the capital gains tax discount from 2027. But existing investors are fully protected. New builds remain exempt. And there is no new public housing at the scale this crisis demands. The changes are too modest, too slow, and too late for the people sleeping in tents tonight.
People are dying because governments continue to fund the wrong things. That choice has not yet been fully unmade.
What you can do
Read and edit the open letter – make it yours, personalise it, and add your name. This form will send your letter directly to Premier Chris Minns, NSW Minister for Housing Rose Jackson, Federal Housing Minister Clare O’Neil, Federal Member for Riverina Michael McCormack, State Member for Wagga Wagga Dr Joe McGirr, Mayor Dallas Tout, and Wagga Wagga Councillors.
Then share this action. Every letter matters. Every person who demands Housing First is telling these politicians that the community is watching and will not accept condolences without action.
Act with compassion and kindness, this is not only a housing crisis – it’s a crisis of the human spirit. The government has failed and we are losing our community. If you have time and resources, think about how you can share them. Generous, creative, human solutions matter. And so does demanding that government does its job.
We will not stop until everybody has a house.
