I had a brief stint living in a social house in Bundaberg during the 90s and while my family made the best of it, we were glad when we were able to find our own dwelling.

But imagine hanging your hopes on finding social housing and discovering you'd been taken off the waiting list? To learn you are not even on their radar?

James Taylor's story is a must-read this week. It highlights a Department of Housing reporting issue which doesn't collect any data on call attempts made by staff but simply instructs staff to make "reasonable attempts".

Is that three calls? Five or six? People sleeping rough often face obstacles impacting their "contactability" — I would fathom they need "significant attempts" to be contacted by housing officers.

The state government needs to do much better in helping some of the most vulnerable in our communities.

Truly painful that this is the situation for one of Gympie's beloved local characters — a man clearly ready to inspire everyone around him, despite his own trials. He deserves better.

Peta Johansen

Editor, ABC Wide Bay

An audit found gaps in housing department record keeping for cancelled social housing applications. Advocates say it could mean thousands of vulnerable people were taken off the waitlist too soon.

A woman who was sexually assaulted by Kerry Blackman has told a Queensland court she no longer felt safe and had lost her sense of belonging in the community.

Dredging work is underway to save a disappearing regional Queensland beach, but there are questions about its long-term viability and the impacts of increasingly powerful weather events. 

Community effort transforms a degraded waterway, reducing erosion, increasing fish breeding and improving the quality of water that flows into the Great Barrier Reef. 

In one of the nation's most conservative regions, a group of drag queens are taking country pubs by storm.

The way Australians drink coffee is changing, with more and more switching to home brews while cafes are "running on a shoestring".