WAGGA WAGGA — Police responded to a homeless encampment near Wagga beach on the banks of the Murrumbidgee River in New South Wales on Saturday after a newborn baby was found dead in a tent. A 37-year-old woman with two infants was located at the encampment, one of whom was deceased, and the surviving infant and the woman were taken to hospital.

The surviving infant remained in critical condition on Monday afternoon. Police said there were no suspicious circumstances.

Local councillor Richard Foley said the death was a tragedy that showed the housing crisis had gotten out of hand. "We've now had a death of a young baby, a newborn baby, in a tent." he said. "A newborn child is deceased, and another one is in a serious condition. The mother was escorted to hospital on the weekend, which is just unacceptable."

Foley said the river encampment had grown larger each year as the city of Wagga Wagga saw a substantial rise in people sleeping rough. He said he was working on a fresh report into the number of rough sleepers in the region and called on the state government to take action, citing a lack of public housing in the area. He said the state government had promised to build more social housing but that those dwellings would only replace existing stock.

"A line in the sand has got to be drawn. People are sick and tired of the political class, which is just totally disconnected." he said.

According to a local council paper from 2024, there were 257 homeless people in the area, a 71% increase from eight years earlier. According to PRD Real Estate, the rental vacancy rate in the Riverina was at a record low of 0.6% in January 2025.

NSW homelessness minister Rose Jackson said the family had been engaged with Homes NSW for years and that she had asked the department to investigate. She said she would meet with local MP Joe McGirr and mayor Dallas Tout to discuss the baby's death.

Jackson said the state government had invested $6.6 billion to build thousands of new homes, with the Building Homes for NSW program promising 8,400 new public homes. "We cannot solve the housing crisis overnight, but devastating incidents like this make me even more determined to keep building the homes our state desperately needs." she said.

Homes NSW had delivered 123 new social homes for Wagga since April 2023, with 52 homes in the pipeline and 16 due for completion this year. There were 674 people on the social housing waiting list in Wagga.