That’s the stark reality for Mr Phillips and many others who fall on hard times, with nearly 20,000 of Australia’s estimated 105,000 homeless living in Queensland.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, more than 7000 people live rough in greater Brisbane on any given night – including 2000 in the inner-city area.

“Without Roma House, I’d be living in the park – I’d definitely be living in a park somewhere in Brisbane, with no food and no money, in the cold,” Mr Phillips, 41, said.

“In Brisbane, (Roma House) is very important. In Sydney and Melbourne, there’s a lot more places like this down there and a lot more short-term accommodation, like three nights and four nights, stuff like that.

“There’s nothing up in Brisbane and Queensland like that. Roma House is one of the better equipped places going around.”

The Roma House homeless shelter, on Wickham Terrace at Spring Hill and run by Mission Australia, has been assisting the city’s homeless since 2006.

On Wednesday, Roma House held its annual Winter Festival lunch.

It used to be a Christmas in July event, but Mission Australia area manager Kelly Sciacca said Christmas evoked too many painful connotations for many of Roma House’s residents.

Ms Sciacca said, as of Tuesday, there were 31 residents at Roma House.  Since it opened, Roma House had accommodated about 1120 people.

Among those was Wayne Duncan, 55, who spent six months at Roma House in 2011 after he lost his job.

“I was living in a boarding house, but because I couldn’t pay my rent I lost my place,” he said.

“I ended up staying with my sister’s place for a while and she arranged for me to come here.”

Now, Mr Duncan has his own place and has completed the Clemente course at the Australian Catholic University, a groundbreaking program for the socially disadvantaged and isolated.

He hopes to pursue more academic qualifications in the future.

In the meantime, Mr Duncan continues to volunteer in the Roma House kitchen once a week.

“This place (Roma House) has done a lot for me because I was pretty depressed before I came here and they really helped me with that,” he said.

Speaking at the Winter Festival lunch, Queensland Housing Minister Tim Mander said the state government was attempting to “get the true picture” of homelessness in the state through its Home for Good registry project.

Mr Mander said it was about more than a number – it was about understand the reasons that people found themselves in such dire straits.

“I went out one morning and it’s quite a confronting experience for someone like me that’s away in an ivory tower, as many people would say, and not really being exposed to these types of things, and actually meeting people,” he said.

“The number one thing I realised is that you can never stereotype anybody who’s in this situation.

“There’s lots of different reasons why people find themselves homeless and a lot of the time it’s got absolutely nothing to do with their efforts – it’s to do with bad decisions other people have made.”