Young family forced to move from the Hinterland due to rental crisis
By Kirra Livingstone
JESSE Watson and his young family have made the drastic decision to make the move from the Hinterland to Longreach due to the lack of affordable rental properties in the region.
After losing his job just after the birth of his second child and while paying $575 for a small two-bedroom unit, it was a no-brainer that the struggling family would have to move somewhere more affordable.
Their family is one example of how cost-of-living pressures have pushed normal families to extreme measures.
“I couldn’t find any work on the Sunshine Coast in farming, which is what I have experience in, and any other jobs you need experience for,” Jesse said.
“I have lived in and worked in Longreach before living on the Sunshine Coast, and I knew we weren’t going to find somewhere to live that was any cheaper, unless we moved from the area.
“It’s been two weeks since we made the move to Longreach, and we are now living in a nice place for $350 a week, and have found work straight away to support my young family.”
Jesse said although he was lucky as he had support in Longreach, the move was still tough on his partner and kids.
The Sunshine Coast has over 1500 applicants urgently seeking social housing.
Families, single parents, couples and individuals are in desperate need of housing as the region, and the country, grapples with a cost of living crisis and housing shortage following the flow-on from Covid-19 pandemic and runaway inflation in recent years.
The increased cost of servicing loans and a rapid increase in demand for properties has seen landlords hike rents, forcing otherwise comfortable households onto the fringes and in some instances, the streets.
Coast2Bay Housing Group CEO, Andrew Elvin, said there has been a long-standing housing supply issue on the Sunshine Coast which does not have a quick fix.
“Vacancy rates for rentals are still sitting at around 1 per cent, so demand and competition for finding rentals is high,” he said.
“There is a lack of affordable housing options for those with low household incomes.”
Mr Elvin said a lot of people his organisation sees struggling are front-line workers in health, teaching, hospitality and retail, who cannot find housing within a commutable distance to their employment.
Mr Elvin added there is an increased interest in social housing as rental prices continue to rise, and believes more can be done to create solutions to the complex problem.
“There are currently over 1,500 applicants on the social housing register of need for the Sunshine Coast region, which is managed by the State Government,” he said.
“The demand is greatest for single person with one-bedroom properties, but there are applications now from families, single parents and couples, of all ages in all suburbs.
“We need continued collaboration across the housing sector. Council, government, developers, community housing providers and associated support services need to work together to tackle this issue.”
Joe Brown is a 30 year old construction worker living in a Beerwah townhouse.
Speaking with GC&M News he said his rent is set to increase in August from $420 per week to $480, which is a major 15% jump.
“Most weeks, this amount of rent would be over 40% of my income,” he said. Although technically now facing rental distress, he said with little other options, he is forced to stay where he is, accept the rental increase, and work harder to make ends meet.
The latest Sunshine Coast Property Market Update report, to be released later this month, will reveal a significant housing undersupply.
On top of the drastic change of Jesse’s living situation, Jesse admitted they had also fallen behind on bills, and were barely scraping by while living on the Sunshine Coast.
“We slipped behind on our bills, we’re behind on our car payments, we had to make sure we had food and we had to be able to pay rent, so we have had to make sacrifices,” he said.
“We had to cut back on our food, and what we buy for food so we always bought the cheaper meat options depending on what was cheaper.”
For Jesse and his family, nothing can help overcome the cost of rent and the lack of opportunities.
“For me personally, it feels great not to be in front of the chaos but we also left really close friends behind and it was hard and stressful,” he said.
“It wasn’t an easy decision, both of us couldn’t really come to terms with it until probably like this second week now living here, we are only just getting our heads around it.”
Sunshine Coast charity, Gateway Care, has been forced to scale back operations as Australia’s cost-of-living crisis drives a staggering increase in demand on their emergency relief services.
This comes after shocking statistics showed the impact of the rising cost of living on Australians’ mental health, as a result of debt distress and financial pressures.
Sunshine Coast MP, Andrew Wallace, celebrated the work of Gateway Care.
“Gateway Care are changing and saving lives right across southeast Queensland, supporting thousands of families and residents who are struggling to make ends meet. But as the cost of living rises, demand on this kind of support rises too,” Mr Wallace said.
“With the price of food up 11.4%, electricity up over 21%, and rents, mortgages, and the bare necessities climbing day-by-day, is it any wonder why? Yet community funding programs have been cut or reallocated.”
Gateway Care’s Managing Director, Tom Lew, advised that Gateway Care will have to scale back to remain viable, as State and Federal Governments pour money into capital cities while not keeping pace with demand in regional communities.
“As the demand on our services reaches an all-time high, we’re forced to scale back just to keep our doors open. Large organisations in capital cities receive millions in funding while communities like the Sunshine Coast miss out. It’s a real shame,” Mr Lew said.
