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Christmas in our car: This is the reality of Australia's rental crisis
Joanne and her four-year-old son are spending Christmas living in their car. They're not the only ones.
Published 25 December 2022 6:50am
By Claudia Farhart
Source: SBS News
Image: Joanne and her son will spend Christmas in their car. (SBS News / Claudia Farhart)
Joanne has been living with her four-year-old son out of the boot of her car for the past two years.
When they can find a couch to sleep on, they take it.
When they can't, home is wherever she parks the car.
"I'm on all the housing lists," she says.
"Every housing list: Aboriginal housing, community housing, and I've still got to wait numerous years. And by the time that happens, my son will probably be starting to look for his own property."
I'm on all the housing lists.- Joanne
Joanne is a survivor of domestic violence.
She has a job and can afford to pay the rent as advertised.
But in Coffs Harbour, on the Mid North Coast of NSW, the competition for each property is ferocious.
Joanne has a job but can't get anywhere to live. Source: SBS News / Claudia Farhart
"I'm not blacklisted or anything, and I'm still not getting anywhere with housing."
"My budget is $420 and I'm still having trouble trying to get a property."
She is far from alone.
The Mid North Coast has one of the lowest rental vacancy rates in the state, falling to just 0.8 per cent in November.
There's a whole host of reasons why; former city dwellers searching for a more affordable way of life, landlords shifting their properties into the short-term stay market, and the reopening of borders are all contributing.
That's seen prices skyrocket by 30 per cent since the beginning of the pandemic, compared to just 14 per cent in Greater Sydney.
Today, the median rental property in Coffs Harbour is only $50 per week cheaper than in Sydney.
Coffs Harbour, on the NSW Mid North Coast, is in the middle of a housing rental crisis. Source: Getty / Manfred Gottschalk
"The market's like any market, it's a pyramid; there's always more people looking at the bottom than the top."
"We're already leasing properties to the managers of roadwork companies, who are recruiting a couple of hundred people to come to town, so that pressure is just going to continue in 2023."
The city's market conditions have created a crisis of the working homeless; people who cannot secure a property despite having a stable income.
You don't have to look far in Coffs Harbour to find a tent, a car or a caravan someone is living in.
Before they secured a rental, Elizabeth Purnell and her family were among them.
She, her husband David, and their nine-year-old daughter lived in her parent's caravan for four weeks while they searched for properties.
"We were given 90 days' notice because of the COVID rulings around evictions, and we spent that whole time applying for places," she says.
Elizabeth and David Purnell with their daughter. Source: SBS News / Claudia Farhart
David is a full-time carer for their daughter.
They pay $500 per week for their three-bedroom apartment.
"That's three-quarters of my wage per fortnight," Elizabeth says.
"Some weeks we're really good, and other weeks it's like, OK, let's go visit the food banks."
The latest 'street count' by the NSW Government found 57 people sleeping rough in Coffs Harbour. But the staff at Pete's Place, a drop-in centre with food, showers and laundries in Coffs Harbour, say the reality is far worse.
"When we first opened, I think we were seeing 20 people a day, and now I think we're seeing anywhere up to 100 people a day," caseworker Stacey Rau says.
"We are seeing a lot more families, families with children, that are coming in. We've got younger people that are coming in, and we've got older females as well."
We're seeing anywhere up to 100 people a day.- Stacey Rau, Pete's Place caseworker
Pete's Place, which is run by the St Vincent de Paul Society, tries to help its clients secure housing. It is not an easy task.
The wait time for every kind of social housing in Coffs Harbour has now blown out to more than 10 years.
Pete's Place in Coffs Habour. Source: SBS News / Claudia Farhart
"We do need to do the big things. We need to grow social housing stock, we need to build affordable houses, we need to start at that end of the market."
Across the state, more than 50,000 people are on the waiting list for social housing.
The NSW Department of Communities and Justice says the state has the biggest social housing system in Australia.
It says it works "with housing support services to respond to homelessness in NSW and enable affordable housing for all" and provides links to services at
If you or someone you know is impacted by family and domestic violence, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or visit . In an emergency, call 000.
