Tailah Dippel sits on the front porch, anxiously watching the rain clouds enter.
Rain is the last thing your family needs as they prepare to get out of the warmth and comfort of their home.
Her Bundaberg rental is being sold and for the past six months, Tailah and her partner Daniel have been looking for a new home for their family of five.
Daniel earns a decent salary as a traffic controller and the couple thought they would have no trouble finding a three-bedroom home within their $ 300- $ 450-a-week price range.
But as time went on, they became more and more panicked.
“All the rentals that are in our price range, we’ve been looking for,” says Tailah.
“Unfortunately, there are literally hundreds of applications for each rental, just not enough.
“They always say that when you have a job, it’s safe and you’re better off financially, but for the time being it doesn’t change much.”
They approached social housing providers, but were ineligible because of Daniel’s income. Even the caravan parks were full.
The 25-year-old says the only option left for her family is to move into a tent.
Tailah Dippel faces the rain as he sets up a tent while his children gather inside. (ABC News: Ella Archibald-Binge)
Over the past few weeks, they have gone through a thorough reduction process: selling most of their possessions to buy solar panels, a portable shower and toilet, and other essential camping items.
“The kids have noticed that something is not working,” he says.
“The four-year-old has been acting a little; when the boys came to pick up all the furniture, he said, ‘No, this is my coffee table!’
The weather has been gray and miserable, and Tailah has been provided with warm clothes for her seven-month-old son and four- and 19-year-old stepchildren.
“As long as we can make the right setup to keep them warm and keep them entertained long enough, I think they’ll be fine,” he says.
“I’m trying to be positive.”
But when the rain begins to fall on the day of the move, the young mother decides to try the local caravan parkings for the last time, instead of camping by the river prone to flooding as planned.
Tailah is just one of the fantastic sites in Bundaberg. (ABC News)
“How many nights?” Ask a caravan park owner by phone.
“Whenever you offer,” she replies.
The phone line turns off.
Anecdotally, there are dozens, probably hundreds, of people in the Bundaberg looking for emergency accommodation due to a worsening rental crisis in the Australian region, and it seems that this caravan park has been in full swing. of desperate phone calls.
Later that morning, the family got a little lucky: one of the parks could offer them camping for a fortnight, at a cost of $ 244 a week.
They don’t waste time piling children in the car and setting up their tent, but the grass is saturated and they immediately start to form puddles in the corners of their makeshift house.
Tailah wraps a punch at the four-year-old, who is distressed.
Faced with such an uncertain future, his optimism fades.
And there’s another big complication on the horizon: she’s 18 weeks pregnant.
Tailah Dippel and partner Daniel gather the children for lunch after setting up their tent in a caravan park. (ABC News: Curtis Rodda)
“There’s definitely a real possibility that a newborn might be in a tent, which scares me,” she says.
“I’m not really sure how I’m going to do it.”
The weather forecast is still bleak, but it has a bright expression as it gathers the kids for lunch.
“I’m just trying to be happy for them,” he says.
“And just laugh, because if I’m not rich, I’ll cry.”
Families and pensioners now among the homeless
The housing situation in the Bundaberg has reached a crisis, according to Jasmine Tasker.
She is the chief operating officer of Angels Community Group, a non-profit organization that has just opened a homeless support center in the city.
At one point, there are a dozen people using the laundry or shower or making a free meal.
Jasmine Tasker says the face of homelessness in the Bundaberg has changed. (ABC News: Curtis Rodda)
“Growing up, maybe there were one or two homeless people in town, and we knew their names,” Ms. Tasker says.
“It’s very different today. We have young families, we have pensioners, we have people who have jobs – their children go to school – and they don’t have a home because of this rental crisis.”
Bundaberg Regional Council CEO Steve Johnston said at 7.30am that the council had supported local forums on the issue, but that local government was “a little gear on a big wheel”.
“We are prepared to take an active role in addressing these issues, but any approach will not have a significant impact unless the industry, the community and all levels of government address it together,” says Johnston.
Rental prices are at an all-time high
Kate Colvin works with homeless people in Victoria and is a spokesperson for Everybody’s Home, a national campaign that seeks solutions to the housing crisis.
He says similar stories are unfolding across the country, especially in coastal and regional areas that were popular with wealthy city dwellers looking for a tree or a sea change during the pandemic.
SQM Research figures show that the national rate of rental vacancies is 1.1 percent.
Kate Colvin says people will not move to the regions if they do not find a house to rent.
“We think anything below 3 percent is a tight rental market, so what happens is someone shows up to rent a property and is competing with 30 or 40 more homes for that property,” says Colvin.
“It also has an impact on regional economies because people will not move to a region to get a local job if they can’t find a house to rent.”
In most states and territories, rental prices are hitting record highs quarterly.
Nationwide, rents have risen an average of nearly 9 percent in 12 months, according to the latest domain data.
In the Bundaberg, the average rent has risen from $ 295 to $ 400 a week over the past year, an increase of 14.3%.
Rents in the coastal paradise of Bellingen, NSW, have increased 42.1 percent, from $ 380 to $ 540, over the same period.
Ms Colvin says the price hikes are due to a lack of affordable private rents and a lack of building enough social housing to keep pace with population growth.
“It’s not profitable for investors to create new rents that will be rented at an affordable price to someone on a low income,” he says.
“So we have a market failure in the private sector and at the same time we have less public investment in social and affordable housing.”
A report released today by the UNSW City Futures Research Center found that social housing was “rationing” and waiting list times had increased by more than a decade due to overwhelming demand and declining demand. the offer.
More than 433,000 social housing units needed: AHURI report
When newly elected Prime Minister Anthony Albanese delivered his victory speech on election night, he took an emotional look at his public housing roots, saying, “I want all parents to be able to say goodbye. to your child, no matter where you live or where you come from. The doors of opportunity are open to all of us from Australia. “
His Labor government has pledged $ 10 billion to build 20,000 social housing units and 10,000 affordable housing units over the next five years.
The Albanian government has pledged to build 20,000 social housing units over the next five years, but 164,000 households are currently on social housing waiting lists. (AAP: Lukas Coch)
But there are 164,000 households on national social housing waiting lists, and a report released by the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI) put the social housing deficit closer to 433,000 properties, after that social housing would largely escape the federal government’s agenda from 1996..
“We are very pleased to see the federal government return to the social housing growth business,” Ms. Colvin says.
“But 20,000 properties in five years is not growing as much as it should be.
“There’s a great opportunity for this federal government to partner with states and work together to grow more social housing, so that families across the country are truly confident in owning a property they can call home.”
Watch this story at 7.30pm tonight on ABC TV and ABC iview.