ABC News, 1 March 2021:
After years of supporting others to find secure accommodation, Cherie Bromley never imagined she would find herself on the receiving end of the housing crisis on the far north coast of New South Wales.
Key points:
Valuable members of regional communities are being forced out of the area due to a shortage of affordable rental properties
A woman who applied for rental properties says she was told the successful applicants offered to pay $100 more than the advertised price
The head of a homeless support group says many of her own staff are struggling to find accommodation for themselves
"I didn't even approach the real estates because I just knew there was nothing out there," she said.
For the past decade, Ms Bromley has been working for the Byron Community Centre, which provides a number of services, including support for the town's homeless population.
The Byron Bay resident of 29 years said she began the search for a home when the lease on her share house ended late last year, thrusting her into a rental market with a vacancy rate close to zero.
"This is the worst it's ever been," she said.
"There is no housing stock that is affordable."
Ms Bromley said she was extremely fortunate to have a good network of friends who were able to find her and her 14-year-old daughter temporary accommodation.
"I'm sleeping in the kitchen area [and] I gave my daughter the bedroom, but I have to pass through her bedroom to go to the bathroom," she said.
"It's not sustainable long-term."
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| Cherie Bromley is sharing a one-bedroom unit with her teenage daughter. (ABC North Coast: Leah White) |
'Catastrophic
proportions'
The term "traumatic experience" is not one Ballina solicitor Sadie Hunt thought she would ever use to describe trying to secure a rental property in regional NSW.
After all, she works in conveyancing, has a regular and respectable income, and has contacts in the local real estate industry — how hard could it be?
"I thought I had a pretty good chance of getting a rental property, but I was rejected from all the properties I applied for," Ms Hunt said.
"I was basically told that if you weren't a DINK (double income, no kids) … you just had zero chance of getting a rental property."
Ms Hunt said she sold her Lennox Head property in November 2020 and gave herself a five-week settlement period to find a new place.
But she said even the first hurdle into the rental market — property viewings — proved challenging.
"You get sent an email and if you don't respond to that email within two minutes those little 4-minute appointment slots are all filled," Ms Hunt said.
"You turn up and there's 30 to 50 people there … that you're essentially competing with to get a home for you and your family to live in."
Ms Hunt said she was able to find a private rental at the eleventh hour but was knocked back for the three rentals she applied for through real estate agents.
She said that the real estate agents later informed her that, in at least two of the homes she missed out on, other prospective tenants had offered higher rental payments to secure the properties…...
Right now a three bedroom house rental in Yamba is likely to cost between 35% and 50% of the 2020-21 middle tier median annual income of $67,000 in regional New South Wales. In Ballina a three bedroom rental is likely to take between 35% to 61% out of that same income if suitable housing stock is available. While renting a three bedroom home in Tweed Heads would reduce that median annual income by between 43% to 56% and, in Lismore such a rental would likely subtract between 34% to 43% from that $67,000 if there was suitable housing stock available.
A single parent raising a child on an annual Centrelink payment of $21,920 from March 2021 who is attempting to secure private rental of even a one-bedroom unit between Clarence Valley and the NSW-Qld border faces a daunting task.
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