This is an open letter to Sunshine Coast residents. The writer wishes to remain anonymous, but has supplied her name and contacts to Sunshine Coast News. We thought this story deserved to be shared and was best told in her heartfelt words …
I’m a 36-year-old mother of two children aged 15 and 10.
I’m writing to highlight the impacts of the tragic rental crisis at present. I want you to read my words, and I mean really read my words, let them sink in, let them make you feel what we feel and, hold on to them for a while after you finish reading them. Because these thoughts and feelings are tormenting us 24/7 right now and we don’t see any light at the end of this dark tunnel we are being forced into.
I moved out of home when I was 16 years old and have been renting ever since in Queensland and NSW. Never once in that 20 years have I been evicted, nor did I ever skip a rent payment. I have never caused damage to a property and always been refunded my bond. During that time, I have paid approximately $400K into the pockets of property investors. At no point did my income level ever affect my ability to rent a home in the affordable parts of Australia that I’ve lived in over the years.
- Related story: Search for $500-a-week rental becomes an impossible dream
- Related story: Families feel the squeeze as rental battle intensifyÂ
- Related story: Rent or rent: more families than ever lose the roof over their heads
I have been renting here on the Sunshine Coast since 2008, and after quite an unstable start to their life, my children finally now have strong foundations here, including at their schools, soccer club, gym, social circles and familiar places and memories.
I currently rent a four-bedroom home in Mountain Creek for $520 per week. My two children and I share our home with my older brother who pays one quarter of the rent ($130 per week), which makes my share of the rent $390 per week. This is diligently paid.
We had been renting this property for 10 months and our lease was soon to expire when, about eight weeks ago, we were advised that the landlord would be moving in, therefore we would not be able to renew our lease as intended. Common story for most renters at the moment. Am I right?
Help us deliver more important local stories by registering for our free daily news feed. All it requires is your name and email. See SUBSCRIBE at the top of this articleÂ
I’ve heard stories of landlords using this excuse as a means to get the tenants out ‘without grounds,’ only afterwards the evicted tenants see the home listed at a much higher price. I can only hope that my landlord has a heart and is an honest human being and, if not, I’d rather not know about it.
Since receiving this news, I’ve been keeping my ears to the ground and my eyes peeled for anything and everything containing the word ‘rental’, and what I have found instead of a cosy home like I usually do, is disturbing to say the very least.
In addition to a market flooded with overpriced short term rentals, I find a long, long list of sad stories told by vulnerable people being forced into circumstances that only make them more vulnerable.
The saddest stories are of people with chronic health issues and or from low-income households being forced out of their homes into a desolate rental market.
There are also stories from thousands of people, stable long-term tenants, claiming they have have just received increases of almost 50 per cent.
Why can we see homes advertised online, for almost up to $200 per week higher than the previous rental price? Why are we allowing people to BID on rental properties rather than regulate a fair playing field where listing price is final price for all? Why are prospective tenants allowed the advantage of offering a year’s rent in advance rather than the typical legislated two weeks?
With eviction hanging over us, I have begun applying for homes close to work and school only to be consistently rejected due to the 30 per cent rule. The rule that specifies an application cannot be approved if the rent is greater than 30 per cent of the applicant’s income according to local real estate agencies.
Rental prices have increased, but pay rates have not. Five years ago, 30 per cent of our income got us a suitable home for the size of our family in an affordable suburb outside the major cities.
Today, for 30 per cent of my income, in this area I would be lucky to score a single room in a share house with a bunch of strangers and be forced to bunk up with my teenage son, my pre-teen daughter — sadly our beloved family pets would be so far out of the picture it’s devastating.
Do you have an opinion to share? Submit a Letter to the Editor with your name and suburb at Sunshine Coast News via:Â news@sunshinecoastnews.com.au
How is it that one realtor can specify that the rent cannot be more than 30 per cent of a tenant’s income, and another allow up to 40 per cent? Not much of a ‘rule’ it would seem, but a means to discriminate against people on low to moderate incomes and drive property values higher by locking poorer people out of certain areas, which leaves vulnerable people displaced, and ultimately creates a huge socio-economic divide in this ‘lucky’ country. Lucky for some.
Follow us on Facebook
I am now going to be forced to rent a home in a town I have never even been to before, one that has a much higher crime and unemployment rate, just so that I can stay under the 30 per cent threshold.
Moving to a home in a suburb further away from work and school actually means my expenses are going to be higher than if property managers were to let me simply rent in my home town. It will cost an additional $150-200 per week on fuel to get to and from the Sunshine Coast for work, to take my kids to school and their other extra-curricular commitments in order to provide at least an inkling of stability in their already upside down lives.
Living in a town where I don’t know anyone, have no family or social support, don’t feel remotely safe, won’t be getting any sleep for all of the above reasons, and have to drive 3 – 4 hours each day costing an additional $150-200 p/w that (I’m fully prepared to spend on rent rather than travel) costs more financially, regardless of the cost to the mental health and safety of me and my children but hey, it beats homelessness and living in tent city. Or does it?
The government needs to take immediate urgent action to minimise the impact of housing affordability on citizens:
- Limit rental increases, including between tenants, to protect tenants from being kicked out and homeless, just so greed can prevail.
- Ban rent bidding. Listing price should be the final price.
- Ban realtors and landlords from accepting more than two weeks advance rent.
- Mandate changes to the 30 per cent rule in line with real life incomes and rental prices.
- Increase rent assistance in line with current rental increases to prevent those on lower income from being displaced and socially isolated.
