The faces of Australia’s devastating housing crisis revealed as first-ever People’s Commission begins

A single mum has shared her devastating experience at the heart of a worsening crisis that shows few signs of easing.

Lucie’s day begins at dawn when the Sydney mother heads off to the first of three jobs that she juggles in a desperate and exhausting bid to keep a roof over her family’s head.

Eighty per cent of her income is swallowed by ever-rising rental costs and she’s forced to rely on food banks to feed her two teenage children.

“To say I’m tired is an understatement,” Lucie* told Australia’s first-ever People’s Commission into the Housing Crisis.

Hundreds of submissions have been received by the commission, which was organised by the group Everybody’s Home. Over two days, it will hear testimony from individuals and groups at the coalface of the worsening issue.

While giving testimony in Sydney today, Lucie spoke of moving house eight times in the past 12 years, mostly due to steep rent increases she simply couldn’t afford.

‘Nowhere to go’

Two years ago, Lucie signed a lease on a three-bedroom apartment in the city’s inner-west at a cost of $640 per week.

Barely 12 months later, she was hit with a mammoth $210 per week hike that she simply couldn’t manage, and when she asked to negotiate a smaller increase, the agent issued an eviction notice.

“It was extremely distressing,” Lucie told the commission.

“I found myself looking for a new rental in the area and was declined every single time. I was sitting in my car one day thinking, is this where we’re going to live?”

Lucie speaking at Australia’s first-ever People’s Commission into the Housing Crisis in Sydney today. Picture: NewsWire / Jeremy Piper

The thought of leaving the area and pulling her kids out of their school, isolating them from their friends, was devastating.

“We ended up finding a place, but the only way I got the house was if a friend of mine went guarantor,” she said.

“I had a healthy rental history of paying rent, but I was denied because I have a low income.”

Six months into the lease, Lucie lives with an ever-present fear of either a rent increase or a notice to vacate.

“I’m starting to worry about where we’d go, I worry about my kids having to move again. But also it’s the cost of moving itself – it was $1700 to move last time that I had to borrow from a friend.”

Last year, Lucie lost her job and was briefly on welfare support, which entitled her to be placed on a “priority” waiting list for subsidised public housing.

The wait time would be about five years, she was told. In the end, it didn’t matter because when she found a job, she no longer qualified for that support even though her position is still precarious and financially stressful.

“This makes me upset because I’m still in this position, I still have two children, I still have to put meals on the table, things are still very tough,” she said.

“You make sacrifices as a mother and my children are everything to me. I will do anything … you make sacrifices as a mother to make sure they have what they need. But it’s tough out there.”

‘A punch in the gut’

Young mum Libby* told the commission of an experience with a dodgy landlord that she compared to a living “hell”.

She and her partner moved into an apartment with their infant son, marking their sixth move in six years, but received a devastating phone call just two months into their lease.

“The owner was looking to urgently renovate and sell the apartment,” Libby recalled.

“The agent spoke about disruption after disruption from works … he offered help in finding a new place for us, something that would suit us better, explaining that the owner would appreciate it so much if we found a new place as quickly as we could.”

Finding an available rental, let along an affordable one, has become a challenge for countless Aussies. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Luis Ascui

As a gesture of good will, the agent told Libby “not to bother” cleaning the home before they left, given the owner would be undertaking serious renovations.

Flooding damage caused by a faulty pipe in the laundry would also be excused, she was assured.

“It flooded through the kitchen and even into the living room. We’d made emergency calls about it, had trusted the agent at the time. We did our own extensive clean up at the time, but the floors were warped,” she said.

“When we left, the agent suddenly claimed there was no knowledge of the flooding or the floor damage and that because we also hadn’t cleaned the property upon our exit, they would be keeping our entire bond.”

The People’s Commission into the Housing Crisis is holding public hearings over two days. Picture: NewsWire / Jeremy Piper

Libby and her partner tried to fight but were warned by renter advocates that the process would long and arduous.

“It was Christmas time and the emotional weight and stress of the fight seemed too hard, so we decided we had to let it go,” she said.

“Then on Christmas Day, I happened upon a new ad for our old apartment. It hit me like a punch in the gut. They were leasing the apartment out again, now at a higher rent, and with a new agent, but the same owner.

“We made calls to tenants’ rights advocates, sure this had to be illegal. I was told it was a legal rip-off. If it had been the same agent advertising it, they could have done something, but because the landlord had switched agents, it was circumventing the law.”

Sydney mums Libby and Rachael were among those who told their story to the People’s Commission into the Housing Crisis.Picture: NewsWire / Jeremy Piper

Several years of uncertainty

The commission also heard from Rachael Leah Jackson, a mother of three who fled domestic and family violence and almost instantly found herself homeless.

She lived with a friend for a few years while searching for a rental property she could afford without any success. Finally, when the four of them moved into a granny flat at the back of someone’s home, things began to look up.

“And then a tree fell on our home, and we were homeless again,” Rachael said.

“We had nothing, instantly. Eventually we found another rental, but we had no furniture. My kids slept on foam mattresses for a year.”

Advocates say Australia’s housing system is broken. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Swift

Last Christmas, her landlord delivered the news that they wanted to move into the home and Rachel and her kids would have to move again.

Two days later, doctors found a tumour and she had to undergo emergency surgery.

“I’d already gone through cancer, so it was another trauma, another uncertainty. I had to put the real estate (search) to the side to focus on my health.

“We’ve moved into another rental since, but we only have a 12-month lease. What happens after that? It’s like a rollercoaster.”

Serious financial strain

Tenants Union of New South Wales chief executive Leo Patterson Ross said the testimony heard so far exposes the “cracking in our housing system”.

“Every day we hear from renters about the challenges they face,” Mr Patterson Ross said.

“Over the last couple of years, we’ve seen a threefold increase in the number of people calling the Tenants’ Advocacy network for advice about rent increases and are receiving twice the number of calls about eviction for no reason.

“Right now, renters are experiencing serious financial strain, housing insecurity, and emotional distress as a result of our current housing crisis.

“It is heartbreaking to hear some of what is being shared today, but we thank the renters giving evidence for speaking up. Decision makers need to honour their stories by listening and then move to real action.”

The commission’s hearings continue.

* Surnames withheld by request

Originally published as The faces of Australia’s devastating housing crisis revealed as first-ever People’s Commission begins