Western Downs families forced to sleep rough as Qld rental crisis worsens

As property investors celebrate low vacancy rates in the Western Downs, people are being forced to sleep in cars, tents and shelters in the dead of winter. This is the reality of our region’s rental crisis.

When Margaret and Allen Plant wake up in the freezing cold of their tent each morning they can see the condensation of their breath.

Soon after, they make the frosty trek to their nearby campervan to wake their 10 and 11-year-old sons to get them ready for school.

It’s been six months since the couple and their boys were forced into homelessness when their Dalby rental home was sold.

Finding another property to lease in Australia’s tightest rental market - of 0.1 per cent - has proved near impossible.

In the last week, Dalby has only had four rental homes listed, one a four bedroom house for $900 per week was snapped up quickly.

Margaret, Allen and their boys are a part of a growing community of about a dozen people who are sleeping rough in tents dotted throughout Bowenville Reserve 32km east of Dalby.

Across Queensland, they’re a few of 20,000 people across Queensland who are being forced to the streets due to the rising cost of living and lack of affordable rentals.

“It gets cold, it's like a cold we’ve never experienced,” Mrs Plant said.

“This is the first time we’ve ever been homeless.”

“It’s been eye opening, there’s lots of things we’ve had to learn like how to operate batteries and solar panels, all the money you need to spend on fuel for the car and the generators, then you have the mice problems so sometimes you lose the little food you have,” Mr Plant added.

Dalby has been earmarked by property experts as Australia’s best town to invest in due to its extremely low vacancy rate of 0.1 per cent, however the reality behind the numbers are families like the Plants who are struggling to make ends meet.

According to data from Realestate.com.au, Dalby renters can expect to pay on average $450 a week for a home - that’s a rise of $150 from the average price in 2020.

Prior to becoming homeless the pair had been in a serious car crash when a four-wheel drive doing an illegal overtake crashed into their car at 110km/h, with the resulting injuries preventing the pair from working.

Margaret and Allen were forced to the street with their young children.

Looking at her two young children playing, Mrs Plant lamented their family’s situation has made for difficult conversations.

“They’ve been OK, they have their ups and down,” she admitted.

“It was tough, we had to sit them down and tell them the owner had sold the home and we would be living in a camper trailer for a while.

“The boys are still going to school every morning, most mornings they have their cereal, we get them dressed, I have my coffee and we put the kids and the dogs in the car and drive them to school.

“Sometimes they don’t want to go to school because it is too cold waking up in the morning, we have to get up earlier before them in the cold to get them ready.”

Mr Plant said he had been making efforts to find his family a home, leaving notes in mailboxes in Bell, Kingaroy, Toowoomba and Pittsworth.

“There is just nothing in our price range at the moment,” he said.

“For a four-bedroom house they want $750 a week and no one on benefits can afford the 30 per cent (of their) income to afford the place.”

Just last month Realestate.com highlighted Dalby as one of Australia’s best towns to invest in.

Throughout the past month, several areas have experienced notable spikes in rental prices, reflecting immediate pressures in the rental market.

These include the Southern Downs which saw a substantial monthly increase of $50 in rent, Miles – Wandoan which saw a $20 rise in rent and Chinchilla which experienced a $10 rise, according to Kent Lardner from Suburbtrend.com.

Smaller towns like Jondaryan, Tara and Oakey are also considered to be in the depths of the rental crisis too – where the price of rent exceeds 30 per cent of the average income.

Jondaryan renters are allocating 36 per cent of income ($550) to their rent, Tara households are spending 35 per cent ($337) and Oakey are spending 30 per cent ($400).

Mrs Plant said despite the odds of finding a home they hadn't given up hope.

“We are still hopeful we will get a place, if you’re not hopeful you’ll go insane, we go out every day looking for houses until we get low on fuel and can’t go out anymore,” she said.

Up to a dozen people are living out of tents at Bowenville Reserve

Among the growing tent village in Bowenville Reserve a man, who asked to remain anonymous, said he too had become homeless for the first time in 2024.

Having worked as a truck driver from the age of 21, he said he had never considered homelessness a possibility but health issues and rental shortages made a nightmare a reality.

“I had an operation on my bowels which restricted my ability to work but the government doesn’t see it like that, they think if you’re walking and breathing it’s good enough for you to work,” he said.

“Following the operations I was having financial difficulties and basically had no money and lost my home. I was staying in a rental and my landlord ended up selling the property.

“There’s a shortage of rentals around here and the ones that are available are way too expensive.

“I wish more people knew how hard it is, it’s not easy if you’ve got no finances behind you, I got paid from Centrelink yesterday and I’m broke today.

“I spent all my money on a camper to try and get out of the tent and out of this cold.”

A tent which houses Allen, Margaret and their two children.

Helping Hands Outreach Project Dalby’s branch manager Lizzie Harvey said the homelessness crisis in the area was the worst she had ever seen.

“We are seeing between 10 and 20 people a week for hampers between those that are homeless and those who can’t afford food,” she said.

“It has increased probably 50 per cent within just the past year.

“We are seeing people mainly coming in for food, and heading into winter we have people looking for blankets and pillows.

“One of the biggest issues at this time of the year is the cold, we have people living in tents, so we have a blanket drive on at the moment, we are looking for any bedding we can get.”

Helping Hands’ Lizzie Harvey said the homelessness crisis was the worst she had seen it. Picture: Sam Turner

Ms Harvey said the rental crisis was the biggest issue facing the community, and said she had heard first hand accounts of people applying for hundreds of rentals only to be turned away and left to fend for themselves.

“We are seeing more people pushed to the street with the rental crisis and a situation where the owner is trying to sell, they want the tenant out and they aren’t renewing leases,” she said.

“We had one lady who was living out at Bowenville Reserve and she said she applied for 100 homes and couldn’t find anything, a lot of them are applying to 50 homes and there just aren’t any available.

“We are seeing a very diverse range of people needing our services including working couples.”

Beth Wood hosts a dinner for people in need. Picture: contributed

Circles of Care co-ordinator Beth Wood, who hosts a weekly dinner for those in need and last week fed almost 200 people, said the lines for food had been so long they’d snaked outside the MYCNC.

“Last Thursday night we fed 183 people, it is continuing to grow, it is really interesting when we first started in March 2022 we had one person, now it has grown over time and we sit between 180-200,” she said.

“It’s like something I’ve never seen before, it’s not the typical stereotypes of homelessness, sometimes they are people who are working and are sleeping in cars or sheds, sometimes there are people who have been put into motels but they can’t cook in motels, sometimes they are people whose rent as gone up $100 – $150 over a period of time and that was their food money.

“We are seeing older people who have lived in rental accommodation for a long time, there’s a huge variety in those stories.

“It is very new and very different and it is around the housing shortage, people are choosing to sell their houses because the market is burning at the moment and consequently that means the rental house that may have someone as a long term tenant they are now finding themselves without anywhere to live and without the income to rent.

“Often the 30 per cent rule that exists means that a lot of the people that come around on Thursday are never going to be able to rent because their income is so small.

“It is incredibly tough for some people and the needs of most people are like we’ve never seen before.”