‘No light at the end of the tunnel’: Homeless Gladstone mother’s desperate bid to find a home

Every night Sussanah Whittingham couch surfs with her one-year-old son because she can’t find a rental property in Gladstone. Sadly, she’s just one of 800 in her region desperate to find a home.

A healthy rental vacancy should be between 2.6% and 3.5%. In July 2023, Gladstone sits at 1.8%. 25th July 2023 Brisbane CBD. Picture: David Clark

Gladstone has close to 800 people homeless including those rough sleeping, couch surfing, or living without a safe place to call home.

Among them is 20-year-old single mum Sussanah Whittingham who has been homeless for four months and not for the first time.

Sussanah Whittingham is currently couchsurfing while she tries to find a home for herself and her young son.

“Unfortunately, homelessness was a situation that I experienced when I was younger, and I’ve tried so hard to prevent my own son from ever going through the same thing,” Ms Whittingham said.

With her one-year-old son she has been couch surfing while she trying to find a stable, permanent home but rental applications are continuously rejected.

“He’s too young to understand what’s going on. I just make every night feel like a sleepover for him.”

Recent data from the Queensland Government Statistician’s Office, the REIQ and the Community Housing Industry Association has revealed shocking statistics on the housing problems across Queensland.

On July 15 2023, there were 406 clients supported by specialist homelessness services, with the rest of Gladstone’s unmet housing needs sitting at a staggering 7.4 per cent, or 1800 households.

This is projected to rise to 2500 by 2041 with housing stress.

There are currently 245 National Rental Affordability Scheme (NRAS) incentives in the region which will all be finished in 2026.

Ms Whittingham has rental experience - she once spent 12 months in a property and on another occasion was renting for a further 13 months.

“We were asked to vacate the second rental property we were living in as they were having the home renovated. I had a few months to prepare,” she said.

But she kept getting knocked back when she was searching and said she was told it was because she did not have a long enough rental history.

Ms Whittingham has worked in hospitality but quit her job out of stress and instead wanted to focus on caring for her son.

“It’s a vicious cycle. I can’t get a home without a rental history, and I can’t get a rental history without a home. I don’t see a light at the end of the tunnel.”

Community housing services including Roseberry Queensland are seeing higher amounts of people in urgent need of housing than previously recorded, with Gladstone seeing a huge median rent increase of 80 per cent in the past five years.

Ms Whittingham said she knew of several other young people experiencing the same situation.

She said her living situation had forced her to pause most parts of her life.

“I want to study, but I can’t do that until my living situation is stable. I plan on studying social work, so I can help people who are in the same situation,” she said.