Ipswich family of five homeless, living out of car after 270 rent rejections

A family of five has spent the past month living out of their car after all 270 rental applications they made to Ipswich agencies were rejected.

An Ipswich mum’s desperate search for a rental has reached a new level of urgency as she and her four teenage children enter their fifth week living out of a car and their 270th application for a home is rejected.

Shikera Maher said she had been applying for rental properties since her last lease ended in July, but has been unsuccessful due to the huge demand for housing in the region.

“I’ve emailed back (the real estate agencies) quite a few times and said, ‘Is it my application? What’s going on? I don’t understand’,” she said.

“They don’t email you back or if they do they say ‘it was the owner’s decision’.

“Just today I’ve been declined for six houses.”

Up until February this year, Ms Maher and her children – aged 13, 15, 15, and 18 – were living with different friends of hers for weeks at a time.

But the stay-at-home mum said moving from place to place proved to be too difficult, given the size of her family and the fact most of her friends live in small duplexes.

Shikera Maher and her family have been rejected from 270 rental applications, leaving them with no option but to live in her car. Picture: Brad Fleet

The family of five have since been living out of Ms Maher’s mid-size SUV, driving from park to park and hanging blankets over the car’s windows each night so passers-by do not see them sleeping.

“Basically the 18-year-old is in the front seat and the other three are in the back (of the car),” Ms Maher said.

“You have to have the car running all night for the aircon. We’re going through $30 of fuel a night.

“It’s too stressful.”

With petrol prices now at a record high, her living costs and circumstances have been even further exacerbated. Ms Maher said she was “only just” managing.

All four children stopped attending school for a period of time because of the stress of their situation and inability to focus.

“I’m just wanting my own house again and to give the kids stability, and myself I guess,” Ms Maher said.

She said her children were “not really coping with it all” and would “lash out” because they were constantly in each other’s space.

One of her daughters recently returned to school and, Ms Maher said, is glad for the distraction, although studying from the car is near impossible.

Shikera Maher pictured with two of her children, Triston, 15, and Tanesha, 18. Picture: Brad Fleet

The Ipswich mum said she had the means to pay the bond and initial rent payments on all of the properties she applied for and the repeated rejections were largely unexplained; agencies and owners just had other, preferred applicants for the properties.

“Sometimes I don’t think they even look at your application because there’s so many people (applying),” she said.

“A few we have had the opportunity to share our situation with and we’ve still been declined. They just say ‘it’s the owner’s choice’ or ‘we had so many good applicants’.”

She said moving to a place outside of Ipswich was not an option as her kids were settled at their school and most of her support was based in the district.

According to Residential Tenancies Authority, a four-bedroom house in Ipswich — which Ms Maher is hunting for — will cost $430 per week to rent as at December 2021, up from $390 per week in December 2020 and $375 per week in December 2019.

Bonds will cost a median of $1043, up from $945 in December 2020 and $1293 in December 2019.

Ms Maher is not eligible for public housing, she said, because she owes a debt she has not yet paid after her now-18-year-old child “smashed” their last place provided by the department in 2012.

She remains on a waitlist for crisis accommodation, but said she has not yet received a call-up.

Until she does, or she is approved for a rental property, her family will live life as they have for the past month – homeless, stressed, and vulnerable.

Ms Maher, and her children Tanesha, 18, Tannayah, 13, and Triston, 15, have spent every night of the past five weeks in her Nissan Dualis. Picture: Brad Fleet

It comes as Ipswich experiences reduced rent affordability and tighter-than-ever rental vacancy rates at just 0.9 per cent.

“To put this into perspective, the REIQ classifies rental markets into three categories: tight, healthy, or weak and anything between a 2.6 per cent to 3.5 per cent vacancy rate is considered a ‘healthy’ rental market, anything below 2.5 per cent is ‘tight’,” the Real Estate Institute of Queensland CEO Antonia Mercorella said.

“Ipswich has been tracking tighter and tighter from the September 2019 quarter onward when it was sitting at 2.9 per cent. Compare that to now, and we can see that throughout 2021, Ipswich has been tight but fairly stable around (the) 0.9 to 1.0 per cent mark.”

Ms Mercorella said the state’s rental market was already at “historically low” vacancy rates leading up to the recent flood crisis, which further reduced rental stock.

“We’re experiencing the perfect storm of low housing supply levels, incredibly high interstate and intrastate migration particularly to our regions, longer length tenancies as tenants choose to stay put for greater security and certainty, and fewer co-tenancy arrangements as people want more space now they’re working from home,” she said.

She said those looking to secure a rental property will have to “move swiftly” and attend inspections with all of their paperwork — including bank statements, referees, and proof of employment — at the ready.