Sunshine Coast rentals tightening sparks fears for elderly facing evictions

An 80-year-old woman and a disability pensioner are two of an increasing group facing homelessness on the Sunshine Coast as the rental market tightens. Vote in the poll.

A disability pensioner and an elderly woman are facing homelessness after their long-term Sunshine Coast rentals were sold and they were asked to move out.

Their evictions come as new data shows Australia’s rental crisis continues to worsen.

A Nambour homelessness charity is reporting an increase in older people accessing their services as the Sunshine Coast returns to a “new normal” following 2020 and 2021.

Bryl Harrison, 50, has lived in his Woombye rental for a decade.

Following a job loss and finding out he was adopted, he was homeless and living out of his car for 18 months prior to finding his current home.

Mr Harrison, who has post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, social phobia and panic attacks, said moving to the rental was a turning point.

“I found somewhere and I was complete,” he said.

The disability pensioner – who has about 30 days to find a new home – said he was overwhelmed with the prospect of moving.

“When they told me, it hit me like a brick,” Mr Harrison said.

“I don’t want to be homeless, I’ve worked too hard to go back to that again.

“If I have to be homeless, I don’t know if I’ll come back from that.”

He also said hunting for a rental had changed a lot in 10 years.

“When I got this place I just walked down and got a piece of paper from the shops,” Mr Harrison said.

“You can’t just walk in and ask anymore.”

Tony McMaster was living out of a campervan after he came back from Thailand to Brisbane during the height of COVID-19.

He is now living in accommodation provided by homeless support service The Shack in Nambour.

“It’s exactly a tiny house, there’s everything in here at arm’s distance,” he said.

“It’s an excellent concept and it’s working well.”

Pastor Dale Dowler, who runs The Shack, said he had seen an increase in older people accessing services as COVID-19 restrictions eased this year.

“I know an 80-year-old lady who is due to be evicted from a Nambour home in August and there’s not a whole lot of prospects for her on the horizon,” he said.

“If people don’t have family connections, like this lady doesn’t, it adds a whole other dynamic.”

He said that at the height of COVID-19, he was seeing a lot more families at risk of homelessness.

“We were suggesting to people to move to Gympie, or Imbil, but those places have also become saturated with people moving there,” he said.

“Now they’re moving further north to places like Gladstone.”

The pastor said he was cautiously optimistic about the change of government because new Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had put social housing into his policies.

“But the cake is all about the eating and the taste,” Mr Dowler said.

According to the Real Estate Institute of Queensland latest statistics, the rental vacancy rate in Queensland tightened to record lows in the March, 2022 quarter.

Record or equal record lows were reached in 28 of 50 local government areas in Queensland and the vacancy rate was 0.7%.