Toowoomba teens reveal deep housing anxiety in new Mission Australia survey

A Toowoomba teen says her desperate search for housing led her to dangerous places, as new polling reveals the city’s youth face the state's worst housing anxiety.

Bridie was so desperate for housing when she moved to Toowoomba nearly a year ago, she jumped at a room offer from a stranger on Facebook — with terrifying consequences.

“(The place I got offered) was like a full-on drug house (and) that was the only place I could go to have a roof over my head — it was so unsafe,” the teenager said.

“The first night I was there, I had somebody come into my room (while I was asleep) and there were no locks on the doors.”

Up until securing stable housing with Mission Australia a few months ago, Bridie says the threat of homelessness — and the anxiety that comes along with it — had never been far away.

“(It’s been) probably my whole life, to be honest, I haven’t really felt at home ever,” she said.

“When I was in Taree (a couple of years ago) I did sleep on the street for about three weeks, I literally had nowhere else to go, no money, no nothing — so that was my only option.

“Your main thought is always, ‘where am I going to sleep tonight?’ or ‘am I going to be safe here?’”

Toowoomba teenager Bridie, who finally has a roof over her head thanks to Mission Australia, has battled homelessness her whole life.

Bridie is not alone with these concerns, as new polling of Toowoomba young people by Mission Australia reveals anxiety around housing is felt widely across the city by those her age.

The 2025 edition of the charity’s annual survey of youths aged 14-19 shows housing and homelessness is a major problem, with 38 per cent of the 176 Toowoomba respondents listing it among their top three “national issues”.

That figure was 11 percentage points higher than the state average of 27 per cent, and Toowoomba was the only regional centre to have housing in its top three.

Six in 10 Toowoomba teens listed cost of living as a top issue, while mental health was third-highest in the survey at 34 per cent.

Toowoomba’s housing woes have been widely-known for many years, with the city’s rental vacancy rate having hovered around one per cent since the Covid-19 pandemic.

Charities say a lack of rentals, along with tepid development rates, skyrocketing construction costs and ever-climbing house prices, have forced families and young people into cars and onto the streets.

“Before I contacted Mission Australia, I think I applied for about 80 rentals and different share houses and everything like that, but just couldn’t get anything because who wants a younger person in their house?” Bridie said, when asked about the housing crisis.

“Pretty much all the (young) people that I talk to still live with their parents because the pricing of rentals and housing is just too out there – they can’t afford it.

“We were working out how much you’d have to make to be able to afford to rent for like $300 a week (for it to be 30 per cent of income) — you’d have to be making like $1,100 a week?

“I completely understand why (survey respondents) would be feeling that way, because I felt the exact same way when I realised how hard it would be.”

Toowoomba teenager Bridie, who finally has a roof over her head thanks to Mission Australia, has battled homelessness her whole life.

Mission Australia’s Alana Gallagher, who helped get Bridie into a unit thanks to the “SPin Housing” program in collaboration with other groups, said young people were uniquely vulnerable to housing insecurity.

She said she believed Toowoomba’s housing problems were getting worse.

“A young person might go, ‘I know I can afford it’, but it’s not a matter of that — the real estate will say they can’t put somebody on the lease that can’t afford it on paper with that 30 per cent,” Ms Gallagher said.

“There were a couple of months of grace there, and now I feel like we’re starting to regress again with the housing situation.

“Right now, anxiety is very high, depression is extremely high, so just (poor) mental health in general with young people is increasing by the day.”

Bridie said her next goals were to find a job, enter private housing and start saving for a home of her own.

“That’s going to be a long time away with the prices of houses, but if I can put something down then it’s mine – no one can take it away from me,” she said.

The survey also revealed some surprising trends about Toowoomba youths, when compared against results from previous years.

Concerns about climate change and the environment was the top issue for respondents in 2022 (42 per cent), but in 2025 it has dropped to fifth at just 15 per cent (far below the state result of 22 per cent).

While mental health has remained a consistent issue for young people, with one-in-five saying they felt lonely most or all of the time, two-thirds of respondents felt positive about the future and nearly 70 per cent said they felt in control of their lives.

Originally published as Toowoomba teens reveal deep housing anxiety in new Mission Australia survey