Stephen Chugg desperate for a home in the Burdekin

A father of six who has been unable to find housing in the Burdekin is worried he may face the prospect of losing his kids if he can’t find accommodation any time soon.

A father of six who has been unable to find housing in the Burdekin is worried he may face the prospect of losing his kids if he can’t find accommodation any time soon.

Stephen Chugg has been desperately trying to find accommodation for the past four years, and despite having the finances to do, he has been rejected time and time again.

Mr Chugg described his current housing situation as non-existent and said he felt “very upset, annoyed, angry and judged”.

“The only accommodation we have is the caravan which is broken..it’s beyond liveable conditions,” Mr Chugg said.

“A lot of people like my wife and my kids are genuinely homeless for genuine reasons that are out of our control, we just can’t get a house.

“We are not black-listed in any way shape or form, we have good rental references and everything, no one will give us a house,” he said.

“Our combined income is approximately $2400 a fortnight, that puts us at $370 a week and we are still getting knocked back.

“We applied twice for a house in Ayr and they said we believe you can’t afford this and that was the end of that.

“I will probably lose my kids to the department eventually. I have been to every agency, commissions housing, real estate agents, Facebook pages, gumtree, putting ads everywhere,” he said.

The Real Estate Institute of Queensland (REIQ) regards a rental vacancy rate of 2.6 to 3.5 per cent as “healthy”.

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In the recently released REIQ Residential Vacancy Report for the December quarter, it was revealed that the rental vacancy rate for the Burdekin was 0.8 per cent.

REIQ CEO Antonia Mercorella said she couldn’t recall a time where tight vacancy rates were so consistently and drastically low across Queensland, citing Covid-19 creating unique behaviour.

“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 less shared tenancies as people want more space now they’re working from home,” Ms Mercorella said.

Ms Mercorella said the REIQ’s expectation was that 2022 would bring more competition and demand on the rental market, saying more needs to be done to relieve the pressure.

“Queensland needs additional housing supply to ease these tight conditions and accommodate the masses relocating to the state – and this supply simply can’t come soon enough,” she said.

Originally published as Stephen Chugg desperate for a home in the Burdekin