The everyday faces of QLD’s crippling rental crisis

From a nurse to a prison guard, truckie and IT worker. Meet three everyday families living in a caravan park as they struggle to find a rental home in Queensland. Listen to their stories.

They are at the coalface of Queensland’s brutal rental crisis – three normal families living in a holiday park as they try and find a home.

Meet the everyday families living at Brisbane Holiday Village as they struggle to find a rental home.

And they say they are the lucky ones. They have a roof over their heads.

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Brisbane Holiday Village. Supplied

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NURSE LUCILLE O’BRIEN AND HUSBAND KYLE, A TRUCKIE

Registered nurse Lucille O’Brien and her truck driver husband Kyle have stable jobs and a good rental history.

But after their landlord decided to move overseas and sell their rental home of six years at Regents Park, their young family has struggled to find another place to call home and, along with their four children, have been living at a holiday village since April.

“The rental market crashed and we couldn’t get anywhere to live,” she said.

“Everywhere we applied, there was just so many people there.

“We almost ended up living … out the back of our cars.

“We looked here … and got one of the last villas that was a long-term lease.”

Lucille O’Brien and her daughter Evellyn, 4, at Brisbane Holiday Village, where they are living with her truck driver husband Kyle and their other three children. Picture: Matthew Poon.

Mrs O’Brien said she was in her final year of paramedicine, and her husband had been a truck driver for a decade.

She said they had to give away their family dog, birds and fish.

“We haven’t come from a background where we struggle to find or apply from a home,” she said.

The nurse said applying to even get an inspection at an available rental had become like trying to “get tickets to a Big Day Out concert”.

She said that even if you do apply for an inspection, often there were 30-plus people there and 15 minutes to view the property – no easy feat given Covid-19 restrictions.

“You can wait outside while people are looking and then the real estate agent comes out and says, sorry got to go,” she said.

“You don’t even get to apply because you didn’t get to enter the house.

“And if you are lucky enough to apply, then it comes down to what are you able to pay over the top of other person applying.

“It becomes a bit of a gambling act … which is insane.”

Lucille says: “It is beautiful here but we should be in a home”. Brisbane Holiday Village. Supplied

The young mum said taking her children to school and sport had become an hours long commute everyday.

She said they were stressed, the children were exhausted and the costs of not being in a permanent home were adding up.

“Being a family, as parents we don’t want to be living in caravan park,” she said.

“It feel like a holiday, it is beautiful here but we know we should be in a home.

“We feel sorry for the neighbours with the midnight tantrums, the chaos.”

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PRISON GUARD SIMON BURGESS AND WIFE DONNA

Prison guard Simon Burgess and his wife Donna recently moved from Townsville to Brisbane for work and better opportunities for their four children.

Since they arrived, they have been living in a small cabin at a Brisbane holiday park.

“We had no idea it would be this hard (to get a rental),” Donna said.

Next to their cabin sits their car and a trailer with the few possessions they could bring with them.

The rest of their belongings are in storage, while their family pets are at a boarding kennel.

Simon is back at work, and has been working nights at the high security Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre.

Donna and Simon Burgess, with their children Logan (11), Jaxen (8), Kenzie (6) and Willow (4). Picture: Matthew Poon.

Donna, a stay-at-home mum, admits that the kids have “cabin fever”, but at least, for now they have a roof over their heads.

“It is your worst nightmare to have your kids out of school for 2-3 weeks because you can’t find a place to live,” Simon said.

Logan, 11, Jaxen, 8, and Kenzie, 6, should be in school, but with no proof of address to enrol them at a state school, or any idea which catchment to even apply to, the family are in limbo.

And then there is Willow, 4, who wants to go to daycare to meet new friends.

Brisbane Holiday Village GM Geoff Illich and his staff are getting up to 60 calls a day from desperate renters

“Every time you go for an inspection, it is like a job interview,” Simon said.

“You would think I would be a good candidate, we were renting in Townsville for 20 years.

“You just plead with the kids to be on their best behaviour.”

Simon said that while they were grateful to have a roof over their head at the holiday park, it was a “big financial drain”.

“We are paying two, three times what we would for a weeks rent,” he said.

“You just put it together the best way you can to make sure the kids are fed, that they have a roof over your head.”

Brisbane Holiday Village general manager, Geoff Illich, takes the Burgess kids for a ride around the holiday park. Picture: Matthew Poon.

But the couple said “funds run out”, with Donna saying that the lack of stability was “definitely taking its toll”.

“Our next option was to get in our tent,” Donna said. “We still may have to resort to that.”

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WEATHER VICTIMS KEWAN AND LISA YOUNG

Kewan and Lisa Young, and their two children, River, 1, and Lukas, 3, were living in Runcorn when the wild weather struck in February and damaged their rental home.

There were issues with the roof and recurring mould.

But they stayed, maybe for too long, and then they were told the entire roof had to come off and would have to move out.

Lisa, who had a housing commission house for nine years before the family were able to move into private rentals, is now applying for social housing once again but admits even that is a “mess”.

Kewan and Lisa Young with their kids River (1) and Lukas (3). Picture: Matthew Poon.

There is a record 50,000 people – a population around the size of Gympie – on the social housing register in Queensland, with wait times blowing out in some regions by more than two years.

As it stands, the Young family are paying over $500 a week to stay at the caravan park, and that’s a 50 per cent discount on the normal rate.

At that rate, they could rent in almost 150 suburbs across the Greater Brisbane region, but finding one and being the successful applicant among so many others is tough.

“It was hard enough two years ago when we went for the house at Bahrs Scrub but it was nothing like this,” Kewan, a full-time carer, said.

“You turn up and there are so many people, and even if you do get short-listed, the agent says the other candidate has offered more.

“They offer double just to land the place.”

Lisa, a technical support worker in telecommunications, said her tax return had gone to moving costs, and she even took money out of her superannuation.

She said the Brisbane Holiday Park had been “amazing”, with Kewan adding they would be “surfing couches” if it wasn’t for the staff.

“Every parent wants a safe and secure place for their kids,” he said.

Lisa added: “Trust us, I think both of us have thought we were bad parents”.

“We keep telling each other that we are not, but it goes through your head,” she said.