Gold Coast rent: Sally Whitaker says locals priced out, appeals for government to do more

A mum unable to find a rental says long-time locals are being forced out of the Gold Coast because they can’t compete with cashed-up new arrivals from interstate.

A LABRADOR mum says long-time locals are being forced out of the Gold Coast, with rising rent and food bills making it impossible to make ends meet.

Sally Whitaker said she and her 15-year-old son were facing homelessness within days because their landlord was selling up and they had been unable to find anywhere else affordable.

“I’ve been living on the Gold Coast since I was 12 years old and never had a problem getting a house,” Ms Whitaker said.

“What we’re going through is an absolute nightmare. We’ve got to be out on the third of March. I’ve been looking every day since December, but we don’t know where to go.

“... I’ve got a good rental history, good references, there’s nothing wrong with it.

“Any other time I would have got a place by now but there’s no chance.

“I can come up with my bond and two weeks in advance, like we normally do, but the rental hikes, some of them have gone up $200 a week.

“And I don’t have six months in advance like some people.

“We’ve got locals who have been here all their lives and we’re now getting kicked to the kerb because you’ve got someone coming up offering more money.

“It’s like they’re kicking all the mums out of the Gold Coast. That’s what we honestly feel like.”

RELATED COVERAGE

• ‘Complete and utter shambles’: Whistleblower’s bombshell claims on housing dept
• Decision that has doomed renters to live in fear
• Where social housing is located in Gold Coast

Ms Whitaker avails of assistance from Centrelink to help pay rent. The amount of rent assistance paid is raised each year in line with the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which measures a range of household costs.

Last year the CPI rose by 3.5 per cent. However the median rental price in Labrador rose by 22 per cent for houses to $650 per week and 16.3 per cent for units to $483 per week.

Ms Whitaker, who currently pays $430 a week, said the assistance available needed to better reflect these sharp rises.

“The government isn’t doing enough to compensate for the rent increases,” she said.

“They’re not giving enough rent assistance. I can’t change my income. I can’t afford this.

“We’re getting smashed. I don’t know what to do.”

Ms Whitaker said the rising cost of groceries was an added headache she could not afford.

“It’s bad. The groceries, everything has gone up,” she said.

“My son is only 15 but he’s six foot two. They grow.

“... I’m a severe anaemic. I need to eat red meat. And I can’t afford to at all. There’s just no chance.”

Sally Whitaker's son Christian Mackay in hospital after suffering a serious brain injury.

Ms Whitaker’s trouble putting a roof over her head is a cruel blow after a stressful two years following a serious injury on her eldest son.

Christian Mackay suffered severe brain damage after being hit in the head by a metal pole in Bundaberg. A man has since been charged with grievous bodily harm over the incident, which doctors initially feared Mr Mackay would not survive.

“That plays on our mind a lot,” Ms Whitaker said.

“He lost half his brain. He’s very lucky to be alive.

“So we’re really petrified. We don’t want to be sleeping on the streets. I’m really scared that something might happen to my youngest son, who lives with me.

“That’s what I fear the most. I’m literally not sleeping at night. My son’s not sleeping at night because he’s thinking, ‘where are we going to be?’

“After what’s happened to his brother, that’s in the back of his head too.

We’re petrified. It’s killing us.”

* Have a rental that could be suitable for Sally? Email [e-mail]

COMMENT: FEDERAL POLITICIANS BLIND TO HOUSING CRISIS

SOMEONE send a memo to the Prime Minister Scott Morrison. And the opposition leader, Anthony Albanese. There’s an important event coming up they appear to be unaware of. You need to pick your game up fellas, there’s a federal election due.

Normally, with the verdict of voters close at hand, pollies are busy at least pretending they care about the issues important to ordinary people. Not this time.

Both remain obsessed with matters that only seem to concern the Canberra bubble.

Top of their list should be the housing crisis.

But all we hear about is the Religious Discrimination Bill. Or someone looking at Mr Morrison in a funny way.

They need to open their eyes.

Too many working people have not only lost all hope of home ownership, they can’t find anywhere decent to rent.

Many end up couch-surfing or sleeping in cars –the “hidden homeless”.

The effect is devastating.

“We have been looking since December, it’s a nightmare,” one Gold Coast mother wrote this week.

“I’m working two jobs, we are desperate. We have to be out early March because owners are selling. Please, if anyone knows of anything, we don’t have anywhere else to go.”

Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Picture: Emma Brasier.

Another woman, a mother of two children under two years of age, was just as stressed.

“I’m very stressed as in two weeks we will be homeless,” the woman wrote. “I’ve been looking for months. It’s ridiculous really, (it’s been) nearly a year and competing with 100 other people at each inspection is making it really hard for me.

“... I don’t know what else to do. How can we not have enough houses?”

Across the ditch in New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has introduced a series of measures to try and cool that country’s similarly bubbling property market and help first-home buyers.

The jury’s out on whether they will have much effect, but at least she’s having a red hot go. What there can be no doubt about is that nothing is achieved when you do stuff all.

One of the few politicians who can’t be accused of failing to notice the severity of the problem is Environment Minister and Gaven MP Meaghan Scanlon.

Ms Scanlon is deeply concerned by federal government plans to bring an end to the National Rental Affordability Scheme in June.

She also wants to see the Commonwealth do more to help those people on the Gold Coast struggling to put a roof over their heads, who in years past would have had no such problem.

“I think it needs a big response from all levels of government. We all need to play a part in this,” Ms Scanlon told this column recently.

“The big player should ultimately be the Commonwealth. They get 80 per cent of the taxation revenue in the country. They also have policy levers that states and councils don’t have. I think there’s significantly more they could be doing.

“It’s something I’m very passionate about. I’m a young Gold Coaster, I’m not a homeowner myself, I still rent. I very much sympathise with a lot of people on the Gold Coast who are trying to get into the housing market and just trying to get by in terms of their tenancy.”

Ms Scanlon is right. This is a real crisis and thousands of people across this city are suffering dreadfully.

But will anyone in Canberra listen?