Kochie stunned by homeless dad and teen living in tent

Sunrise host David Koch was left speechless by a teen boy’s heartbreaking story living in a tent as the rental crisis reaches new heights.

A teen has shared his heartbreaking story of being forced to live in a park with his dad after Queensland’s rental crisis forced the pair out of their home and into a tent.

Teenager Kailaeb Vescio-Stanley shared his harrowing experience with Sunrise host David Koch on Wednesday, leaving the TV veteran near-speechless with shock.

Mr Vescio-Stanley told the program he had been living in a Brisbane park with his dad for more than two weeks and struggled to fall asleep on the cold ground.

“Some nights I don’t get enough sleep, and some nights I can,” he told Sunrise.

“I see a lot of people doing it rough, and the majority of the people of the people I see doing it rough in parks are actually teenagers.”

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Kailaeb Vescio-Stanley, who is living in a tent with his dad, said most of the people sleeping rough were teenagers. Picture: Channel 7

The teenager said it was “just too expensive to rent” in Brisbane, and his dad had been applying for permanent housing without luck.

“We’d just like a house, a roof over our heads,” he said.

The boy and his father are receiving support from Emmanuel City Mission, an organisation that provides essential services to people experiencing homelessness.

“I also have to give a shout out to Emmanuel City Mission because without them, I would not have food, clothes on my back or a shower every day,” Mr Vescio-Stanley said.

The organisation describes itself as a “daytime sanctuary” for those sleeping rough, and provides hot meals, clothes, showers and toiletries to those in need.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk introduced new reforms this week to tackle the state’s housing shortage, but the government has struggled against the sheer magnitude of the crisis.

Sunrise host David Koch was shocked by the teen’s story. Picture: Channel 7

The reforms included a doubling of the investment into “quick fixes” like hotels and motels for rough sleepers, a cut to land tax for build-to-rent developments that include 10 per cent affordable housing, and a ban on landlords increasing rent more than once a year.

Mr Koch asked Jen Williams, Queensland’s Executive Director of the Property Council, if there was anything more the government could do.

“It’s also about rental assistance,” Ms Williams told the program.

“Affordability is a real problem with people being squeezed out of the market so we are hoping to bridge that gap for some people. And also for things like food as well, the basics, so people can afford to pay their rent as well too.”

Kochie said Mr Vescio-Stanley was the “human face” of the troubling statistics behind the rental crisis.

The rental crisis has reached new heights, with hundreds sleeping rough in Brisbane parks. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Sarah Marshall

This week, an Australian Council of Trade Unions survey found more than half of Australians were using savings to pay for their daily expenses.

The survey of 3000 workers found up to 46 per cent had postponed or abandoned plans for a holiday and one-in-four had skipped meals to make their weekly groceries last longer.

Of the people surveyed, 32 per cent said the cost of groceries would continue to cause them stress in the next 12 months, while the majority (91 per cent) said the cost of living had worsened over the last 12 months.

Just short of 80 per cent said it was getting harder to save for their retirement, and 68 per cent said they had reduced or stopped buying non-essential items.

It comes as more than half of Aussies are using savings to pay for daily expenses. Picture: David Crosling

ACTU secretary Sally McManus said the data indicated that workers were barely keeping their heads above water.

“A decade without wages growth and current inflation has left millions of Australians cutting back, doing without essentials, and some are even going without meals and avoiding visits to the doctor,” she said.

Of course, as the ACTU stats indicate, the crisis is not only in Queensland.

Earlier this year, news.com.au spoke to Michael Collier, a father-of-two who described himself as “employed but homeless”.

Many of the rough sleepers are employed, but simply cannot afford soaring rents as landlords refuse to absorb rate hikes.

Mr Collier, who was living in his car after the salary from his tech job was unable to compete with soaring rents, wrote a scathing letter to Anthony Albanese.

“What concerns me the most is how many politicians are now part of the Ponzi scheme of buying investment properties, having renters pay them off and then borrowing against the equity in the property to buy more,” he wrote to the Prime Minister.

“Don’t trot out the garbage that most politicians peddle. That affordability can be fixed if we just build more houses … You know as well as I do that the cost of housing is a function of not only supply but demand. Yes, demand!”

Mr Collier said he felt “dismissed” by government officials, including his local MP, who simply referred him to welfare agencies.

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