Qld housing crisis: Premier must take action to prevent situation from escalating

Queensland’s housing crisis has been allowed to spiral out of control. The Premier must take immediate action to address it before it gets worse, writes The Editor.

Nobody should be forced to live in their car or a tent.

But Queensland’s housing crisis has been allowed to spiral so out of control that exactly that situation is now the brutal reality for families who are sleeping in tents, tradies who are sheltering in their utes, and people have no choice but to make more than 100 applications before finding a rental – if they end up being lucky enough to find one.

This is now a crisis. Of that there is no doubt. And Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk needs to personally convene – and chair – a summit to tackle what has become one of the biggest issues facing Queenslanders, right across our vast state.

Today, The Courier-Mail launches a series drawing overdue attention to the depths of this crisis – and the hardships average Queenslanders are facing as they fight for a roof over their heads.

The series also gives a voice to housing advocates who overwhelmingly just want the Premier to show “genuine leadership” and set up an emergency summit to come up with real solutions – now.

The Property Council has revealed Queensland faces an interstate migration wave of up to 220,000 people within five years.

Many Queenslanders are struggling to get a roof over their heads.

Who wouldn’t want to come to the Sunshine State? They are all welcome. The problem is that we don’t have enough housing to support such astronomical migration figures – the equivalent of the population of Townsville and Gladstone combined.

It is critical to understand that this is now not a crisis only affecting the long-term homeless.

Families with incomes that previously would have afforded them a modest home in a decent suburb are being turned away as the rental market becomes a battleground of the rich.

The Great Australian Dream of actually buying a home? It is now well out of reach of most Queenslanders, particularly in the southeast – where the median house price in Brisbane is now $850,000, up from $165,000 in 2002, a more-than five-times growth rate. Tellingly, over the same period the average wage has gone from $42,000 to $85,000 – a simple doubling.

But this has not been just a 20-year trend. The problem has spiralled since property and rental prices soared during the pandemic, while at the same time rental vacancies plummeted.

The simple fact is that more people are now living rough on Queensland’s streets – including at what are now makeshift tent villages in the inner-city on the banks of the Brisbane River.

The problem has spiralled since property and rental prices soared during the pandemic. Picture: Brendan Radke

A YouGov poll for The Courier-Mail in July revealed housing affordability was the second most important issue facing Queenslanders, only behind cost of living pressures. Only one in 10 of those respondents believed the Palaszczuk government had been doing enough to assist with housing affordability.

While all stakeholders agree a summit is the most important step the government needs to take right now, each organisation has a range of ideas on how we can put a lid on this crisis.

Some are looking at ways to address abandoned, unused and vacant properties. Others suggest unlocking more land supply, tax settings to encourage build-to-rent apartment blocks, and building 5000 new social housing homes each year in Queensland.

The Premier – and all those in senior positions in her government – must listen to the organisations at the coalface of this crisis.

But more so, they need to listen the Queenslanders living through this heartbreaking situation need to be heard. Queenslanders like Logan mother of four, Samantha Stewart – who faces living on the streets if she can’t find a rental property in the next few weeks.

Samantha has lived in her Eagleby rental unit for three years, but the property’s recent sale means she must find somewhere else to live. Caravan parks and motels are full. She has applied for properties from Toowoomba to Gladstone: “Basically, no one can really help until you’re actually homeless and have nowhere to go – there’s pretty much nowhere you can go to get the help you need.”

Queenslanders expect more of their leaders in times of crisis. And so our message to the Premier is this: it is time to stand up and take charge before the housing crisis spirals even further out of control.

Originally published as Qld housing crisis: Premier must take action to prevent situation from escalating