Housing Alliance forms to protest Tasmania’s ballooning cost of rent

Victims of Hobart’s housing crisis have formed a new alliance to protest skyrocketing costs of rent which has rendered many of them homeless.

Victims of Hobart’s housing crisis have formed a new alliance to protest the skyrocketing cost of rent which has rendered many of them homeless.

The Housing Alliance lutruwita/Tasmania is a collective of renters, homeowners, and rough sleepers who have been impacted by the ballooning cost of housing.

Alliance member Matty Paws lost his job during lockdown and spent nearly two months sleeping in his car, huddling up in the back for warmth.

It was the second time he’d experienced homelessness, the first time being in 2018 when he moved to Tasmania and discovered just how steep the cost of rent was.

Mr Paws said Hobart desperately needed to regulate its property speculators and Airb

PRICED OUT: Matty Paws and Frankie Niamh have both experienced homelessness due to the sheer priceiness of Hobart's rental market. Picture: Kenji Sato

nb landlords in order to push down rents to liveable levels.

“The Housing Alliance wants to fight the housing crisis and build a fairer society where housing is a human right, rather than a for-profit commodity,” Mr Paws said.

“Housing is something that affects everybody: homeowners, renters, and the homeless as well. There’s no one that hasn’t been affected by this crisis.”

Mr Paws said he knew other rough sleepers who had given up on the idea of finding social housing, which had a waiting list of over 4000 people.

One of the lucky ones is Frankie Niamh, who managed to secure a social housing spot in West Hobart that he would otherwise never be able to afford.

Before he secured a roof over his head, he’d spent several months living in shelters while waiting in the social housing queue at the age of 17.

PRICED OUT: Matty Paws and Frankie Niamh have both experienced homelessness due to the sheer priceiness of Hobart's rental market. Picture: Kenji Sato

However Mr Niamh said he is one of the lucky ones, since he eventually managed to get a social housing spot in West Hobart that he would otherwise never be able to afford.

“I’ve bounced between a couple of the different shelters, and while they’re amazing services and it’s really great they were, we shouldn’t have to need them,” Mr Niamh said.

“I was quite lucky that I didn’t have to sleep on the streets, but there’s a lot of people who do need to do that.”

Alliance member Richard Cuskelly has never experienced homelessness, but said his heart went out to all those who had.

Mr Cuskelly works in town planning, and said he was advocating for an Amsterdam-style system where more social housing is mixed in with ordinary neighbourhoods.

“Even private developments have to provide five-ten per cent for low income housing or a social housing provider, and I’d love to see that in Tasmania,” Mr Cuskelly said.

“The Liberal government refuse it point-blank, but I think they have to consider it if they’re genuine about solving the housing crisis.”

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