Roughly 122,000 people who are homeless in Australia on any given night, according to data from the country’s bureau of statistics. A recent government report states that 40% of low-income renters are now at risk of joining that cohort.
This isn’t the retirement Mary had envisioned. The former midwife spent years living on a cattle station with her husband on the north-western edge of Australia, with the vast and ruggedly beautiful Kimberley region just outside her window. Now, at 71 and frail, she spends most of her days and nights in her battered car, her current view the public toilet block of a Perth shopping center.
Mary is not her real name; she does not want those who know her to find out she is living like this.
This is what happened to Mary. She was pushed out of her flat last year when her landlord decided to lease it for short-term stays, leaving her unable to find anything affordable on her state pension. Her husband, who is in a care home with Alzheimer’s disease, cannot help. “He’d be horrified [if he knew], absolutely mortified,” she says.
Mary’s 4×4 is packed with her belongings, including a walking frame and piles of clothes. A tin of rice pudding sits on the passenger seat. “That’s my evening meal, every night without fail,” she says, picking it up with shaking hands.
Though she sometimes finds a bed in a shelter, Mary usually parks in a part of the city with more police presence to avoid further assaults. She coughs frequently, a lingering effect of pneumonia she suffered after being caught in a rainstorm. Her car battery died with the windows down, and she had no money to fix it.
Homelessness services across Australia report increased demand amid a national housing crisis, with women and children the majority of those needing help. Indigenous Australians are also over-represented. Record house prices, underinvestment in social housing, a general shortage of homes, and drastically climbing rents have left much of the nation’s growing population struggling to find housing. Rents have risen fastest in Perth, up an average of 20% in the past year alone.
Hailey Hawkins and her daughter Tacisha have been couch-surfing and living in tents for nearly four years, most of Tacisha’s life. They are eligible for social housing, but waiting lists are years-long. “One week, I’ll have enough money for decent accommodation and food for both myself and my daughter,” she says, holding back tears. “Otherwise, it’s asking for money from friends, family, or anyone willing to help.”
Michael Piu, head of St Patrick’s Community Support Centre, says they’re seeing people from all walks of life come through the doors. “A single trigger can push people into homelessness, and there are very few options for them,” he says. “They don’t know where to start.”
The housing crisis is a national talking point, including in parliament. Wilson Tucker, a member of the Western Australia state parliament, made headlines for being a “homeless” politician, although he prefers the term nomadic. Despite a salary almost twice the national average, he couldn’t find anywhere to live after being evicted. However, he is also a landlord and didn’t want to evict his tenants in a “red hot” property market. He now stays in hotels when parliament is in session and lives on the road in his 4×4 and roof tent the rest of the time.
Housing has also been discussed in the federal parliament, where MPs are considering making it a legally protected human right. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced in this year’s budget A$6.2bn ($4.1bn; £3.3bn) to speed up the construction of new houses, provide rent subsidies, and increase social and affordable housing. States and territories have their own initiatives to ease the strain, but homelessness charities are calling for extra support to meet growing demand. Advocates say more urgent reforms, such as scrapping lucrative tax concessions for investors or increasing protections for renters, are needed.
Criticism has been directed at landlords for hiking rents during this crisis, with discussions about limiting increases and narrowing the reasons for evicting tenants. The property industry argues that landlords are also struggling, as interest rates have risen faster than at any time in Australia’s history – with 13 increases over 18 months. “Most people only own one investment property, and their mortgage repayments [on those properties] have increased by 50%,” says Cath Hart, chief executive of the Real Estate Institute of Western Australia. She believes measures like rent increase caps and eviction moratoriums during the pandemic pushed landlords out of the long-term rental market, reducing available properties.
Meanwhile, various charities take turns offering help to those in need. As evening falls and commuters leave their shiny office buildings in Perth, people with nowhere to go gather in a square by the railway tracks. With winter setting in, clothing donations are in high demand. Supermarkets donate food, and there are services for laundry, mobile medical care, and haircuts. Street chaplains also provide meals.
Michelle Rumbold, who until a few months ago was receiving these handouts, has joined them to help. A registered nurse, she lost everything after being evicted and crashing her car. “I ended up losing my job purely because I didn’t have accommodation and I didn’t have a car,” she says. “I think it took a while for people to actually realize I was homeless, because I didn’t look homeless. Gradually, over time, you become so used to the street that you lose yourself.”
Michelle managed to get transitional housing and is now back on her feet, working in a GP’s surgery. But she still likes to come back and help. “It’s hard to leave this place once you’ve been here,” she says. “It’s a really odd thing to say, but people become your family here.”
But for every Michelle, there are many more like Mary, still struggling. For Mary, it’s the loneliness that hits her the most. “You’ve got no TV, no neighbors to say hi to,” she says. “People often just give you the side-eye and think ‘Oh God, not another one’ and walk away.”
