Locked out by rental squeeze
YESTERDAY there were just three properties available for rent in Charters Towers on realestate.com.au.
Those numbers are a big concern to grandmother Gayle Young, who has six weeks to find a new rental for herself and her family.
Gayle and her daughter Danielle Connolly have been living in their current four-bedroom home for the past couple of years without complaint, passing all inspections.
But they have until November 28 to vacate the property as the landlord is taking back possession and does not want to renew the lease on the home.
“I’m not downing the real estate agent and not downing the owner, we understand it’s not because there’s a problem,” Ms Young said. “But it’s a worry because there are no properties.”
There are five real estate agencies in Charters Towers as well as public housing services.
But rentals across private and government sectors are as scarce as hen’s teeth.
Ms Young said that as soon as she received notice from the real estate agency in September she began househunting.
That home needs to be big enough for Ms Young, the two grandchildren for whom she is the primary carer, as well as her daughter and her daughter’s partner.
“It’s hard to find accommodation,” Ms Young said.
“I’ve been to the Department of Housing. I’ve been to all the real estates. I’ve been to Prospect Community Services be
cause my grandson is an NDIS client but there’s nothing anywhere.
“If we can’t find something then on November 29 we will be homeless.
“All we can do is just keep looking.”
She said she had put out the call on social media for a rental property, hoping someone might have a house to rent privately but had no success there either.
“There are just no houses,” she said. “People are buying them and I would too if we could but we haven’t got the deposit. “I don’t know what I’m going to do. “Worst-case scenario I’ll pack it up and
put it in storage and go down the river and camp out there until we find something.”
Ms Young said she had talked to other people in Charters Towers who were in a similar situation, some with five children who were desperate to find a place to live.
She said she had looked at a couple of properties but said not only were they unsuitable, they were snapped up before she could have applied anyway.
A year ago Charters Towers’ rental vacancy rates plummeted from 5 per cent in March to 1.5 per cent in June. The rates have dropped again since then.