Housing crisis hits hard

SOARING rental prices and a critical shortage of affordable housing is putting pressure on emergency accommodation services.

The Anglicare Rental Affordability Snapshot due next week is expected to paint a grim picture and Greens senator Larissa Waters is calling on state and federal governments to “stop the blame game” and get on with it.

Crisis accommodation providers are reporting they are transitioning clients to motel rooms as it is impossible to secure a rental lease competing against prospective tenants who can offer six months rent upfront to put them ahead in the queue.

The Cairns Post reported this week that the median rental for a three-bedroom home in the Cairns region was $420 a week and there was a vacancy rate of just 1.1 per cent.

Anglicare chief executive Ian Roberts said lack of affordable housing put added pressure on already stretched homeless support services.

“We are facing a lack of available and affordable properties and this creates added pressure for community housing,” he said.

“We would encourage alternative relevant residential zoning for providing sufficient affordable homes.

“We’ve seen a significant reduction in available rental properties.”

While a room in a boarding house can be had for about $195, it is not an option for families and the cheapest possible two-bedroom units start at $250 a week.

Development applications to build affordable duplexes or townhouses in low-density residential areas invariably meet with a flood of opposition from nearby homeowners.

Speaking in Cairns on Thursday, Senator Waters said she had become aware of people sleeping under shop awnings to stay dry during the downpour.

“We think the role of government is to invest properly in public housing that is affordable and accessible,” she said.

“It really shouldn’t be that hard for the government to provide homes for people and fix homelessness.

“Meeting with homelessness service providers and women’s crisis shelters, it’s very sobering – housing is at crisis point in Cairns and the Far North.”

Senator Waters said there were twice as many people on the waiting list for social housing in the region compared with the rest of Queensland: “It’s really not rocket science to provide homes for people that don’t have one.”

In the 2016 Census, 2362 people were listed as experiencing homelessness in Cairns.