Time to think outside the box on rental crisis
Every week we hear about the lack of affordable housing, and see stories of someone caught up in the rental crisis. It’s been a long time since I’ve been a tenant, but of the decade I spent living in other people’s houses, the most stressful aspect of the exercise was without doubt, the uncertainty.
Nothing is in your control, so when the lease is up for renewal, there’s a dread that you might be told, ‘Sorry, but the rent is going up, the owner is selling, or moving in, or demolishing, or renovating’; whatever the message, if you have to get out, it’s pretty confronting.
And if what you can’t find a place? Not knowing where you will be sleeping at night, or how or when you can shower and wash your clothes, or even just having the basic equipment to cook a meal, are things most of us take for granted, yet today’s rental squeeze has meant people are couchsurfing, lobbing with family or friends, or even worse, sleeping in cars.
Sure, there’s supposed to be 5,000 social housing structures built per year, but what kind of housing?
Concrete slabs? Rendered brick? No eaves, and aircons on 24/7, or energy-smart, self-contained cabins with solar panels, because why wouldn’t you?
After WWII, trailer parks with manufactured mobile homes sprung up around army bases in the U.S., and after the mortgage crisis of 2008, became even more popular as a cheaper alternative to traditional houses. Australia hasn’t gone down this path, but surely it should be considered as part of the solution?
Shouldn’t we be looking at the idea of well-designed, sustainable
demountable homes, self-contained cabins or tiny houses to ease this ongoing and escalating emergency?
Already some government buildings are being repurposed for emergency accommodation, but there needs to be more done for the transition phase of people getting back on their feet, with somewhere to live that is affordable and provides the basics; shelter, stability and security.
Meanwhile, landlords are leaving the traditional rental market in droves, and who could blame them?
The risk of a bad tenant, who doesn’t look after the property,
doesn’t pay their rent or doesn’t vacate the premises when required, has made short term rental markets like Air BNB a more appealing option that offers a level of security for landlords no longer found in traditional markets.
Why wouldn’t someone want to protect their expensive investment, choosing a system that offers reviews of the user’s previous stays, and payments taken upfront?
So with the pool of homes available to rent having shrunk considerably, the concept of demountable houses for getting people into temporary housing seems like a no-brainer.
The biggest stumbling block to solving housing crisis will likely be the old NIMBY argument – Not in My Backyard, yet ironically, that’s where solutions could be found.
A partnership between Federal, State and Council to offer subsidies and fast-tracked planning permits for granny flats in suburban backyards, with rents allowed as tax-free income is a concept worth considering. Imagine, the housing and cost-ofliving crisis addressed at the same time?
‘Not in my backyard, oh, unless we can make some money from it’….
The one burning thing that is denied to victims of crime is the chance to be heard and tell their story of how their lives have been destroyed and the peace of mind of being safe in your own home is just a distant memory. One lady I met when we purchased the burnt remains of her stolen car told me how they have to move from Townsville because her daughters can’t get to sleep unless every light inside and outside the house burn all night to try and keep the night crawlers away from their door. The fun seekers used vise-grips to twist and snap the key locked front door handle when they gained entry into what was once their safe and peaceful house. As the night stalkers rummaged through the house one daughter was woken by the blue light from their phone but lay there frozen too afraid to make a sound. As they left with the car keys and laptops and phones she found herself paralysed with fear and waited to hear the car leave before waking her mother. Every night since then this young girl that should be enjoying her teenage years is suffering from PTSD and finds herself checking over and over again if all the doors and windows are secure and if the new alarm system is turned on. And all the while the government is telling us they are doing all they can to stop this, but the anarchy and thieving is spreading faster than the Covid pandemic leaving families like hers destroyed and left behind in its wake! Nothing this government has done since it altered the Youth Justice act in 2015 has worked and that my friends is a fact backed by statistics not fairy tales that the government spin doctors create to try and hide their tracks. The people that make the laws have absolutely no common sense and couldn’t track a bleeding bear in the snow with their level of intelligence. If you assembled the best of the best forensic investigators on earth to search for signs of Justice in our courtrooms not one ounce of the DNA of Justice would be found in the very place it should be overflowing from. As an elderly victim said to me the other day “I have lost all faith in my government and humanity with what is happening in this town and across the nation’’ and his parting words were the sooner the good lord ends my time in this purgatory the better as they have turned this beautiful city into the anus of Australia! When you voted last Queensland election is this what you had hoped for? I think not and we deserve better.
MIKE ABRAHAM, Bohle.