A single father who has been sharing a mattress with his two children while frantically looking for housing is one of the unfortunate victims of Australia’s skyrocketing living expenses.
Ash Brown, a resident of Adelaide, has been frantically searching the rental market for more than five months and has submitted more than 360 applications.
He and his small children are now forced to share a room in his parents’ house because his efforts have been ineffective.
My son’s fifth birthday is tomorrow, and I really wanted to be in a house by then, but it doesn’t seem likely, Mr. Brown told 7 News.
He claimed that the effects of the depressed rental market had made him feel unqualified to be a father.
Even though I’m doing everything I can, I feel like I’m failing my kids since I can’t give them a house, he added.
Sadly, Mr. Brown’s predicament is not uncommon; people all around the nation are being forced into homelessness as a result of the rental issue.
According to PropTrack data from May, weekly rental rates in Australia’s largest cities ranged from $420 to $575 on average.
Cameron Kusher, director of economic research at PropTrack, told news.com.au that tenants throughout, not just those in our main cities, were facing extremely difficult circumstances.
“It’s really tough at the moment. Rents are rising pretty much everywhere in the country – Sydney and Melbourne hadn’t been seeing rent rises for a while, but they are also starting to increase,” he said.
“There are a lot less properties on the market, and a lot more people looking.”