{"id":34971,"date":"2021-10-07T11:41:35","date_gmt":"2021-10-06T22:41:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/propertynoise.co.nz\/au\/?p=34971"},"modified":"2021-10-07T11:41:35","modified_gmt":"2021-10-06T22:41:35","slug":"rent-crisis-leaves-single-mum-homeless","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/propertynoise.co.nz\/au\/rent-crisis-leaves-single-mum-homeless\/","title":{"rendered":"Rent crisis leaves single mum homeless"},"content":{"rendered":"

PHOTO: Amber Thompson<\/strong><\/p>\n

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A single mum raising three young boys under the age of 13 is counting down the days until she becomes homeless.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

By the end of the month, Amber Thompson, from Noosa<\/a> in Queensland, will have to squash herself and her sons into her tiny Nissan Micra car to shelter at night-time after they are evicted from their home.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow do u work if you\u2019re living from a car?\u201d she said to news.com.au.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow will you be able to go to work?\u201d<\/p>\n

The 45-year-old mum has been struggling to find a place to stay even though she has enough money to pay as much as $550 a week upfront for the next 12 months.<\/p>\n

A major Queensland housing shortage means Ms Thompson is competing with plenty of others and often rental homes are snapped up within an hour of them being listed.<\/p>\n

She is currently staying in a two-bedroom Airbnb for $450 a week, with two of her sons sharing a bed while the third sleeps on a couch.<\/p>\n

However, on October 26, they will have nowhere to live as the owner wants to charge $1000 a week for short-term renters coming to the Noosa area on holidays.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s part of a wider issue across Australia, with housing shortages cropping up in regional areas as city-slickers buy houses amid the Covid-19 pandemic, driving up prices.<\/p>\n

Many homeowners turn their place into a short-term accommodation, utilising Airbnb or similar services, meaning locals can\u2019t compete with the rent that cashed up tourists can offer in peak holiday seasons.<\/p>\n

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\"Amber<\/div>\n

Amber Thompson has no relatives in Noosa who she can stay with.<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n

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Ms Thompson has been looking for a new place to rent for the last few months, knowing her October 26 deadline is fast approaching.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been applying for two months because I knew the date was coming up, still nothing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like I\u2019ve run out of time and I\u2019ve let my children down.\u201d<\/p>\n

On multiple occasions, she has cleared her schedule to inspect a rental property only to receive a text a few hours beforehand saying the place is no longer available, she told news.com.au.<\/p>\n

One time a property was taken off the market even though she applied as soon as it was listed an hour earlier, she said.<\/p>\n

And many properties might start within her budget but very quickly get out of her price range. In one case a real estate agent offered her an apartment for $900 a week even though her absolute maximum was $550.<\/p>\n

Ms Thompson is a self-employed cleaner but luckily her husband, who she has been separated from for a few years, sold their home in another part of Queensland, giving her half of the windfall.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got this money, all these good references, but it doesn\u2019t seem to matter,\u201d the frustrated mother said.<\/p>\n

Her kids, aged seven, 10 and 13, go to a local school in Cooroy but because of the housing shortage, they had to move to Coolum in the Noosa Shire.<\/p>\n

In bad traffic, it\u2019s a 50 minute drive each way \u2014 which Ms Thompson does every morning and afternoon for school pick-up and drop off.<\/p>\n

\u201cI cant view drop my kids off, view, properties, clean and pick my kids up, makes it quite hard,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday she took the day off work so that she could view a property \u2014 but by lunch time the real estate agent had already cancelled on her because somebody else was chosen as the tenant.<\/p>\n

Ms Thompson went to the office of her local MP, Sandy Bolton,\u00a0and registered for social housing on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The only other option she can see is moving her family to Caloundra, which is a 1.5 hour drive away from her kids school.<\/p>\n

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\"Her<\/div>\n

Her house inspections are cancelled at a moment\u2019s notice due to record demand.<\/p><\/div>\n

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\"On<\/div>\n

On Tuesday, she cleared her schedule for a house inspection that didn\u2019t go ahead.<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n

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