After five months of looking for a home, Sharni Attenborough is fed up.
The pregnant mother and her four children have been living in one room of her aunt and uncle's home in a Victorian border town for the past five months, after Ms Attenborough left South Australia for personal reasons with nothing but the clothes on her back.
Her challenges reflect the reality of the Wimmera's housing market.
Sharni's daily reality
"Me and my two boys are sleeping on a queen-sized mattress and my 8-year-old and 7-year-old [daughters] are in a single mattress on the floor," she said.
Ms Attenborough has been applying online for houses to rent in Ballarat, Edenhope, Stawell, where there are support services for her children, and Horsham, where she grew up, but there is hardly anything available.
"My four-year-old has autism and ADHD, so it's important he gets specialist appointments because he has tantrums and he can't talk," she said.
Compounding this difficulty is the fact that Ms Attenborough doesn't drive and needs to take the bus, which leaves at 3pm, just in time for her to pick up her kids from school.
"We've been homeless for five months now, and I've been looking online for houses. [I can afford] just over $300 a week, but we haven't had any luck," she said.
"When we do get to look at a property, it's always around the time where I have to catch a bus back. I've looked at five to six houses and had no luck.
"I've done all the applications online, and most of the time the applications don't go through because they have that many people applying for them.
Hundreds need 'priority housing'
Ms Attenborough suspects that because she has several children and doesn't have a job, she has less chance of being offered a home.
"Most people looking for houses here are from Melbourne or looking for work," she said.
"My brother is in Penola [SA], and he works in fencing and at a winery, and he's been homeless in his car for a few months. So it's not just me, it's people with incomes too."
As of September 2021, the Victorian housing register had 313 people in the Wimmera area who needed priority access to housing, for reasons such as homelessness, escaping abusive relationships, or living with a disability.
A further 264 people are eligible for housing support across the region.
A study by the Grattan Institute in March 2021 found the unpaid workload — such as caring and domestic responsibilities — "grew substantially" and disproportionately for women during the pandemic.
'You've got to keep trying'
Ms Attenborough says she has been seeking housing help from the Salvation Army and Uniting Wimmera, and has been on a waiting list for four-and-a-half months.
"I've just got to keep trying, I guess," she said. "I've been calling to see where I am each week, but I haven't moved an inch [on the list]."
In a statement, Warrick Davison, Uniting Wimmera's senior manager of tenancy housing and crisis support, said local demand for housing and homelessness support had skyrocketed in 2021.
"[It was] more than 25 per cent higher than our 2020 figures," he said.
"Such is the demand, we assess and prioritise everybody who comes to us in need of either temporary, short or long-term housing, based upon their individual needs and a range of other considerations, such as whether their safety is at immediate risk."
Ray White Horsham real estate agent Mark Abbott told the ABC rent prices had increased locally due to a lack of supply. He said the limited properties available did not always suit the needs of applicants.
He said the agency had three properties available to rent on its books this week, and they had received well over a dozen applications for each new rental.
Solutions in the works?
Tenants Victoria CEO Jennifer Beveridge said her organisation was hearing that families like Ms Attenborough's were acutely affected by the "historically low" rental vacancy rates in the regions.
"We're hearing about creative solutions where people are house-sharing, setting up caravans or taking up short-term accommodation, but none of these are sustainable.
"What we really need to see in country Victoria is a big influx of new housing."
Last week, Horsham Rural City Council confirmed it had received $70,000 in funding from the state government to deliver a plan for up to 100 new houses and many more apartments in the CBD.
A study by the Wimmera Development Association into securing more housing across the region continues.
