Each day, Eamonn Miller spends at least an hour searching for affordable rentals across greater Hobart.
He calls it a game – but it’s one he knows he won’t win.
“Basically, I’m on Gumtree every five minutes and [Facebook] Marketplace trying to look for somewhere more affordable to live,” says the 42-year-old artist. “It’s very difficult to find anywhere – even rooms.”
Since Miller moved back to Hobart three months ago, he has already lived in three different places. Now, with his rent going up to $250 a week to live in a seven-person share house on the fringes of Hobart’s CBD, Miller is looking for a new place – again.
Miller is now considering moving into his art studio, which he rents for $50 a week – but living there would mean using a nearby public toilet and showering in a gym down the road.
“The options are so slim, you’re just forced to pay what they ask for. Otherwise, you’re out on the street,” he says.
Miller is one of many victims of the state’s housing crisis. On 23 March, Tasmanians will head to the polls – and among other issues, major parties have tried to sway voters by promising action on housing.
But advocates say the promised changes are not enough. And those forced into insecure housing, or out on the street, say any moves have come too late.
‘Ten years of neglect’
The problem is daunting. In Tasmania, the average renter pays $7,000 more to keep a roof over their head than they did five years ago, according to a recent report from the Tenants’ Union. In that time, the average rent has jumped from $311 to $445 a week – the biggest increase in the country. And Homes Tasmania data shows the vacancy rate for rentals is 1% in Hobart, 1.1% in Launceston and 0.4% in Burnie.
Alongside Sydney, Hobart is Australia’s least affordable metropolitan area relative to income.
Meanwhile, the number of properties used for short-term stays is rising. Hobart’s short-term stay properties have increased from 322 to 425 in the last two years, while Launceston has seen an increase from 221 to 330, according to reports from the Tasmanian government.
Across Hobart, Glenorchy and Launceston LGAs there are 1,000 properties sitting empty.
The effects are dire. Tasmania experienced the largest increase in homelessness of any state in Australia between 2016 and 2021. Over the last decade, the waitlist for social housing has almost doubled to 4,696 and the average wait time has grown from 16 weeks to 80.
Principal solicitor at the Tenants’ Union of Tasmania, Ben Bartl, says the state is a “canary in the coalmine” for the national crisis.
“Tasmania has had a housing crisis for about seven or eight years,” he says.
“The economy turned and there were more job opportunities and younger people felt that they could stay here but, of course, that’s a double-edged sword. Because when people want to stay, they need somewhere to live – and rental properties dried out.”
Tasmania also has some of the worst protections for renters in the country. There is no protection against excessive rent hikes, no-grounds evictions are legal, and Tasmania’s minimum standards have fallen behind other Australian states.
“In Tasmania, there has been a lack of reform,” Bartl says. “The real worry for renters is that they don’t feel that they can challenge unfair or unreasonable rent increases, or ask for repairs to be done, because they know at the end of their lease, they’re going to be evicted.”
The premier, Jeremy Rockliff, and the housing minster, Nic Street, both rejected interview requests from Guardian Australia.
The Liberal-led Tasmanian government has an aspirational target of 10,000 new social and affordable housing units by 2032. This election, they’ve promised to slash land tax, abolish stamp duty for first home buyers, and impose a new 5% short-stay accommodation levy. They’ve said they would allow renters to have pets without landlord permission.
Labor’s headline policies include developing more build-to-rent apartments, buying up to 20% of new apartments for social housing, introducing no-deposit first home loans and urgently repairing 215 uninhabitable social housing properties.
In her office in Hobart’s CBD, the shadow housing minister, Ella Haddad, isn’t taking anything for granted. She says that, if elected, she will also deliver a raft of protections for renters including banning no-grounds evictions, adopting a portable bond scheme, which will allow tenants to transfer their bonds between rentals, and allowing minor modifications and pets.
“I hope it makes Tasmania a fairer and easier place to rent a home,” she says.
“Because there are many, many people now for whom home ownership is not a dream that they have any more. There are more people renting for life.”
She says Tasmanians now have “10 years of evidence” the Liberal party “don’t prioritise the housing portfolio in government”.
“What they’re doing now is really playing catchup after 10 years of neglect. They are now making noises about increasing social government housing, but the numbers speak for themselves.”
A lack of ‘earth-shattering’ policies
Most of the campaign focus from the major parties has been on getting people into the market, rather than off the streets.
Andy, 61, has been sleeping in his car on Hobart’s waterfront for four weeks, but none of his friends knows he is homeless. When Andy, who did not want his real name used, goes to visit them, he puts on his best set of clothes and prepares excuses of why he isn’t eating if they’re dining out.
“It’s the first time I’ve ever been in any situation like this,” he says.
“It’s quite embarrassing, really. I don’t want people to know I am sleeping in my car.”
He was previously working as an IT contractor before his job fell through – and he has been chasing the money still owed to him.
“I was just running out of cash,” he says. “I would get dribbles of money but now it looks like it’s not going to happen.”
The Hobart City Mission (HCM) linked him up with their Centrelink worker, who has helped him get on jobseeker, but without stable accommodation it is hard to find a job. He’s living off cans of tuna and using a public shower.
He has joined the public housing waitlist and was offered one place in Devonport. But he’s hesitant to take it – he doesn’t know anyone who lives there and is worried the job prospects would be slim.
“The people [at Hobart City Mission] have probably told me all of the housing options and it’s just not that many. They’re saying that people are on the wait list for three to five years.”
The CEO of HCM, Harvey Lennon, says the housing crisis is getting mentioned by all the parties but he’s not sure any of the policies are “earth-shattering”.
He says the current crisis has been building for years – unlike the dwellings needed to fix it.
“Goals of 10,000 houses in 10 years are going to seem like pipe-dream stuff to people that have been sleeping rough, living in cars or in cramped accommodation for two years, three years, four years, more.”
His organisation is increasingly running on a deficit and he says the government has all but stepped out of the sector.
“We’re trying to do the best we can to help those most in need in our community at the moment,” Lennon says. “But we don’t have an endless money tree.
“I know governments don’t either, but we are in a crisis and we need to just ‘fess up to that, and all play a bit of a part to help make it better.”
