For the better part of a year, Laura Campbell's car was her living room, dining room and bedroom.
"I'd lay down the back seat and put in a small mattress," she said.
Living out of her car caused her severe back pain, but it was the only shelter she had.
The 40-year-old apprentice chef said she struggled to find an affordable place to live, amid a worsening housing crisis.
According to Community Housing Industry Association NSW, rental vacancy rates in NSW are at 1.2 per cent, while rental prices have increased by 10 per cent in a year.
Ms Campbell briefly had access to government housing, but it only lasted for 30 days.
Once she got a job, she was deemed ineligible for housing because she earned "too much" to qualify, she said.
"I was happy to get anything from the department with a roof over my head, especially when I was working.
"It was hard ... to come home from work, and you got nowhere to stay but a tent or the car."
Ms Campbell's current salary is about $780 per week.
Two weeks ago, she was finally able to find accommodation in a converted garage attached to a house in Hoxton Park.
Her weekly rent is $400.
"I'm just getting by....I just get food day by day...with what i can...pay check to pay check still."
Her job in Bowral — an hour's drive each way — adds considerable travel costs to her expenses.
Despite this, Ms Campbell isn't complaining. She's grateful she was able to find any shelter at all.
"It's relieving to be out of it and stretch in a bed," she said.
"This was very depressing, I cried every night, every morning going to work, I'd break down, wonder where I'm going to park to sleep for the night."
For a while, Ms Campbell was one of 50,000 NSW residents on the social housing waiting list. The list includes individuals and families from diverse communities.
Several groups representing the property and housing sectors have now formed an unlikely alliance calling for government reforms to tackle the problem.
Their policy recommendations include increasing social housing to 10 per cent of the total housing stock by 2050 and establishing a four-year $3 billion Social and Affordable Housing Fund to supplement funding from the Housing Australia Future Fund.
Trina Jones CEO of Homelessness NSW said this housing crisis was also a homelessness crisis.
"People who have always been able to rent are being forced out by cost and finding themselves with no other options," she said.
As the reserve bank raises interest rates, landlords paying off their mortgages pass on the cost to renters like Ms Campbell.
"We can't solve this without more housing, it's as simple as that and we're calling on both sides of politics to step up and commit to raise the net stock of social housing from the current 4.7 per cent to 10 per cent," Ms Jones said.
Adina Cirson, Acting NSW Executive Director of the Property Council of Australia thinks government intervention is necessary to alleviate the problem.
"What is needed by the next government is a laser like focus on the policy levers that can be used to make sure we are all able to deliver against housing targets," she said.
Ms Campbell is off the streets for now, but is not sure how long she'll be able to hold on to her new found safety, with a recent potential cancer diagnosis.
"I got diagnosed with several lumps on my breast ... and I just can't afford to do anymore tests," she said.
Her next scan costs $300 and Laura was told she'll get $90 in rebates.
"To be honest I just can't afford it right now."
