"It's homelessness elite," Leia McCabe jokes as she gestures to the caravan she now shares with her husband, daughter and dog, which cost them most of their savings.
It's been a tumultuous 18 months for the family, who went from living in the same rental for nearly 10 years, to subletting, then finally, to homelessness.
The Caboolture family is an example of a growing housing crisis that workers in the homelessness sector say the region is ill-prepared for.
After nearly 10 years in a rental property in Caboolture, the McCabe family was told they had to leave, leading them to a small, pop-up caravan home.
At one stage they managed to sublet a property, but 18 months later they were again told to leave.
"We're up against 60 to 100 people every time we go to apply for a house," Troy McCabe said.
Despite a verbal agreement from the owner allowing the family to stay on, when the sale of the home they were subletting went through, they were told to leave within a month.
"I was devastated. I have worked most of my life to look after my family," Mr McCabe said.
'Families of five sleeping in cars'
Karen Rollinson works for a Homestay program with community organisation Encircle, which helps people at risk of losing their accommodation.
"The median rentals everywhere have increased in price and there's just nothing affordable now," Ms Rollinson said.
"The government has given a lot of money towards housing in the latest budget, which is great, and that's all to build new properties or obtain new properties — the only problem is the issues are happening now."
She said in the first six weeks of the financial year, the organisation received 114 referrals for individuals and families.
"We've had families have to split up so some of the kids have had to go to one of their friend's places, we have had families of five sleeping in cars, or they'll sleep in a tent or couch surf in different people's houses," she said.
In this year's budget, the Department of Housing pledged $4 million to six not-for-profits in the Moreton Bay Local Government Area to address homelessness.
Despite that funding, there is still only one fully funded government homelessness outreach worker.
"It's the third-largest local government area in Australia and one of the fastest growing with just one worker," Ms Rollinson said.
She said there was "a lot more support" in Brisbane, which has two homelessness services, compared to the Moreton Bay region.
The area has an estimated population of about 480,000 and a projected population of 690,000 by 2041.
"We are finding suburbs and areas that are in a grey area and are not getting that support as well. The services that are already here are having to spread out to try and capture that."
Homelessness reaching a 'peak'
Michelle Gilchrist runs the Breakfast Club, which serves up meals for anyone on the Redcliffe Peninsula who needs them.
She said there were around 80 homeless people the organisation deals with on a regular basis in Redcliffe alone, and many more in the wider Moreton Bay region.
She said homelessness peaked in the area before the COVID-19 pandemic but dropped as the government helped get people into housing.
"We've started to see a peak again. They can't get rentals. There is no social housing and they've got nowhere to go," Ms Gilchrist said.
She said informal living arrangements were becoming more common and the housing situation was reaching a "critical point" as many newly built townhouses remain unaffordable for many.
"There hasn't been any [affordable social housing] built for as long as I can remember and any that was is just not meeting the need anymore," Ms Gilchrist said.
Homeless pushed out by bollards and gates
When an annual kite festival set up at Pelican Park in Redcliffe last month, people sleeping rough were asked to move on to make way for the event.
Caravan dweller Mick Sherratt, 54, said when people returned to the park, they found the council had erected bollards and gates to stop them from parking their vans on a patch of lawn.
He said the rough sleepers, who had "safety in numbers", were now more vulnerable as they were forced out into different car parks around town.
Moreton Bay Regional Council Mayor Peter Flannery said bollards were placed around Pelican Park to curb illegal campers, rather than the homeless.
"The plain and simple fact is that we need more resources from the state and federal governments to address the increasing issues we're seeing with homelessness in our region," he said.
The council received $3 million from the state government to build a new Moreton Bay Housing Service Centre on the site of the Pensioner's Hall where the Breakfast Club operates.
Census data from 2016 showed a jump of more than 57 per cent in homeless people in the Moreton Bay Regional Council compared to 2011.
The Department of Communities, Housing and Digital Economy said $4.1 million had been allocated for Homelessness Services in the Moreton Bay Local Government Area in the 2021-22 budget.
It said the building of 176 social houses in the region would be started by June 2025 along with 324 new social homes already under construction.
Verbal tenancy agreements still valid
Chief executive of Tenants Queensland, Penny Carr, said more people were being pushed into subletting arrangements in a tight rental market.
"Because of the vacancy rates, there are a lot of people who are living in marginal and sub-optimal conditions because they just have to take whatever is available to them," Ms Carr said.
"It is a tricky thing for people who are in some sort of marginal relationships like a sub-tenancy or a lodging relationship to ascertain what their legal rights are, so it's always good to get advice early and quickly," she said.
"You might have a verbal agreement and it's still legally binding as much as a written one."
She said anyone who is entering into a subletting or lodging housing arrangement should try and put it in writing if possible.
"It is fine to negotiate verbally, but always try to follow it up with something in writing, for example an email or a text. That does two things. It tests your understanding of the conversations that you've had and gives you an email trial or an evidence trail."
Ms McCabe said her family's uncertain living situation had exacerbated her depression and every time she looked at the rental market she felt hopeless.
"There are more and more people out there like us who have jobs and they are getting knocked back because they can't afford it or the landlord doesn't like some other thing about them," she said.
"It hurts me as a father. I don't have a place to put my kid. She is the one that can't really defend herself."
