At the Seaford Cabin Park, at the gateway to Victoria's Mornington Peninsula, manager Andrew Wilson takes another phone call.
"I'm getting at least 10 phone calls a day from people just looking for some sort of long-term accommodation," he said.
Demand for his one-bedroom cabins has never been greater.
"We just don't have anything available at the moment."
The park used to be a more transient place — a place people would stay for a few months while they sorted out longer-term accommodation.
But Mr Wilson said that was changing.
Seaford Cabin Park resident Roisin Johnson has been in the park for 12 years.
"I was high risk, almost about to go on the streets myself," she said.
She's happy in her cabin, but is nervous about what will happen if it ever closes down.
"This rental crisis is not new; it's just got actually extremely worse," she said.
Seaford is in Melbourne's outer south-east.
Further down the highway, the Mornington Peninsula, a popular holiday destination, is in the grips of a homelessness crisis.
There was a surge in migration to the area during the pandemic, and short-stay holiday homes like Airbnbs have never been more popular.
Southern Peninsula Community Support chief executive Jeremy Maxwell said this had heaped pressure on the rental market.
"COVID allowed people to relocate down here, they relocated into affordable property, so that removed a number of properties off the market," he said.
"We're a holiday destination, so Airbnbs became quite popular, and we've seen into the thousands of Airbnbs down here, and that takes, once again, a lot of property off the market."
The squeeze is affecting prices.
In the past three years, the median price for a rental on the Mornington Peninsula has jumped from $460 to $581 a week.
"Even if people had money, which they don't, we would be lucky to have one or two affordable properties across the whole of the Mornington Peninsula right now," Mr Maxwell said.
The Victorian government says there are 1,400 social housing properties on the Mornington Peninsula and it is spending more than $11.5 million building homes in the area as part of a $5 billion statewide project to boost social housing supply.
But Mr Maxwell does not think that is enough.
"I think the current public housing list is over 100,000 people," he said.
"That $5 billion big build is going to build 10,000 homes, so you don't have to be a mathematician to work out we're going to still be short."
Rental squeeze causing homelessness
In the past three years, Victoria's rental vacancy rate has plummeted from 2.2 per cent to 0.8 per cent.
In some parts of the region the vacancy rate, or portion of rental stock that is actually vacant and available for rent, is as low as 0.6 per cent.
Eliza Owen is head of research at property data group CoreLogic.
"It essentially speaks to the fact that there's just not the supply out there," she said.
"Which is hard, because even if you do have a relatively strong income, it can be hard just to find something to rent, which is what a lot of people have experienced."
She said the squeeze had pushed lower-income households into a tight position
"People on higher incomes might be moving to what have historically been relatively affordable rental markets in order to find something to live in," she said.
"But that does end up cascading down and pushing out lower-income households."
And when lower-income households are squeezed, and places like the Seaford Cabin Park have no vacancies, more people have to consider sleeping rough.
"One hundred per cent it bottoms out into homelessness," she said.
Homeless for eight years
There are an estimated 1,000 people experiencing homelessness on the Mornington Peninsula.
In recent years, the shrubs and dunes hugging the foreshore have become home to many of them.
Andrew Feliccisimo's dwelling is hidden underneath dense tree cover.
"I have my barbecue, my battery, which is all connected and charging up my things that are absolutely necessary to keep things cool," he said.
"I get some of those shish kebabs down at Coles which are really nice, like $1 something. I cook them late at night and it's really nice."
The three sections of Mr Feliccisimo's secret dwelling are separated by short sandy hallways.
As well as his camp kitchen, there is a sleeping area with a tent, and a bathroom constructed from portable showers.
"A wonderful, double ensuite pop-up tent," he said.
"This particular mechanism here is a portable, continuous-flow, hot-water system, which is magnificent.
"It's one of the best things early in the morning on a cold winter's day."
But as pleasant as some aspects of the beachside lifestyle are, Mr Feliccisimo does not want to be living this way.
"I've been homeless since 2015. So that's eight years," he said.
"My application for housing has been in since 2017, but I guess housing is very, very expensive."
Calls for rent caps and bans on unfair evictions
Maiya Azize, a spokesperson for Everybody's Home, said we must find national solutions to the housing crisis.
"A lot of the laws around Australia, when they do get introduced, are really weak," she said.
"We need to see real bans on unfair rent increases and rent caps. That's the only way to make the private rental market more affordable.
"We also need to see rules that end unfair evictions, and we need to see those rules being enforced."
While Seaford Cabin Park resident Roisin Johnson is glad to see a long-term commitment, she says immediate action is needed to stop more people slipping through the cracks
"I actually know two people who lived here that couldn't afford to live here anymore," she said.
"One went to live in a car. And the other one went to live in a rooming house that he wasn't happy about.
"But he couldn't afford to live here. So with the increase in costs of living and decreasing properties, it's getting even more desperate every day for people."
