Kelly Ruckert sighs as she pulls back the flap on her tent.
"Over here we've got the bedroom suite with a good old camp stretcher … and this side is my wardrobe and storage area," she said.
"And that's how we live."
Ms Ruckert and her assistance dog, Ned, have been living in a tent at a caravan park in regional Tasmania since September, when Ms Ruckert was notified the rent on her home would soon increase.
With petrol and power prices also going up, it wasn't sustainable.
"Rather than blacklist myself, so to speak, putting myself in a situation [where] I would get into financial strife, I didn't renew the lease," she said.
Ms Ruckert has chronic disc degeneration and is on a disability pension.
She also works 15 hours a fortnight.
She could afford a little over $250 a week in rent, but even in regional north-west Tasmania, there is little to nothing in that price range.
She has been on the priority social housing waitlist since the middle of last year.
At her tent site, it is hard to cook, hard to keep clean, and the camp stretcher bed is not helping her rehabilitation after surgery last year.
"I might sleep the wrong way inadvertently and I'll be in that much pain I can't do anything," she said.
But she knows she is not alone.
"It's quite common practice. You say you're in a tent and like, it's not a big thing anymore, because it's becoming so normalised, unfortunately," she said.
"That's what saddens me and angers me — that there's so many of us in this situation and it's like we don't matter."
Fewer options for renters
While falling house prices dominate headlines, renting is now out of reach for many Australians.
Last year the nation's median rent jumped by 10.2 per cent to $555 per week, according to property analysts CoreLogic.
"That's a record annual increase going back to our records to 2005," said Eliza Owen, CoreLogic's head of residential research.
Rental vacancy rates are also extremely low — around 1 per cent — meaning renters have few options.
And the rental crisis is hitting low-income Australians the hardest.
The most commonly used measure of housing affordability classifies people as being in "housing stress" if they are on a low income and more than 30 per cent of that gross income is going towards housing costs.
Based on that, CoreLogic analysis shows only 1.2 per cent of housing stock would be affordable for the bottom 25 per cent of income earners in Australia.
"There are people who can expend more of their income on rents, or bid up rents, but at the end of the day, people on lower incomes only have so much that they can dedicate towards their housing costs," Ms Owen said.
'It's a horrible feeling'
Jessica Byles is one of those people who can not afford to budge too much on her rent expenditure.
The single mother of three has been looking for a new rental on the outskirts of Sydney since October, when she was given a no-grounds termination and 90 days to vacate her home of seven years.
She and her daughters need to find a three- or four-bedroom home as soon as possible.
On her disability and family support pensions, she can afford about $580 a week.
But scrolling through real estate apps, Ms Byles is becoming more and more dejected.
"Going off this, I probably won't even be able to get a two-bedroom house," she said.
Ms Byles has complex health conditions and has been searching for rentals while she has been in and out of the hospital.
She has support workers and community organisations helping her house-hunt, but she estimates she's applied for more than 60 properties without luck.
"Back when I originally applied for [my current rental], it was a straight up, 'Yes, you're moving in the next day'," she said.
"Now, seven years later, you're applying with 60 other people, you're in competition with other people that are offering six months [of rental payments] up-front, and I don't have that option to do that," she said.
"It's a horrible feeling because we don't know where we're going to end up."
Rental crisis 'completely unacceptable'
Michele Adair is the chief executive of the Housing Trust, based in Wollongong, and the chair of Homes Tasmania.
"Quite frankly, the expression 'The Hunger Games' really is describing what's happening," Ms Adair said.
"Often if a property becomes available for rent, then people are outbidding each other on the street.
"It's completely unacceptable that in a country like Australia, that is in so many ways doing very well economically, we now have a growing number of people that are experiencing homelessness, and severe housing stress."
There are concerns the market is not going to get any easier for renters in the short term, with migration picking up again but new dwelling approvals down year-on-year.
The federal government will introduce its housing legislative package to parliament this week.
The package is built around Labor's housing election commitments, including the $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund.
Federal Housing Minister Julie Collins said returns from the fund would deliver 30,000 new social and affordable homes in its first five years.
"I know how tough it can be, I've been there," she said.
"What we need to do is get more homes on the ground as quickly as possible."
Michele Adair said while medium-to-long-term investments were needed, some short-term, quick-fix solutions were required too.
"They will be expensive," she said.
"But this problem is more expensive because governments have ignored it for decades.
"And the longer they ignore it, the more expensive the solutions are going to be."
She said much of the responsibility for addressing the private rental market lay with state governments.
"We should certainly have conversations around caps for rental increases. We should have standardisation of tenancy laws and rights across all state and territory jurisdictions," she said.
Guy Barnett, Tasmania's Minister for Housing, said that the government recognises the housing struggles faced by many in the state.
"[We are] responding with a massive 10-year, $1.5 billion housing package – the largest housing investment in the state's history," he said in a statement to 7.30.
"But we also know that there are Tasmanians who are doing it tough and need support right now.
"That is why we are investing more than $36 million on wrap-around services to ensure those who need help now are getting the services they need."
A spokesperson for the NSW government's Department of Communities and Justice said social housing is available for people on low incomes who experience or are at risk of homelessness.
"The NSW government is investing a record $1.2 billion to address homelessness and ensure that safe and stable accommodation is available to people in need."
The NSW government introduced changes last year making it illegal for agents to encourage rent bidding.
Minister for Homes Anthony Roberts said in a statement that the government was driving a long-term strategy for better housing outcomes across NSW.
"Everyone in NSW deserves the right to a home, no matter where they live or what their income," Mr Roberts told 7.30.
Kelly Ruckert also believes a culture shift is needed.
"There needs to be more of a focus on housing being a basic human right versus an investment."
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