When Brandon O'Neil's legs almost went black from sleeping, sitting up, in his car for three months, he felt he had nowhere to go.
He and his fiancee, Lee Redman, slept in the car's front seats, with their small dog and possessions in the back, through some of last year's coldest months.
They were part of a growing population in the Hunter thrown into homelessness amid an ongoing cost of living crisis.
A Mission Australia report, released in May, found a 103 per cent increase in people sleeping rough or in tents and improvised homes from 2020 to 2022.
Hunter rental vacancies sit at or below one per cent and median rent has risen by more than 35 per cent in three years, according to Martin Kennedy, executive business manager at social housing organisation Home in Place.
Today, gaining accommodation in a refuge is near-impossible owing to relentless waitlists.
Demand is so high at Carrie's Place, a refuge for women and children escaping domestic violence, that the Maitland centre turned away 17 women and 15 children in the first two weeks of May. In April, 42 women and 32 children could not be accommodated.
Homelessness NSW chief executive Trina Jones said NSW specialist homelessness services had to turn away 50 per cent of people last year because they couldn't meet demand.
"Services are completely over-extended," she said. "People can not have their needs met because those services do not have [enough] resources."
Homelessness NSW is calling on the state government to invest an additional $125 million per year into specialist homelessness services.
But charities in the Hunter say the region cannot afford to wait.
Lisa Ronneberg is regional collaborations coordinator for the Hunter Domestic and Family Violence consortium. She said some people were being given tents to sleep outside because no beds were available.
"We are talking about people who are in crisis and trauma here," she said. "We need to understand what 'urgent' means.
"Tonight, there will be [people] with nowhere to go. I am looking out the window and it is about to storm. What do we do tonight?"
Mr O'Neil and Ms Redman said they were "very fortunate" compared to hundreds in the area. They stayed with Lake Macquarie charity, Our Backyard, who provided showers, toilets and kitchens to those sleeping rough, for three months before they were able to move out of their car and into temporary housing.
But without their car, the couple said they would have had nowhere to go.
Staying longer
Refuge services including Carrie's Place in Maitland say they can not take on new cases because existing clients can not transition to more permanent housing.
Many are outstaying recommended accommodation times for temporary services. Carrie's Place did not have any women leave in April or early May, with some clients staying in the temporary service for more than 220 days.
Ms Ronneberg said refuges have resorted to "doing a ring-around" to see if beds are available elsewhere.
"People need to understand we are dealing with urgency," she said. "These are complex situations."
The Hunter faces a significant social housing shortfall. In June 2022, 1709 applicants, including 111 in high need of a home in the Newcastle area, were awaiting accommodation. In Lake Macquarie, there were 662 applicants.
Outside the Hunter, people seeking help from national charities have surged by up to 26 per cent in three years, with only one in three of these people finding permanent accommodation. The findings were released in Mission Australia's first homelessness impact report in May.
This crisis has forced many like Mr O'Neil into a private rental market they can not afford.
Mr O'Neil and Ms Redman left Our Backyard after gaining temporary accommodation in Glendale for about $200 below market price. They must be out of this house by July.
The couple have applied for more than 50 rental properties on a phone with help from Our Backyard staff. They do not have access to a laptop to complete complex forms.
Even if they secure a house by July, Mr O'Neil is fearful he will not be able to afford rent. After significant health setbacks, he and Ms Redman live off disability pensions of about $700 combined each week. They feel they are at risk of being homeless again.
"The lowest rental property I have found is $450 a week," he said. "It has been extremely difficult.
"If we [have to pay] $500 a week, what are we going to eat? What are we going to do? It is one foot forward and three steps back."
Danielle Whyte from Our Backyard has worked with the couple to find accommodation and said properties were scarce.
"They are just priced out of the market," she said. "There is so much work involved, it is unending.
"It is exhausting for people, trying to do all the things they need to do on top of [finding accommodation]."
Government stays
The Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ) offers some crisis accommodation to people through the Link2home service, but strict guidelines are in place.
Under the Temporary Accommodation assistance program, people can stay in a hotel or safe space for up to 28 days a year, but only in 2-3 day blocks. People can stay for longer but applications must be assessed.
An anonymous DCJ staff member told the Newcastle Herald there was only one refuge statewide where they were able to send clients in the past week.
"The further out of Sydney you go, the less services there are. Some areas do not have a single support, a single hotel [Link2home] works in or a single refuge."
For all other cases, clients had to apply for housing through a local department office. This was particularly difficult for people escaping domestic violence.
"If you have left domestic violence, to do a housing application over the phone, you need identification and you need a driver's license of passport," the DCJ staff member said.
"If you have just upped and left, you might not have those documents. Are we expecting people to go back home and get documents so they can gain housing assistance?"
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An official DCJ spokesperson said increased social housing was due to be rolled out across the Hunter.
"The Land and Housing Corporation currently owns 12,460 social homes in the Hunter region and will deliver a further 147 new social homes by 2026 for people in need, with the majority of these to be delivered in Newcastle," the spokesperson said.
"As the demand for social housing increases, Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ) allocated $17.2 million in 2022 and 2023 to Specialist Homelessness Services and the Homeless Youth Assistance Program in the Hunter."
They said there are currently 20 short-term temporary accommodation providers in the Hunter and people can stay in support for longer than 28 through application, where they remain engaged with "relevant support services".
'The solutions are in reach'
Ms Jones said despite complex factors leading to homelessness, solutions were within reach.
"They're evidence-based and we can act on them now," she said.
"We want to extend what's already on offer and increase capacity to meet demand. Right now, services work well but there are barriers in the way," she said.
An increase in staffing and ability to assist people before they are homeless is crucial.
"[Charities] are barely funded to do any prevention work. If charities had increased funding they could focused on preventing people from becoming homeless in the first place."
This would include financial literacy upskilling, help with paying for rent and seeking access to services earlier, she said.
For others, retro-fitting additional housing or using dilapidated blocks of land is key to success. Across the Hunter, thousands of holidays properties sit vacant for most of the year.
"The government has dropped the ball on this. It has been something they simply haven't been concerned with," Ms Whyte said. "But now poverty is staring them in the face.
"We should not have empty houses while there is such a housing crisis," she said.
Ms Ronneberg wanted to see a state-wide audit of public assets and housing, in addition to an audit of vacant land recently announced by the State Government.
"Everything needs to change," she said.
