How serious is the rental crisis in Australia,
I think everyone knows it.
And a recent interview with a Chinese man on the street,
It also revealed the heart-piercing truth!
A large number of Australians cannot afford rent,
Forced to live on the streets, living a miserable life.
Some street sleepers said, "I'd rather go to jail!"
In order to alleviate the pressure on rents,
Many tenants were forced to set up tents.
Camp out in a park or along a river.
And international students in Australia,
I started sharing a bed with strangers...
01
How serious is the homelessness crisis in Australia?
Everyone knows how serious the rental crisis is in Australia.
And a recent interview with Hua Nan on the street revealed the truth that pierced the heart!
The Daily Mail reported on January 9 that Eshay (Australian slang, sometimes referring to a young man who can cause trouble) who sleeps on the streets in Australia has a easier time living in prison than on the streets.
In an interview with Chinese influencer Jamie Zhu in Belmore Park in Sydney's CBD, a man said this.
One of the men, wearing a Versac shirt and a cap on the back, candidly acknowledged the reality he was facing in one sentence.
"It's easier to go to jail because you have three meals a day and a place to live," he said. ”
With a lack of rental housing, inflation and interest rate hikes leading to a sharp rise in house prices, Australians are struggling to find a place to stay.
Many families have been forced to take desperate measures and live in their own cars or caravans, while "tent cities" have popped up in parks across the country.
The Eshay said that after a difficult childhood, he began to beg for a living on the streets.
Another man wearing a Lacoste T-shirt said drug addiction was the biggest problem faced by street sleepers.
"We need to go to drug rehab, and in an environment like ours, it's hard to get rid of drug addiction, and some of us have nowhere to go," he said. A lot of people left. ”
"We need to get out of these streets, we can't sleep in tents because we have paranoia and can't close our eyes. ”
He revealed that for 15 years, he has been on the priority housing list, but still has no place to live.
(Image source: Daily Mail)
Another man wearing a white bucket hat said he had received no support since his release from prison in August. "We don't have housing when we get out of prison, what else do they expect us to do?"
In the 2021 census, there were 122,494 homeless people across Australia.
02
A large number of tenants have been forced to live on the streets, and tents are flooded in large cities
The latest PropTrack Market Insights report found that the national median rent continued to rise rapidly, rising 1.8% on Q4 to $580 per week.
This represents an 11.5% increase compared to the previous year, which means rents are $60 more per week than at the start of 2023.
Rents in the capital city rose 13.2 per cent on the previous year, with a median of $600 per week, while unit rents in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane rose between 15 per cent and 17 per cent.
Some landlords have passed on the cost to tenants, which has also led to many tenants being forced to live on the streets because they can't afford the price increases.
Recently, tents have been flooded in large cities as residents struggle to find shelter.
A recent passage circulating online shows a large number of tents along the Brisbane River between William Jolly and Go Shared Bridges in Brisbane's Southland.
Many tents are crammed under large trees, and the park's benches and seats appear to be used as drying racks.
The Courier Post reported in December last year that Australia's housing crisis has intensified, and tents in parks have skyrocketed! A large number of Australians have been left homeless and forced to live on the streets.
There are enough tents set up in Brisbane's city centre to fill some of the most popular seaside campsites in South East Queensland.
03
International students in Australia have started to share beds with strangers
News Corp Australia recently reported that international students in Australia have started sharing beds with strangers due to soaring rental prices and the inability to afford to rent independently.
This phenomenon is known as "hot-bedding", which involves splitting the rent of a bedroom with a stranger and using the same bed at a specific time.
When one person is not in bed, others can use it.
It may sound strange, but for hundreds, if not thousands, of international students in Australia, this is the reality.
Priyanka (not her real name) is a 19-year-old international student from India who shares a room outside Melbourne with a late-shift truck driver.
She sleeps at night when the truck driver is at work, and during the day when she is not in the house, the room is his.
Schematic diagram (image source: Internet)
Together, they split the $550 monthly rent in a shared house inhabited by other male truck drivers from India.
She also revealed that she couldn't sleep in her own bed when her roommate wasn't at work on certain weekends.
"Because the tenants here are all boys, when he's not working, I go to the storeroom. There was a small space for the mattress where I slept. ”
Priyanka shares a bed with a truck driver. (Image source: News Corp Australia)
There have been many reports of international students sharing rooms and living in poor conditions to pay rent.
A 2021 survey of more than 7,000 international students renting privately in Sydney and Melbourne found that around 3% of respondents paid their rent by sharing beds or 'hot bunks'.
If we apply this data to the Department of Education's data as of March 2023, which is 571,646 international students, then this equates to about 17,150 international students "hot" or sharing beds in Australia.