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For two months, David has been living in a small, leaky tent on the side of a Brisbane motorway.
Like many other regional Queenslanders, he moved to the capital city in search of work and affordable housing.
But instead, the housing crisis means he is just one of a growing number of people sleeping rough after being squeezed out of the market.
“I thought that it would never happen but it has,” David said.
“It’s harder than living in a place … but it is somewhere safe.”
Regional Queensland is now the least affordable of all regions and cities in the country, according to the latest Rental Affordability Index by National Shelter.
The latest figures show renters in regional Queensland are spending about 30 per cent of their income on rent, compared with 28 per cent in Greater Brisbane.
National Shelter’s Emma Greenhalgh said there are no affordable places across Queensland for low income households
“Maybe they’re able to pay their rent but they are relying on food banks and emergency relief to be able to get by,” Greenhalgh said.
The data shows areas like Eumundi, Tewantin, Cooroy and Noosa Heads are now considered severely unaffordable.
Suburbs in the Gold Coast like Helensvale, Burleigh Heads, Broadbeach have slipped from unaffordable to severely unaffordable.
Toowoomba, Bundaberg, Rockhampton and Townsville have shifted from very affordable to acceptable.
SGS Economics and Planning’s Ellen Witte said the scope of Queensland’s housing crisis is a first.
“We see now for the first time, city or region it’s unaffordable everywhere, even for average income households,” she said.
The report also found the average pensioner now faces paying 60 per cent of their income on rent.
For an average job-seeker, it’s more than 100 per cent, their entire income payment.
