Steve Pountney never imagined he’d be living on an old bus.<\/p>\n
But after applying for more than 100 rental properties across Perth, that’s exactly what the 52-year-old and his family are doing.<\/p>\n
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“It’s blooming hard out there \u2026 every [rental] we go to there’s like 50, 60 people there,” he said.<\/p>\n
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Steve and his family are among the 1400 people who have been sleeping rough in and around Perth as of May. (ABC News: Tabarak Al Jrood)<\/p>\n
“We’ve been spending so much time travelling to and from houses and that burns up all our money and fuel.”<\/p>\n
On a wet winter day, Steve gave the ABC a tour of his six-wheeled home, nestled in bushland near a busy highway.<\/p>\n
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Steve said the bus is comfortable enough, but he worries about safety. (ABC News: Tabarak Al Jrood)<\/p>\n
“It’s comfortable enough, but I’d still like to have a home where I can put on my stuff and know it’s all safe,” he said, pointing out bunk beds, a small couch and an outdoor kitchen rigged up under a tarp.<\/p>\n
“I get worried that maybe someone’s going to come in and try to steal stuff \u2026 I’m pretty vulnerable here.”<\/p>\n
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Steve said up to 60 people can attend a single rental inspection. (ABC News: Tabarak Al Jrood)<\/p>\n
What’s the solution?<\/p>\n
The chief executive of Ruah Community Services, Debra Zanella, said Steve’s experience was becoming more common.<\/p>\n
“The reality is, we cannot meet the demand of people who are requiring permanent housing,” she said.<\/p>\n
“We are seeing more and more families who are living in their cars and working.”<\/p>\n
Of the 1,400 people who were sleeping rough in the greater Perth area as of May this year, Ruah could only find housing for 13.<\/p>\n
Eighty per cent of Ruah’s vulnerable clients aren’t given a support worker because the service simply doesn’t have the staff.<\/p>\n
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Debra Zanella said it was becoming more common to see middle-income earners living out of cars. (ABC News: Keane Bourke)<\/p>\n
“It’s difficult to imagine that \u2026 we’ve accepted this as a community, that people can live in their bus in a paddock without flowing water in 2025 in a country and in a state that flourishes,” Ms Zanella said.<\/p>\n
Ms Zanella is calling on the state government to fund its rental relief initiative long-term.<\/p>\n
The $24 million program gives one-off payments to tenants who are at risk of eviction, but it’s set to end in December.<\/p>\n
“It needs to be in place in perpetuity until the market becomes fair and equitable \u2026 if we can stop the tide coming in and work with what we have, I think that would be a critical commitment from the Cook government,” she said.<\/p>\n
Ms Zanella would also like to see a more in-depth triage process undertaken when placing people on WA’s social housing waitlists.<\/p>\n
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Ms Zanella said long-term rental relief was needed to get people into homes. (ABC News: Tabarak Al Jrood)<\/p>\n
A state government spokesperson said the Department of Housing considers a range of factors when placing social tenants, “recognising that everyone on the priority waitlist has a demonstrated need”.<\/p>\n
They added the rent relief program has helped more than 3,000 households and, while not committing to extending it, said “we are committed to continue working with the community to ensure all Western Australians have access to secure housing”.<\/p>\n
A crisis decades in the making<\/p>\n
Steven Rowley is the director of the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute’s Curtin Research Centre.<\/p>\n