A homeless woman who lost her cafe has warned about the desperate measures some Aussies are taking to stay afloat amid the deepening rental crisis.
Queensland woman Lurlene Hunt, 40, was forced to shut her Sunshine Coast cafe last June and was then evicted from her rental home on December 1.
She has been homeless ever since and relies on the kindness of friends to provide a place for her to sleep at night, often crashing on their couches.
Her possessions are being stored in a shipping container while she continues to look for a place to rent.
Ms Hunt has warned that some people in her situation are resorting to ‘insane’ measures such as going on OnlyFans to make enough money just to cover costs.
She has been on welfare since her business shut down, but has found that isn’t enough to be able to rent anywhere she would like to stay.
In a series of misfortunes, Queensland woman Lurlene Hunt (pictured) was forced to shut her Sunshine Coast cafe last June and was then evicted from her rental home on December 1
Lurlene has been homeless ever since and relies on the kindness of friends to provide a place for her to sleep at night, often crashing on their couches
‘Centrelink isn’t that much, where am I going to get a place for $200? There’s no way out,’ she told news.com.au.
READ MORE: Renter reveals how her bills kept her separated from her family
Storm Doncon (pictured), an agency nurse in Brisbane, spends $220 a week living in a share house and another $70 on petrol driving to hospitals for work
She said there is a local caravan park that she could move into, but is is known as a dangerous area.
‘That’s my option as a single woman,’ she said.
Moving around regularly is difficult, and though some people have told her she can stay a bit longer, she doesn’t want to outstay her welcome.
Ms Hunt has even started getting in touch with school friends she hasn’t seen in years through social media, asking if she can sleep on their couch for a few days.
Making a bad situation even worse, she said she has no family she can move in with.
She had been paying $600-per-week but when she lost her last rental place, the properties that had previously been renter for that price were now costing $850.
Her former house is getting $950-per-week, she said.
Ms Hunt has looked from Brisbane to Gympie and in inland Queensland, viewed thousands of properties line and put in around 40 applications.
She said that at one of the smallest places she viewed in person there were dozens of people there at the same time as her.
The real estate agent told her that on average they’ve got 200 to 300 applications for a house.
She said she’s ‘absolutely not’ hopeful of finding a place in the near future and doesn’t know how long she will be homeless.
Ms Hunt said people are doing ‘insane things’ to be able to afford rent.
‘I know people who’ve got second and third jobs, OnlyFans and stuff. That’s not something I want to do.’
One of her friends recently told her she had really nice feet and joked that she could charge $200 for pictures of them on a fetish website.
A long line of people are pictured queueing to look at a property as the rental crisis worsens
She fears the rise of people in her situation will lead to an increase in crimes such as petrol thefts and break and enters.
‘People are getting desperate and it’s only going to get worse and worse,’ she said.
Daily Mail contacted Ms Hunt for comment.
Last week, the Reserve Bank has blamed record-high immigration for unaffordable housing as the growth in the value of new mortgages vastly outpaces pay rises.
Capital city house prices reached new peaks in 2023, even though the RBA raised interest rates in November for the 13th time in 18 months, taking it to a 12-year high of 4.35 per cent.
This occurred after net overseas migration reached a record-high of 518,000 during the last financial year.
The 2.4 per cent population growth pace was ‘s strongest since the 1950s.
While the annual pace of overseas permanent and long-term arrivals moderated to 443,980 in November, the average value of new mortgages in December reached a record-high of $624,383.
READ MORE: Reserve Bank blames record-high immigration for unaffordable housing – and why young people are forced to live in a big city where rents are surging
The Department of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development’s new State of ’s Regions 2024 report noted younger people weren’t as attracted to regional areas (pictured are Monika Saade, Isabella Saade and Amy Farah at Sydney’s Pitt Street Mall)