SYDNEY (Sky News/The Guardian) – A growing number of families in Queensland are being forced to sleep in their cars due to the rental crisis and rising cost of living.
Several councils have implemented new strategies to help including funding a sleeping bus and providing shower options, Sky News reported.
Those affected by the housing crisis are predominantly families and young people, where homeless parents are facing the risk of losing custody of their children.
St Vincent de Paul in Queensland has resorted to paying car registration fees to help families stay together.
Meanwhile, the number of homeless families being housed in hotels and B&Bs over the legal limit by English councils has doubled within a year, figures revealed.
The latest figures released by the government show 1,210 families were in hotels and B&Bs for longer than the six-week legal limit between July 1 to September 30 in 2022, up from 570 in 2021 for the same period. These are the highest figures since 2017, The Guardian reported.
A total of 11,490 homeless households spent time in hotels and B&Bs in the same period in 2022, the highest number since 2003.
The problem is particularly acute in London. According to data from London Councils, there was an 180% increase in families being housed in hotels and B&Bs for more than six weeks from 2021 to 2022.
Families living in B&Bs and hotels often have no access to cooking and clothes washing facilities and have to pay for launderettes, storage services and takeaway food.
Piotr Rembikowski, 46 has been living with his wife, Madga, 44, and two sons aged 15 and 20 in a Travelodge in Enfield since August last year. They are one of 200 families currently being housed in commercial hotels by Enfield council.
Rembikowski is a wheelchair user and has a reconstructed bowel after suffering from colitis. He was made homeless after his privately rented property, which the family lived in for 16 years, burned down last year after a fire spread from a nearby construction site.
Rembikowski said he was unable to find another property on the private rental market due to his family’s income and the fact he is on disability benefits.
“I called many agencies but nobody wants to rent to a crippled person in a wheelchair,” he said.
He was told by letting agents he would need to have a household income of £54,000 to rent a three-bedroom home. He reported the family was homeless to Enfield council, and they were housed in the Travelodge.
Rembikowski has turned down food from the food bank because there is nowhere to store or cook the food. Due to his reconstructed bowel, Piotr usually has a strict diet but due to a lack of cooking facilities, he has had to rely on dry or takeaway foods.