last resort housing

It is a wet afternoon at the Fairfield West Caravan Park in suburban Sydney and 20-year-old Nathan de Battista is dodging wintry showers to buy cigarettes.

His home for the past two months has been a modest caravan.

Nathan, who is an assistant manager at a large company, is not here by choice but is a victim of a housing affordability crisis.

Decade-high interest rates and a lack of rental properties are forcing record numbers of Australians to live in caravans.

“You’re looking at six houses [to rent] on a Saturday and 20 to 30 people were turning up and on the form they ask you how much you’d like to pay for your rent, so you can pay more. It’s ridiculous,” Nathan said.

“When I found out they had a free van here, I jumped [at it] and I’ve been here ever since because the rent’s cheap.”

‘Better than a house’

The Fairfield West Caravan Park is privately owned and its waiting list is getting longer. In these difficult times, it is easy to see why.

Caravans are rented for A$120 per week ($113; £58), while cabins are slightly more expensive. A typical two-bedroom flat would cost at least twice as much, if not more.

“It’s the cheapest place to rent. Much better than a house,” explained Joe, who is 54 and gets by on a weekly state pension of $270.

Another resident, Paul Lipman, said he could not afford to live anywhere else, especially at a time when house prices are beyond the reach of average wage earners.

“Yeah, I’d be struggling, mate, for sure,” he said bluntly.

A study by the Saint Vincent de Paul Society, a Catholic charity, found that an acute lack of affordable housing was pushing more people into caravan parks.

“We use the term ‘last resort housing’ because it really isn’t a question of choice for these people,” said Dr Andy Marks.

He believes that without such inexpensive accommodation many Australians would end up living rough.

“This is their last stop before homelessness,” he said. “We are seeing people who can’t afford to enter a park or can’t find a place are sleeping in their vehicles,” he added.

“There was one chap that we visited (in a caravan) who we brought a food parcel to. He was struggling and he simply said: ‘Look, I didn’t feel that anyone knew I was in this state.’

“We suggested he get back in contact with his family but he said: ‘I don’t want them to see me living like this.’ That’s very tragic.”

Demand increasing

Janet Peterson is the manager of the Fairfield West Park. She has lived on the site for 24 years and admits that residents can be stigmatised.

“People call you trailer trash, which is not very nice. We’ve got a lot of nice people in here. We’re as good as anybody else.”

In the past seven years the number of caravan parks in the Sydney region has fallen from about 160 to 70.

On the other side of the city at the Lane Cove River Tourist Park, demand for budget accommodation is increasing.

“We have a maximum 28-day stay period and we’re finding that because of that housing shortage in Sydney we’re getting a lot more applications for people to extend past the 28 days,” explained manager Andrew Daff.

Among those wanting to stay longer are hospitality staff, labourers, nurses and police officers. Many have been squeezed out of an overheated housing market.

For those who have decided to live permanently in leisure parks, they have avoided the pain of rising mortgages and rent.

“People don’t understand what it’s like living in a caravan park until they come here,” said Brian Hardwick, a bus driver who has lived in his neat home at the Fairfield West Caravan Park for 15 years.

“I’ve had friends living in a house, they’ve come here and seen what we’re paying. We’re better off than they are. They’re on the borderline of losing their home because of the interest rates and stuff like that.”

Source:news.bbc.co.uk

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