Long-time renter Sophie outraged by housing crisis after being homeless six times

Sophie, who’s in her 40s, is a long-term tenant, angered by how unaffordable it is to feel secure in Melbourne’s rental market. Picture: Jason Edwards

Long-time tenant Sophie has been homeless six times in her life and finally feels secure living in a sharehouse with four other women.

But the sales assistant, who’s in her forties, is outraged by Victoria’s rental market, as it doesn’t provide enough housing security for low-income earners.

In the 10 years Sophie has lived in Melbourne after moving from Albury, she’s lived in about seven different homes — relocating almost once a year.

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“If you don’t have anywhere to live, it’s really soul destroying; and it’s soul destroying trying to find somewhere (to live),” she said.

Among her rental homes have been an illegal rooming house, until it was shut down.

Sophie even lived in an illegal rooming house before it was shut down. Picture: Jason Edwards

Before finding her current rental in Melbourne’s inner west, which she said was the best she’d ever lived in, she spent about a month in an Airbnb that she couldn’t afford.

“There’s just not (enough) housing stock anymore; there’s like 40-50 people for every particular house or apartment,” Sophie said.

“(Landlords) are always going to choose someone who’s on a higher income bracket.”

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While she loves living in a sharehouse, she said the state’s rental market couldn’t affordably accommodate her if she wanted to rent by herself as a low-income earner, even in a one-bedroom apartment, and governments at all levels needed to act.

“There’s no way I could afford a one-bedroom apartment on my own,” she said.

“There’s a lot of people a lot worse off than me, but I feel like the story does need to be told that the governments really need to do something about this housing affordability.”

Sophie believes there are a range of issues ingrained in Victoria’s housing system. Picture: Max Mason-Hubers

She added that there were a range of issues ingrained in the state’s housing system, and not just one solution to the affordability crisis.

“I feel like everyone’s deflecting, saying it’s negative gearing, it’s migrants, you know, I think it’s just big population growth. I think (it’s) not enough housing stock,” she said.

“We shouldn’t have a housing crisis like we do.

“Everybody should have (the) human right to have a roof over their head … it’s just not about someone’s retirement fund.”

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sarah.petty@news.com.au

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