These include families with young children, single parents, senior citizens and people with pets.
One desperate mother has made a video diary, capturing just how tough it is to find somewhere to live.
Across Australia a new homeless class is emerging as whole families are forced to seek shelter in their cars, and even tents.
More stories from Today TonightAround the country the national rental vacancy sits at two per cent. In Sydney the vacancy rate is less than one per cent, and it’s the same dismal picture in Melbourne and in Brisbane.
That means that for every 1,000 rental properties in Sydney, only thirteen are available. In Melbourne it’s just seventeen, and in Brisbane only 38 homes are free for lease per 1,000.
With agents and landlords able to pick and choose, young families, single mums and pensioners with animals are the first to be crossed off the list. They say it’s rental discrimination, but it’s almost impossible to prove.
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Single mum Lorray is adamant she is a victim of discrimination, and shut out of the rental market because she is a sole parent.
“It is a merry-go-round. I’ve applied for 77 houses and have been knocked back for the lot of them. I think it’s because I’m a single mum on a pension,” she said.
Frustrated, she recorded a video diary of her day to day struggles to find a home for her family.
More stories from reporter Bryan Seymour
Over the week, Lorray captured her frustrations - the massive queues greeting her at every rental viewing, and the daily disappointment as agent after agent knocked her back.
Currently sleeping on the couch at her mother’s house Lorray showed us the cramped conditions she's living in.
Desperate, Lorray and her two young children now face living in her car. “This is where I will be living if I don’t have a rental property. I will be staying in my car with my two kids. This is where I'll be sleeping. It’s just not a place for kids. It’s heartbreaking.”
Felicia Anderson of Anglicare says rental discrimination is forcing pensioners, pet owners, young families and those on Centrelink into their shelters and refuges.
According to real estate agent Tim Fletcher “if you can pay the rent, you can look after the property ,and the owner is satisfied that is going to happen, no one at all should be discriminated.”
A tent on a bush block in Kinglake, Melbourne, is the family home for Kylie and Darron Henkel and their three young children, in a daily battle against the elements.
The Henkels say they were forced out of their home in Melbourne’s north after a rent increase, and as Darren lost his job.
Rather than wait for a roof to be available, they put one up themselves, pitching the tent that they’ve lived in for the last four months.
This could be the family home for some time to come. The Henkels have been told there's an eight year waiting list for public housing.
“We're just digging our heels in, and just trying to take each day by day. We can’t plan things in weeks and months, we’ve just got to take each day as it comes.”
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