Rental crisis: Aussie council accused of 'bulls***' act against homeless
Tight rental markets are seeing 'tent cities' swell in Australia – but some councils are cracking down.
Homeless campers who have been sleeping rough during the country's housing crisis have blasted their local council for what they claim has been the heavy-handed tactics used to move them on from parklands after a council worker was seen kicking their belongings and forcibly removing their tents.
Adelaide and regional South Australia has the tightest rental market in the country and few people understand that better than those who have been sleeping in city's southern parklands to get by. However the Adelaide City Council has repeatedly issued the campers with notices to move on and has now seemingly forced the issue.
Footage filmed by a "concerned witness" and obtained by 7News shows council workers rummaging through campers' belongings and removing their tents into a waiting truck. One worker can be seen allegedly kicking some of their possessions along the ground.
"It's bulls***," one homeless camper, named Opal, told the network. "It's 100 per cent ridiculous."
"They just picked it up and chucked it on the back of the truck, crushed it ... We asked them multiple times 'can we get our stuff out first?' and they blatantly refused."
She has been sleeping in the park with her partner Charlie for weeks due to the rental crisis. According to the latest data from PropTrack, Adelaide has the lowest rental vacancy rate in the country, falling to just 0.67 per cent at the end of 2023, pushing prices up and leaving unlucky Aussies with few other choices.
"We're not hurting anyone, we're out here just trying to live, trying to survive the only way we can right now," Opal said.
Yahoo News Australia has contacted Adelaide City Council for comment. In a statement to 7News, it said "Council always works to ensure valuables or personal belongings are claimed. However, this is not always possible."
Notices left outside the camper's tents reportedly ordered them to move at least 300 metres away, but it's believed they will ultimately be able to remain in the parklands.
Tent cities growing across Australia
While renters in Adelaide faced the tightest market, other cities aren't far behind. A lack of supply has seen prices surge in Perth, which now has the second lowest vacancy rate in the country. The city's median rent is now 66 per cent higher than it was before the Covid pandemic, according to PropTrack data.
Late last year, councils in the Perth region defended a crackdown on transient sleepers by threatening fines and issuing notices to people sleeping in their cars on public land.
Brisbane has also been dealing with the fallout of its rental crisis, with tent cities swelling in it parks. Brisbane-based Norm McGillivray, founder of Beddown which helps find accomodation for rough sleepers told Yahoo in December the situation was "growing to disaster levels".
In cities across the country, those on the edge are being forced to live in tents or their cars – and there is little reprieve on the horizon when it comes to the rental market. The median national rent has continued to rise, increasing 1.8 per cent over the December quarter to $580 per week. That is an 11.5 per cent increase compared to the previous year, which means rents are $60 more expensive a week than they were in early 2023.
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