Nobody likes to see people suffer, and the lack of affordable housing and affordable rental, as experienced by Narelle, is nothing short of endemic. Narelle is a long-time reader and supporter of The AIMN and without hesitation we have encouraged her to tell her story here.
Continued from Part 1: Seeking to rent in a housing crisis, open to ideas
I am currently amid a surreal encounter with the owner of my real estate agency. They have been informed by the property manager I am having a hard time finding another rental, and that I have requested an extension till another rental is found and a lease signed. The agency owner has requested I provide “evidence” that community housing will be hard to source in the middle of a national housing crisis. Apparently, they need “evidence” of my situation to present the property owner. The property manager is a good person, sincere in their efforts to help. Personally, I would consider the email the agency owner wrote as an opportunity to reflect upon the ethics of their employer.
The agency owner has asked a community housing CEO ‘friend’ for advice, and they advised me to register for community housing and to see if I qualified, and “the best way to do that was to attend” a nearby office. They were even kind enough to provide the address of one close to me.
Next, I was advised to check out the crisis centres, and for some reason they just discovered the following fact: “unfortunately, one can only apply for these in the event they become homeless and not in advance.” At this point I am wondering where this is going.
I was then advised to contact a mainstream retirement housing specialist and request to speak to “……,” and say that they and their CEO friend referred me. They requested I ask if there was any ‘retirement villages/leasing options” available. They informed me they were impressed with the service because they only spent a short time on hold. One problem, at 48 years old I’m too young to qualify, and for those interested there is a 3-year waiting list at both locations, according to this particular retirement company.
There is a reason this option was mentioned; they were recently awarded for their services in this area. Got to give it to them, marketing an option they profit from in the middle of a housing crisis. This requires the establishment of a new award category. As for the title I am open to suggestions.
By now you are also wondering where this is going.
Now for the concluding communication. In this instance I will let the owner speak for themselves:
“I hope that the above is of some assistance. Please keep us posted as if you receive any assurance or information that you can qualify for government/community housing and there is a specific timeline as to when you are likely to get accommodation then we can go back to the owner with a more specific request for extension and some evidence to support that.”
It is no secret that the waitlist for community housing in Australia is broken, it is at a crisis point. It’s catastrophic. The standard spiel of the government’s community housing department is that they are not allowed to reveal, in writing, how long people must wait for state housing. I relayed the owners request to the lovely public servant handling my application, and she was kind enough to show me the paperwork and waitlist timeline. It is 13 years.
So how do I present the owner of an award winning, upscale real estate agency with written evidence of the housing crisis? If the timeline to receive government housing cannot be revealed, is there any hope I will receive an extension from a solvency specialist? The only solution is to call a state politician’s office and ask them to help.
I am not sure if this choice is going to blow up in my face, but there is a sense of satisfaction that I have taken them at their word, and respectfully completing their request. If we are going to have an open, respectful and honest dialogue it is only right I provide the information from a source they cannot dispute. I must say this politician’s assistant was quite beguiled by my request and upon seeing said email, was unable to forget what she saw. Neither am I.
Coincidently, (not really, I checked out her boss’s recent activities) their ‘Honourable’ boss delivered a speech on homelessness in the House of Representatives. She is going to put together a letter for the real estate owner, containing the state’s most recent statistics on the average waitlist for community housing.
What happens next, who knows? If this is the future of real estate, it is going to be a bumpy ride for everyone, and if you rent, you had better start preparing for Dante’s seven levels of rental hell to expand.
What convinced me we are in Dante’s fourth level of rental hell is the quarterly newsletter they kindly email. It boasts the 2022/2023 annual rise of for rent prices is 13.2%, and their high rental returns is 1.2% above the metro average “it is an optimistic time for investors” apparently.
The tactic employed by the owner of my real-estate agency is Gaslighting 101, and I cannot pretend that it will lead to a lease extension. But what I can do is approach the request with respect, the respect that is not being given to me. The reality is, I will need their reference when I eventually enter back into the rental market. The desire to tell them to go “fuck themselves” must remain in my head. I hope that when they are in dire straits, they are treated with kindness instead of the scorn and derision they themselves have delivered. Or have I got this wrong? Are they so removed from the reality of the housing crisis, that they have no idea how bad it is, if so, I apologise.
The question remains though, why request evidence of the obvious?
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