A young homeless family who have been living in a tent for the past month have shared their daily struggle to find shelter on TikTok amid the ongoing rental crisis.
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Sushannah Taylor, 20, her husband Tristan, 22, and their two daughters Delilah, two, and six-month-old Luna have been homeless in Bundaberg, Queensland, since April 10, 2022.
The Taylors had to leave their rental home in the rural town of Roma as their landlord was selling the property, prompting them to drive six hours to Bundaberg on the coast.
Since then, the Taylors have lived with another family, in a tent in a caravan park and in a backyard and are now staying in a motel as they wait for public housing next month.
Ms Taylor said it was challenging to raise a baby and a toddler while having to constantly worry about where her family would be sleeping.
"Lack of space, having the ability to use bedrooms and bathrooms, keeping their messes to a minimum, maintaining a bedtime routine, getting any sleep, having enough patience to parent. Everything. I can't enjoy motherhood right now," she told ACM.
"We're hopefully moving into public housing in June. We were supposed to move in earlier but they pushed the date back. It's all been very stressful."
Ms Taylor began posting "day in the life of a homeless family" videos to her TikTok account on May 2 to draw attention to her family's situation, the most popular of which has 2.5 million views.
The videos touch on various aspects of her homeless life such as living in a tent, raising her children, buying groceries, cooking and looking for a job.
In a video from last week, Ms Taylor said her family was involved in a car accident with an elderly woman, who struck the back of their car and drove off, which put further financial pressure on them.
Housing crisis
The Taylor family's story is one of many as Australia faces an ongoing rental crisis, which is disproportionately affects younger people.
Some 41,652 young people aged 15-24 "presented alone" to seek homelessness services between 2020 and 2021, according to Australian Institute of Health and Welfare Specialist Homelessness Services annual report.
This included 14,876 young men and 26,776 young women, of which 36,599 sought medium or long-term accommodation.
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But only 5092 were able to be provided with medium or long-term accommodation and 7454 were referred to other agencies for accommodation, meaning 24,053 people missed out.
Many young people also experience rental stress, which occurs when more than 30 per cent of a person's weekly income is spent on rent.
Analysis by advocacy group Everybody's Home showed that a person on Youth Allowance spends an average of 69 per cent of their income on rent while young hospitality workers spend 40 per cent of their income and young retail workers spend 36 per cent.
Everybody's Home spokesperson Kate Colvin said "young Australians are caught in a vice of surging rents and declining real wages".
"They're going out backwards and many are facing the harsh reality of homelessness," Ms Colvin said in a statement.
"We can give people on low and modest incomes more choice by expanding the supply of social and affordable housing. Everyone deserves the security of a stable home. This should be a right, not a privilege."