Families who can't find rental housing left with no choice but to live in tents in the bush
Unaffordable housing is forcing families into a life of fine balance — juggling the extremes of homelessness and bushfire risk. 6 Man Tent
Children are sleeping in tents in the dry ironbark forest surrounding Bendigo, while their parents try their hardest to keep them safe, fed, happy and at school.
People living in tents are becoming more visible around the country.
In central Victoria, the housing crisis and the prospect of a hot, dry summer are converging.
On a bright spring day edging up toward the high 20s, a toddler's little feet crunch over leaves and dirt, past a rapidly warming tent in a national park encircling Bendigo.
The everyday items of children spill onto the dirt — soft toys, a drink bottle, a car seat, a school bag.
This tent is home for nine children, aged between almost two and 18 years, their mum Emma and her partner Dallas.
Since losing a rental property in the Wimmera, about three hours away, in July, the family has been unable to secure a new home.
In the dry air of the campground, and as the day warms up, flies begin to swarm on any available moisture.
The younger children play, surrounded by bushland on the outskirts of one of Victoria's biggest regional cities.
Bendigo has a population of about 120,000. It's a low-density city dotted with historic gold rush-era buildings with a major industry of health.
In a secluded spot in national park just outside the city, Emma cleared dust and dirt from a table at a campground.
"I don't want to raise my kids into this," the 39-year-old says.
"I feel disgusted."
On the other side of Bendigo, bright blue tarps flap in the dry hot wind while two boys scoot around on their bikes on dusty tracks.
Samantha Carlyon and Robert McEncroe go to great lengths to try and provide a sense of normality for their sons, aged five and nine.
They have been living in tents for about eight months and are currently camped on a council-managed reserve.
They have a kitchen area and a bedroom, complete with a PlayStation 5.
Their nine-year-old son has still managed to create more than 140 worlds on Minecraft.
"I've beaten the end dragon about 10 times," he says proudly.
In the morning sun, Samantha is sweeping through the tents, cleaning the kitchen and storing the rubbish. She's tenacious, determined to keep the routines of a family home.
There's a pantry made of plastic tubs, and the kitchen is equipped with a small powered refrigerator given to the family by outreach workers, as well as a large ice box.
"We've got a TV and a microwave, air oven and that, but we've got to be careful of what we use," she says.
"We can't use the toaster and the oven and the TV all at the same time."
The family has a petrol generator that can power their appliances for about 10 hours.
Robert has fashioned straps to a jerry can which he wears like a backpack when he needs to ride his e-bike to the petrol station to get a refill.
He also uses the bike to do school pick-up and drop-offs, and to get to work, which takes about 30 minutes.
Samantha says she and her family became homeless roughly a year ago, after being in a rental in the Bendigo area for 12 years.
"We tried to get a place but we just had no luck.
"We couldn't even get storage until the day before we had to move out."
She says most of her family's belongings are still in paid storage.
"[The homelessness service] are just saying apply for houses and keep a list of them, and when I apply for them, contact them and they'll help."
Council by-laws deem it an offence for people to live in a tent, caravan or other temporary or makeshift structure in any public place without a permit.
Recently a local council inspector told the family they were illegally occupying the land and would have to move on.
But the family no longer has a car and is using an electric bike and occasional lifts from friends to get in and out of the city.
"We can't move. We've got nowhere to go," Samantha says.
"There are a couple of other camp spots but it's further away from school."
Council to Homeless Persons chief executive Deborah Di Natale says homelessness has changed dramatically across the country, and families living rough like this in Bendigo are not uncommon.
"What we used to see before was mainly single people," she says.
"But the trend that is emerging is that we're seeing families setting up tents in the bush because there is simply nowhere left for them to go."
As the weather warms up, there's another pressing concern for these families.
"It's really alarming that some Victorians find themselves sleeping rough in bushland during what's tipped to be a hot, dry summer," Sarah Toohey, from the Community Housing Industry Association Victoria, says.
The Greater Bendigo National Park was where Emma, Dallas and their children were living at the start of November, in a free campsite with no running water and little to no phone reception.
The clearing is surrounded by towering box ironbarks with a single unsealed road for access.
The last major fire in the Greater Bendigo National Park was in 2020 and burnt 110 hectares of public and private land.
The Bureau of Meteorology is predicting this summer will be warmer and drier than previous years, with elevated fire danger in patches of Victoria.
Bendigo Family and Financial Services general manager Jenny Elvey says it's a dangerous situation for those living in the bush.
"Our concern is if there is a fire that gets going in that area, we don't know who's in there and they would struggle to find safe exits to get out," she says.
She says about 70 people on the Bendigo office's books were living rough within forest-timbered areas in September.
"There would be more than that in our Shepparton office," she adds.
"There's nothing we can do to support them because we just can't find safe places for them to be able to stay."
Lisa Chesters, the Member for Bendigo, says she has raised the issue with state and federal colleagues, as well as emergency services.
"Ultimately, how you help people out of the forest and those makeshift camps that are popping up is by building more homes and building our way out of the housing crisis," she says.
Authorities including the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action have publicly warned against people cooking over fires in bush areas over summer.
"It only takes one spark from an unattended campfire to have devastating consequences," a spokesperson said.
Neither family the ABC visited were cooking on an open fire.
Researchers say there is a "dawning awareness" of a dangerous intersection between homelessness and fire risks.
"The needs of the socially vulnerable need to be given more attention than they have been by the emergency management community," La Trobe University adjunct professor Jim McLennan says.
Central Queensland University associate professor Chris Bearman says it can be hard for a person experiencing homelessness to follow emergency services' advice and either safely shelter in place or leave early if there is a fire.
"I spoke to one chap who'd been impacted by a fire, and I said: 'What were the reasons why you didn't evacuate?'
"He said: 'I really don't have the money to put in the car to drive away.'
"He was very reluctant to drive 40 kilometres in an unregistered car with no power steering fluid in it."
The day-to-day pressures of being homeless can diminish the sense of urgency around a bushfire, Associate Professor Bearman says.
"We talked to one person who says, 'We've got a lot more pressing problems, and when the fire gets here, we'll deal with it the same as any other problem'."
When the ABC visited Emma and Dallas in the ironbark forest, money and food was scarce.
A beaten-up SUV with duct-taped windows was their lifeline to showers and services in Bendigo, and it was running on fumes.
"We go in and out of town every day. Two to three times a day we usually go in if we've got the petrol," Emma says.
"If the car's really, really low — like, just on the empty — sometimes we do try to risk it."
Emma says a farmer came to their aid after seeing the family stuck on the side of the road.
"He asked if we had a jerry can and he went into town and got us $20 petrol."
The farmer also gave the family two large bags of sultanas and a large tub of jam, which the children tucked into as Dallas, 33, called around to charities and organisations in search of financial help.
"Usually, we have meat in the box, in the esky, with ice," Emma says.
Emma says she and Dallas came to Bendigo in the hope the city would offer more opportunity for a home, after approaching an organisation in the Wimmera for help.
The organisation couldn't assist, she says.
"They're the ones that suggested for me to go live in a tent with my partner and nine children."
Emma says the children have been going to school in the Wimmera, but she hasn't been able to enrol them in Bendigo schools without an address.
"Families are normally required to provide schools with a place of permanent residence at the time of a child's enrolment," a Victorian Education Department spokesperson said in a statement.
But the statement also said school enrolment practices should not unfairly disadvantage families.
Adam Voigt, a former principal and founder of mentoring organisation Real Schools, says schools are telling him more students are experiencing homelessness, particularly in regional areas.
"We need to resource those schools to be able to support those families effectively, because their living situation is clearly the biggest obstacle to the kids in that family getting a decent education," he says.
Samantha says both the school and preschool her sons attend know they are homeless and are doing all they can to help.
"I don't want to move him (the nine-year-old) because he's doing well … I'm really proud of him," she says.
"He loves his maths and he's made a heap of friends.
"He gets bullied a bit at school about it, not having a house. There's not much I can do about it."
Emma and her family have moved camp sites several times since arriving in central Victoria, after being told to move on at various locations by council staff and Parks Victoria rangers.
It is an offence under Victorian law to camp in the same area of a state forest for more than 28 consecutive nights.
People can face an on-the-spot fine of $192, but a spokesperson for the Conservation Regulator says notices or directions to move on are used as a last resort.
"Conservation Regulator officers are trained to connect displaced people with support networks and services," the spokesperson says.
Despite more people living in tents, the city of Greater Bendigo says it is highly unlikely a permit would be provided to people living in temporary or makeshift housing.
"Only designated camp sites are best suited to support such uses," council healthy communities and environments director Stacy Williams says.
"Bendigo is fortunate to have a network of support agencies locally that can help people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.
"We encourage people to make use of the support available."
Multiple Victorian support agencies told the ABC there were more people living rough and sleeping in tents and cars than ever before.
"Because of the deepening rental crisis, there has definitely been an increase," Deborah Di Natale says.
"The exact number of people sleeping rough in the bush is a really concerning blind spot and the data is really poor."
Sarah Toohey from Community Housing Industry Association Victoria says the number of households in housing crisis is expected to increase to 46,000 by 2041.
"We've got a massive shortage of social and affordable housing in Victoria right now.
"When we see demand go up as we did post-pandemic, it means that the availability of affordable rentals has shrunk even further."
Housing and homelessness service provider Haven Home Safe (HHS) says there has been a 181 per cent increase in the number of rough sleepers the organisation is supporting in 2023 compared to last year.
"We are seeing an increase in newly homeless people in the Bendigo region including families, older people and those from interstate," chief operations officer Vanessa Brotto says.
In addition to restricted housing availability, HHS says there are limits to its capacity to provide emergency food relief and fuel vouchers with so many people in need.
The Salvation Army's Bendigo corps says its federal funding has dropped by about 30 per cent since the government rolled back its COVID-19 supports.
Area officer Major Andrew Walker says demand for help has been growing but his organisation has about $70,000 less to give per year.
"Quite often by the Tuesday, Wednesday, the weekly funds have all been given out such is the demand," he says.
More than 140 families in the Bendigo area came to the Salvos wanting help with food in October, and more than 100 had already sought food assistance halfway through November.
"Our call queues are now full, and we are unable to take any further calls right now but please try again later," a pre-recorded message tells Dallas on one of the days he tries calling the Salvos.
A few days earlier, he, Emma and the nine children received a box of pretzels and cheese and some fruit puree from the St Vincent de Paul Society, as well as vouchers for food, fuel and the op shop.
Leanne Hetherington from the St Vincent de Paul Society in Bendigo says more of the people coming into assistance centres are relying on their cars and are asking for help to keep them on the roads.
"Their cars are their homes at the moment," she says.
"It's often just a case-by-case situation as to how much we can assist.
"Sometimes it might be out of our range of assistance."
The latest Rental Affordability Index (RAI) showed there were only three "affordable" regional Victorian postcodes, where rent cost no more than 15 per cent of household income — Kerang, Nhill and Numurkah.
Bendigo was "moderately unaffordable" in 2022's RAI, but this year became "unaffordable", as did Shepparton.
"This downward spiral has now reached the point where very few affordable long-term rentals are on offer," Ellen Witte of SGS Economics and Planning says.
She says regional Victoria's rental affordability will continue to get worse, going from crisis to catastrophe.
The Victorian government said in a statement it was aware of the urgent need for affordable housing.
"Work is already underway to deliver 425,600 homes across regional Victoria by 2051," a spokesperson said.
Council workers recently repeated their request for Samantha and Robert to move on from their campsite.
The threat of legal action and having to find a new place to set up is ever present for this family.
Every day is a balancing act, with small triumphs and big challenges.
"We just do as much as we can," Samantha says.
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