Bunbury Houdsing Association

Escalating house prices and rents are making it increasingly difficult for the homeless and hard-hit to get a home to call their own in Bunbury. Men are squatting in abandoned buildings, mums are sleeping in cars and families are living in tents as Bunbury's accommodation crisis continues to make it difficult for people to afford a place to stay. One couple, who did not wish to be named, are trying their best to find a place; with little success.

Sam*, who has been squatting in a house, and his partner Sally*, who has been living in a boarding house, said they did not have the money to pay the rent on even the cheaper houses in Bunbury.

"Accommodation in Bunbury is ridiculous and the price, it's just the same as Sydney," Sam said. "Most of the places are $180, $195 and up. We're lucky to find a $165 home."

For Sam, getting a house to rent would mean "a lot".

"I have children," he said. "I need somewhere where I could actually have them come over."It's not like I'm actually going to bring them to a squat."

There is a waiting list for Homeswest housing and a shortage of crisis accommodation in Bunbury.

"We don't have enough crisis accommodation in Bunbury," said InTown Centre coordinator June Dodds."We really don't."

Bunbury Housing Association executive housing officer Renate Dehaan said the situation was getting worse by the minute because rental prices had risen so much.

"It's really quite bad," she said. "It's very hard for people to break into the private rental market." Ms Dehaan said Bunbury Housing Association's boarding house, which houses 17 people, had no vacancies. "Over the past year it's actually been occupied fully," she said. "We've had people come in who have said they'd been on the streets a couple of weeks."

Ms Dehaan said there was also the issue of "hidden homeless"; people who had been forced to move into caravan and tents.

"Housing is a basic need," she said. "Emotional, physical wellbeing depends on a roof over people's heads."

(*Names of Sam and Sally changed in story to protect identities).