At 66 years old, Lynette embodies Australia’s deepening housing crisis in the most heartbreaking way. A dedicated educator who has spent decades teaching children, she now finds herself homeless despite working multiple jobs. After losing her rental home to flooding in 2022, this former full-time teacher has been couch surfing for over two years, unable to secure affordable housing despite being on the public housing waitlist for nine years.
Her story illuminates a growing crisis where essential workers—teachers, nurses, aged care workers—are being systematically priced out of the communities they serve. With rental prices soaring 27% since the last federal election and housing affordability at historic lows, Lynette’s situation reflects a broader systemic failure affecting thousands of older Australians and essential workers nationwide.
The Human Cost of Housing Unaffordability
Lynette’s journey into homelessness began when flooding destroyed her rental property in The Basin in October 2022. Since then, she has moved eight times, living on friends’ couches and in temporary accommodation. Currently staying with her closest friend in Kilsyth, she describes the arrangement as “not ideal for either of them, but it is keeping her from rough sleeping”.
Despite working as a casual primary school teacher and weekend golf instructor while receiving a pension, Lynette cannot afford rental properties in her area. When offered accommodation in Mordialloc—an hour’s drive from her schools—she declined, explaining that her support network and family are local. This impossible choice between housing and community connections exemplifies the broader crisis facing essential workers.
Essential Workers Under Pressure
The housing crisis has created a dire situation for Australia’s essential workforce. Recent data reveals that essential workers are spending approximately two-thirds of their income on housing, with many losing the equivalent of 37 days of income annually due to rent increases since March 2020. The situation has become so severe that virtually no regions of Australia allow single full-time essential workers in aged care, early childhood education, or nursing to afford independent rental accommodation.
An Anglicare Australia study examining over 45,000 rental listings found that less than 3% were affordable for essential workers like ambulance personnel, nurses, and aged care workers. The breakdown is particularly stark: only 1.4% of properties are affordable for nurses, 2.2% for ambulance workers, and less than 1% for early childhood educators and hospitality staff.
Systemic Failures in Housing Policy
Housing advocates point to fundamental policy failures that have created this crisis. Heidi Tucker, CEO of Anchor, reports seeing increasing numbers of employed people seeking homelessness services, including three households facing mortgage foreclosure in a single fortnight. The organization assisted approximately 29,500 older clients aged 55 and over in the past year, representing an increase from 27,300 clients in 2022-23.
The current social housing system has become so restrictive that it functions merely as “a safety net for people at the margins, as opposed to something that’s regarded as a basic human service,” according to housing advocates. This represents a significant shift from the early 1980s, when federal government funding for affordable housing was common practice.
Political Responses and Solutions
The federal government has announced several initiatives to address the crisis. The 2025 Budget allocated $800 million to expand the Help to Buy shared equity scheme, increasing income limits and property price caps to assist approximately 40,000 Australians in entering the housing market. The government has also committed $21 billion to increase housing supply, targeting 1.2 million new homes over five years and 55,000 social and affordable properties.
The Housing Australia Future Fund, established with $10 billion in funding, aims to support the construction of 30,000 affordable homes within five years. Additionally, Commonwealth Rent Assistance will increase by 10% to ease rental affordability pressures for low-income households.
Opposition parties have proposed alternative approaches. The Coalition promises to unlock 500,000 new homes through infrastructure investment and regulatory reform, while allowing first-home buyers to access up to $50,000 from their superannuation for deposits. The Greens advocate for building one million public and community homes over 20 years, alongside rent caps and changes to investor tax benefits.
A System in Crisis
Lynette’s story represents thousands of similar cases across Australia. After two and a half years of homelessness, she recently secured community housing accommodation, describing the visible impact of homelessness on new residents: “When they arrive, they’re the ones who look like they’re coming from a war zone”.
Her experience highlights the urgent need for comprehensive housing reform. Without significant federal intervention, advocates warn that essential workers will continue being displaced from the communities they serve, creating workforce shortages in critical sectors while deepening social inequality across Australian cities.