Homeless since returning to Australia seven months ago, Dr Selene Routley is a physicist and space scientist who makes a small income writing articles for science magazines. She currently sleeps in a van packed to the brim with her possessions.
This also brings another phrase to mind. It’s usually an American term, but I fear that we are inevitably heading to our own ‘trailer park trash’. And by this I don’t mean the trash is the people.
The ‘trash’ -no,tragedy- is that the housing situation is so fubar that we’ll end up using caravans and temporary accommodation as stoogaps for shortages. And,.once it’s established as a substitute for housing, it will never be replaced. Because it’s cheaper.
The problem there, as we’re already seeing, is arsehole councils taking action against people on private properties, where the people either own the property, or have the property owner’s permission, and live in tents or caravans there.
Every layer of government has their fair share of blame to wear for this, from the snouts at the trough in the local city councils, to the fat wankers in suits in Canberra. Not one single government has done anything remotely positive to improve the future of housing in this country in the past 20 or so years.
Instead, they’ve encouraged and rewarded foreign ownership and rich landlords that own dozens of properties. Our monetary policy is tied to a broken measure of financial health, where the snake eats its own tail: higher rent contributes to higher inflation, which contributes to higher interest rates, which contributes to higher rent.
All our governments have done is create the perfect conditions for a massively bloated housing market that’s almost impossible for anyone to get into without already being in the middle-to-upper earning brackets.
Councils have to start thinking along humanitarian grounds, and enable people to live self-sufficiently, rather than punishing them for it. It’s not hard to see a future where a pensioner dies on a park bench in the middle of winter, because they couldn’t afford to rent or pay their mortgage, got permission to live in a van on someone’s rural block, and some cunt of a councilor decided a bullshit zoning law was more important than human dignity.
This also brings another phrase to mind. It’s usually an American term, but I fear that we are inevitably heading to our own ‘trailer park trash’. And by this I don’t mean the trash is the people.
The ‘trash’ -no,tragedy- is that the housing situation is so fubar that we’ll end up using caravans and temporary accommodation as stoogaps for shortages. And,.once it’s established as a substitute for housing, it will never be replaced. Because it’s cheaper.
The problem there, as we’re already seeing, is arsehole councils taking action against people on private properties, where the people either own the property, or have the property owner’s permission, and live in tents or caravans there.
Examples:
Every layer of government has their fair share of blame to wear for this, from the snouts at the trough in the local city councils, to the fat wankers in suits in Canberra. Not one single government has done anything remotely positive to improve the future of housing in this country in the past 20 or so years.
Instead, they’ve encouraged and rewarded foreign ownership and rich landlords that own dozens of properties. Our monetary policy is tied to a broken measure of financial health, where the snake eats its own tail: higher rent contributes to higher inflation, which contributes to higher interest rates, which contributes to higher rent.
All our governments have done is create the perfect conditions for a massively bloated housing market that’s almost impossible for anyone to get into without already being in the middle-to-upper earning brackets.
Councils have to start thinking along humanitarian grounds, and enable people to live self-sufficiently, rather than punishing them for it. It’s not hard to see a future where a pensioner dies on a park bench in the middle of winter, because they couldn’t afford to rent or pay their mortgage, got permission to live in a van on someone’s rural block, and some cunt of a councilor decided a bullshit zoning law was more important than human dignity.
Something has to give.