rental accommodation crisis

The letter below appeared in Brisbane's Courier Mail of Saturday 18 October.

As the rental crisis continues to push people and families into more difficult circumstances, I am not hearing any debate or talk about implementing a system in Australia similar to that in Europe to provide people on average incomes with long-term rental accommodation security.

One of many reports about the ongoing and worsening rental crisis in Brisbane, is the article "Wanted: a Room to rent" on page 27 of Brisbane's Courier Mail newspaper of 29 April 2008. The article reports trends where both co-tenancy and room-by-room tenancy is increasing. In the latter case, the room is directly rented by each individual tenant from the landlord. This situation is predicted to grow here in the same way that it grew in the UK between 1996 and 2000.