2 days ago
Flood-affected Ingham pleas for help as housing crisis worsens
Karen Thomas is packing up precious memories and the few belongings she has left as she prepares to leave her beloved community of Ingham.
Ms Thomas hasn't been able to find any permanent housing since floods inundated her rental property in February.
Community advocates say she's not alone.
Residents in the flood-stricken Queensland town say they are being forced to leave due to a worsening housing crisis.
Ms Thomas has not only lost her home in Ingham, she has lost her community.
The floods came just after her daughter, Jody Davies, died from suicide in September.
In the months after Jody's death, volunteering at the local community hub had given Ms Thomas meaning and purpose in her life.
Then the floods hit.
"All my baby photos, all my photos, I lost … I opened the box up and they were all destroyed, so I had to throw them out."
Ms Thomas had no formal rental agreement for the flood-damaged property, and was not able to return to live there. She found temporary accommodation for a while, but that property has now been sold.
Ms Thomas is moving to Townsville, more than 100 kilometres south, where she can stay with family.
"I'm going to live with my grandchildren in a little room, until hopefully I can come back to Ingham," she said.
The Hinchinbrook Community Support Centre's Quinta Lahtinen said Ms Thomas's circumstances were not said she had seen many people who were living in precarious housing situations as a result of the floods.
When the flood hit Ingham, which has a population of about 4,500, it destroyed or badly damaged more than 200 houses.
"Quite a number of our community are moving out of the district, because of the housing crisis," Ms Lahtinen said.
"We're seeing a lot of people living in cars and vans.
"We're seeing really significant overcrowding issues with families, and lots of couch surfing."
Veteran real estate agent Felix Reitano said rental listings were few and far between "even before the floods", but the lack of available housing was worse now.
"People [were] attracted to the town because of relatively low prices and its proximity to Townsville," he said.
Mr Reitano said it was disheartening to have to turn good tenants away because there wasn't enough stock.
"It's very embarrassing as a real estate agent when you can't place a good tenant in a house, where we would like to retain them as a tenant."
He said businesses were slowly getting back on track, but skills shortages meant repair work was taking longer than it otherwise would.
Hinchinbrook deputy mayor Mary Brown spearheaded recovery efforts after the floods.
Ms Brown said the shire was continuing to advocate for an increase in housing supply.
"That's not a quick process," she said.
"The town looks lovely, a lot of the debris has been cleaned up, and things look like they're getting back to normal — and in a lot of ways they are.
For Ms Thomas, a supply of more homes to ease the housing crisis can't come soon enough.
"If the government put 100 dongas up on a piece of land, just for a year or so, people [would] get somewhere to live, and settle [while] the houses get fixed up, " she said.
"If there's a place to rent, it's gone in five seconds. There's really nothing in this town.
