Lurlene lost her cafe and then her house: Now she has opened up on the hardships of the rental crisis – and the desperate measures some Aussies are taking to stay alive

A homeless woman who lost her cafe has warned of the desperate measures some Aussies are taking to stay afloat amid the deepening rental crisis.

Queensland woman Lurlene Hunt, 40, was forced to close her Sunshine Coast cafe last June and was subsequently evicted from her rental home on December 1.

She has been homeless ever since and relies on the kindness of friends to provide her with a place to sleep at night, often crashing on their couches.

Her belongings are being stored in a shipping container while she continues to look for a rental property.

Ms Hunt has warned that some people in her situation are resorting to ‘crazy’ measures such as turning to OnlyFans to earn enough money to cover costs.

She has been receiving benefits since her business closed, but has discovered that this is not enough to allow her to rent wherever she wants to live.

Lurlene has been homeless ever since and relies on the kindness of friends to provide her with a place to sleep at night, often crashing on their couch.

‘Centrelink isn’t that much, where can I get a place for $200? There is no way out,” she said news.com.au.

She said there is a local caravan park she could move to, but it is known as a dangerous area.

“That’s my option as a single woman,” she said.

Moving regularly is difficult, and although some people have told her she can stay a little longer, she doesn’t want to overstay her welcome.

Ms Hunt has even used social media to contact school friends she hasn’t seen in years, asking if she can sleep on their sofa for a few days.

To make the bad situation worse, she said she has no family to move in with.

She had been paying $600 a week, but when she lost her last rental property, properties that had previously rented at that price now cost $850.

Her former home gets $950 a week, she said.

Ms Hunt has looked from Brisbane to Gympie and into inland Queensland, looking at thousands of properties and submitting around 40 applications.

She said that in one of the smallest places she looked at in person, there were dozens of people there at the same time as her.

The real estate agent told her that on average 200 to 300 applications for a house are received.

She said she has “absolutely no hope” of finding a place in the near future and doesn’t know how long she will be homeless.

Ms Hunt said people are doing ‘crazy things’ to pay the rent.

‘I know people who have second and third jobs, OnlyFans and all that. That’s not something I want to do.’

One of her friends recently told her that she had really nice feet and joked that she could charge $200 for pictures of them on a fetish website.

A long line of people is depicted queuing to view a property as the rental crisis worsens

She fears that the rise of people in her situation will lead to an increase in crimes such as petrol thefts and burglaries.

“People are getting desperate and it’s just going to get worse and worse,” she said.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Ms Hunt for comment.

Last week the Reserve Bank blamed record high immigration on unaffordable housing, as the value growth of new mortgages far outstrips wage increases.

House prices in the capital reached new peaks in 2023, even as the RBA raised interest rates for the thirteenth time in eighteen months in November, to a twelve-year high of 4.35 percent.

This came after net overseas migration reached a record high of 518,000 in the last financial year.

The population growth rate of 2.4 percent was the strongest in Australia since the 1950s.

While the annual pace of permanent and long-term arrivals abroad fell to 443,980 in November, the average value of new mortgages reached a record high of $624,383 in December.