Homes For Everyone

Ep11. Checking in with Orange Sky CEO

In this episode, Mal interviews Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Orange Sky, Lucas Patchett.
Orange Sky is the world's first free mobile laundry and shower service for people experiencing homelessness.
 
https://orangesky.org.au/

Ep 10. Insights from the frontline with Wendi Rampton, Sunshine Coast Homeless Outreach

Wendi Rampton established Campsite Rescue and is coordinator of Sunshine Coast Homeless Outreach who is working in earnest to help others who may not be able to help themselves. 
 
She is working on the frontline of this homelessness crisis after seeing first-hand and feeling horrified that so many people on the beautiful Sunshine Coast were living in such poverty.
 
Listen as Wendi shares her insights along with information on how you can help.
 
To learn more about the Homes For Everyone initiative go to www.homesforeveryone.com.au

Ep 9. Property experts warn housing crisis is close to becoming irreversible

Respected author and Chair of the Property Investment Professionals of Australia (PIPA) Nicola McDougall and property researcher and analyst Mal Cayley have urged all levels of  government and the broader community to change their perceptions of property investors and development before it’s too late.
On the recent podcast episodes of The Maroochydore Chamber of Commerce ChamberCast and Homes For Everyone, PIPA Chair and author of The Female Investor Ms McDougall said the Sunshine Coast community needs to welcome the right type of development in order to grow sustainably as a region, to cater to the region’s population growth, and house the community safely.

Ep 8. The solution to homelessness is courage from council

Two women who are in the middle of an almighty battle with the Sunshine Coast Council are pleading with Council to change a local law that is threatening their own peaceful solution to homelessness.
Talking on the Homes for Everyone podcast, Angela Smith and Helen Andrew joined local community champion and property expert Mal Cayley to share their anguish about the Sunshine Coast Council’s decision to forcibly remove Ms Smith and her family from their tiny home on a landowner’s 32-acre property.

Ep7. The key role investors play in the rental crisis

Sunshine Coast property investment experts have revealed they are seeing more and more investors leaving the local housing market, at a time when the region is screaming out for rental properties.
In this episode, Mal Cayley sat down with local female property developer and founder of WOW Property Women Lorna Willis, Timber Garden Cabins director Wolfgang Schulte, and Property investment specialist Linda Ireland to talk about the key role investors play in the crisis and why we need alternative types of housing.
To help resolve this growing crisis, raise your virtual hand to say enough is enough by filling in the support form at www.homesforeveryone.com.au

Ep6. A real issue facing real people

As renters continue to battle soaring prices on the Sunshine Coast, local residents are leaning on caravan parks and house-sitting opportunities to get a roof over their heads.
 
In this episode we talk to Mooloolaba resident Maria Brown and local business owner Joanne Fleming who are part of the astounding number of people in the region who are battling unattainable rental prices.

Ep5. Housing density and Council policies

To address the housing crisis, we need actionable solutions that won’t take 15-20 years to implement.  Changing the community’s perspective on high density housing and creating council policies that allow for more flexibility in design for large developments could be two solutions to help ease the current housing crisis according to local experts.
 
On this episode we talk with town planner Andrew Stevens, and architect and urban designer Phil Smith who both work closely with community and key decision makers around housing, to discuss how we can all work together to leave a legacy for future generations.

Ep4. School communities impacted by homelessness

1,120 Australian children under the age of 12 sleep on the street every night. This is an alarming statistic and a growing concern for our region as more and more Sunshine Coast families face homelessness due to a great lack of housing.
To give us an on-the-ground perspective of the impacts of the housing crisis on children on the Sunshine Coast, Dr. Michael Stewart, Principal of Our Lady of the Rosary Primary School in Caloundra shares how they've lost at least 12 families from their school due to not being able to find a home on the Sunshine Coast, have a number of their student families living in their cars and others in the community seeking shelter at the school.
 
To help resolve this growing crisis, raise your virtual hand to say enough is enough by filling in the support form at www.homesforeveryone.com.au

Ep3. Vital Sleepbus service has provided more than 400 safe sleeps yet it’s still not enough

Since July 2022 the Maroochydore Sleepbus service has provided 423 safe sleeps for locals experiencing homelessness, and demand is so high a second bus is required solely for women and children.
In this episode, Sleepbus founder Simon Rowe sat down with Mal Cayley and Dave Mclenaghan on the ‘Homes for Everyone’ podcast, and agreed more needs to be done to address the issue on both the Sunshine Coast and Australia wide.

Ep2. Harrowing truths about homeless youth being exploited on the Sunshine Coast

In the latest episode of the Homes For Everyone podcast that highlights the heartbreaking and unexpected impacts of the current housing crisis, the harrowing truth about the exploitation of Sunshine Coast youth in exchange for accommodation was revealed.
Paul Morton of Integrated Family Youth Service (IFYS) joined local businessman and podcast host Mal Cayley in the studio to share that he is seeing a scary number of youth risking their safety and enduring physical and mental abuse just to be able to have a bed to sleep in.“The average young person that we work with has usually come out of a crisis and is disengaged from family so, when you compound that with rents of $500 and $600 a week in a hot property market, young people aren’t going to be high on the list for approval of a property,”  Mr Morton said.
“We’ve got this other part of our community that people don't see that’s not on display. People are turning to couch surfing or sleeping in tents on properties and sadly, the horrible and insidious side of this is that these people will often end up in unhealthy relationships where theyare having to do all kinds of things to survive, to get a feed in their belly, or for accommodation for the night. It’s survival at best.”
Mr Morton said unfortunately they are having to turn young people away because they can’t find anywhere else for them to go and the physical chance of getting a young person into bed on the Sunshine Coast every night is “not real”.
“On the other side of that is the dilemma of the “next step” for those in our housing pathways programs. We might have 60 people living in accommodation arrangements at the moment but there’s no 60 beds out the other side to go to,” he said.
Direct Collective COO Mal Cayley said he feels anger towards the decision makers on the Sunshine Coast because of what it’s doing to the community.
“There are people who are approving and not approving accommodation on the Sunshine Coast with almost some self-righteousness around the reasoning (for not approving appropriate accommodation) and yet, there are people on our street selling themselves for sex just to get a home. We have absolutely failed them as a community,” Mr Cayley said.
“We have undersupplied the market, on the Sunshine Coast particularly, for more than a decade. If we act dramatically today to increase supply at all levels of government it’s going to take 2 to 3 years before we see an improvement. It's going to get worse before it gets better.”
“(Homelessness) now no longer about vagrancy or drug abuse. If you’re a doctor and you are renting on the Sunshine Coast and your house is sold to an owner occupier, you are at risk of homelessness because there’s nothing else available for you to go into.
“We have grandparents living in large four-bedroom homes who have nowhere to downsize into so young families, or a group of people like those coming out of IFYS programs, can’t get into them. Our community is held at ransom because we just don't have enough (property).“We have got to do more than deal with the symptoms, we have to deal with each of the causes which starts with APRA, federal government, state government, council, community attitudes, planning, taxes and policies.
“This can be solved if we tackle those things and if politicians and decision makers at every level have the courage to learn, understand and act.
“If we don’t solve this problem by the start of the Olympics, we’ve just started the whole thing again.”
IFYS, as part of their housing services, provide licensed community housing, run crisis accommodation programs encompassing long term housing options, community managed studio units, and crisis shelters, as well as a housing pathways program.
The Homes for Everyone initiative is calling for people to put their digital hand up to join the growing voice of that’s saying, ‘enough is enough’ and real housing solutions need to be delivered. Take 15 seconds to fill in the form at www.homesforeveryone.com.au so that the collective voice of the community can get the decision makers to pay attention and see real,positive changes achieved.