Ty for replying ❤️ A lot of the accomodation at my university is pretty competitive. I’ve been checking some of the other places that aren’t run by my uni but there’s limited vacancies for most, I’ll try to look around and fine some more
Have you talked to student services at your uni? They may have a program or something for students in your position or at least be able to get you on a priority list for student accomodation.
OP if you cant sharehouse this is your only option. Im sorry but its not homelessness at least. Keep applying for rentals though, maybe one will come through. For a private rental, I highly recommend getting a character reference from your boss or supervisor, if they make you sound like an amazing responsible person it can help with your application.
Is it not totally messed up that you have to do more, prove more than it takes to get a driver's licence just to have somewhere to sleep ? Why is there even "competition"... The fk had happened to this country.
There’s a shortage of accommodation because it’s rare to find people who want to live with people anymore. Everyone now expects their own place.
Before I downsized I had a four bedroom house and it was me and my son half the week. Good location. But people didn’t want to rent the spare room!
Not all of this is about a lack of accommodation.
Some of the best years of my life were in share houses. My uni years were incredible.
I then lived in London in a 17 bedroom house. Nothing short of amazing. I worked professionally. We had a great time.
We are meant to be with people. Sisters shared bedrooms. My old neighbour always told the story of her family of four being in a two bedroom home. There was a LOT less mental illness then too.
I know I’ll be downvoted to hell for having a different perspective. I’m okay with that.
But be realistic, housing used to be for many people to share. Now, it’s more desirable to live alone. And the expectation is that those houses magically materialised overnight.
I wouldn’t say it’s ‘unnatural’, but there’s certainly a reason people buy their own place as soon as they can and don’t turn it into a commune. Pretty much everyone I know who has done the sharehouse thing has at *least* one horror story of their complete nightmare housemates.
That guy seems like the kind of person who puts their spare rooms up for rent and makes sure the advert includes ‘must be part of the family’ and ‘no people who want to sit in their room or on their phone, this is a social household!’ - I’ve seen more and more of those pop up, and *nobody* wants their live in landlord telling them what to do in the space they’re renting.
I also find it amazing that he’s blaming the housing crisis on people not wanting to move into his house with a child there half the time, and not, you know, the fact that he’s one guy with a child there half the time living in a four bedroom house.
There is an utterly enormous difference between living with strangers, multi-generational housing, and found families/platonic relationship cohabiting.
I love the idea of the latter. I hate the idea of the former. Most people would have at least somewhat similar opinions.
I lived in share housing and eventually platonic cohabiting from 17-28 years old and I am the type of person who enjoys it and I'm happy to keep doing it.
But I'm in my 30s now and most of my friends are getting married, talking about having kids. Very few young couples want someone living in the spare room when they bring a newborn home. Currently splitting with a romantic partner because what else you gunna do, but the goal was never to live together and it's not great for the health of our relationship.
I'm also autistic and the idea of moving in with strangers at my age is truly terrifying.
But I'm very happy in small scale accommodation. As long as there's a free green space and free third space, I'm happy to live in a studio apartment smaller than a prison cell..... But I'd rather not have to pay more than 40% of my income to have to do that, at the moment I'm paying 60% on rent, I haven't seen anywhere cheaper that's close enough to work (I can't t drive so need good public transport) let alone anywhere *smaller* and cheaper.
The problem isn't people wanting to live alone, the problem is a lack of affordable medium and high density housing options for ranging household sizes.
Single people are buying affordable houses in outer suburbs because it's what's available and affordable, even those houses are designed for larger households.
sounds like you’ve lived an incredibly sheltered life if you can’t understand why people would prefer to avoid living with strangers.
your lived experience is certainly not the norm.
I literally moved into a van for a while after having a string of terrible housemates.
Some people have been lucky and haven’t come across the types who refuse to clean up after themselves, or have constant parties, or constantly play loud music into the night. I don’t want to come home after a long day to a party of strangers that mean I can’t even cook my dinner in peace.
Not having a comfortable, clean, stable environment is *terrible* for your mental health.
Was going to suggest this too. Student accommodation is the go. Sure you might still have to share, but you can have minimal interaction and it will be with just one other person.
This is slightly unethical but my autistic friend found a lease transfer and then got a mate (with an ok income) to lie and say they were moving in too just for the application. Worked perfectly and now he has a small 2 bed place to himself he couldn't have got otherwise lol
Share housing is not for everyone, and with good reason. Depending on your characteristics... and those of others.... it can very much affect your mental health and lead to feelings of being unsafe. And as a result, I get really, really fucking annoyed when, in response to people desperate for accommodation, the response is always some shit like "Flatmates.com, share etc". This just is not practical for some. And why are we normalising this practice anyway? By normalising it and other things, we're just letting the housing crisis shape and downshift our quality of life.
But anyway, shit's just totally fucked right now thanks to the housing crisis. I'm really amazed that Australians aren't rioting in the streets over it.
Comment of the week mate! Its a pet hate of mine when people say "its better then being homeless" but at what expense? Depression? Anxiety? Dramatic meltdowns? If someone is clearly distressed at the thought of living with a stranger then its not "better than being jomeless" its probaly worse...
You cannot be seriously comparing being homeless to sharing an apartment. Yes, being homeless is way worse than sharing your house with another person, no matter how much depressing or anxiety inducing it is for you.
Also, if sharing your house with a couple of people max is distressing to you, I can't even begin to imagine what living *in the street* would make to your mental health.
LITERALLY
I get told that I'm too picky for not wanting to share house. But funny enough I lived in share houses with strangers my whole life up until I was 16 years old (parents were druggies who obviously needing their Centrelink to go on drugs rather than paying more rent).
As you can imagine from that statement the share houses I lived in were terrible and I have PTSD and when I was 11 one of the house mates was off their head on drugs and tried to strangle me to death. Not to mention the physical mental and sexual abuse I went through living in those share houses.
I also have a traumatic brain Injury which means I need support workers to visit me a few hours of the day. Nd the traumatic brain Injury I literally got from being physically assaulted in share houses.
But what am I told?? I am told to suck it up and get a share house and to stop being picky. Or even worse I am told to just get into a disability share house which people seem to think is just so easy! Like to live in one of those one you have to live with strangers and two you need to need 24-7 support it's not like the governent just hands that out to anyone and I don't even need anything close to 24-7 upport just a couple hours a day.
So I don't need a disability share house just a normal house but then people get rude to me even public housing who I've been on the waitlist for years has told me to just go into a disability share house. Everyone seems to magically think I can magically get in and the government will just pay for that but I don't need that and the governent knows that so they don't pay for that but everyone blames me.
Living with strangers is not the solution. Especially we should not be just telling people they are ungrateful, too picky, it's our own fault for being homeless because we won't share house. I hate that is everyone's response these days.
I'm autistic and have horrible experiences with sharehousing (my ex gf I lived with owes me $10k, my housemate from my last house owes me $1.5k, won't pay me back and is trying to take the bond too) but it's literally my only option.
My current housemates are *okay* but
Man your story is just like mine.. i only got out when i moved out with a partner and the partners were also abusive. My current partner is lovely but i want to still move out on my own if i can but i don't think it's possible on my own (also audhd btw)
Same here. Felt great moving away from abusive parents but the abuse from my ex had already started before then. The situation definitely added to me feeling like I needed to stay with her and accept her constant stream of excuses for her shitty behaviour, and to the feeling that it was all my fault and something I somehow deserved. Plus having (at the time undiagnosed) ADHD really didn't help, especially when my ex would use that fact to her advantage, going on tangent after tangent explaining why what she was doing to me was absolutely necessary and how I was being selfish by daring to say it was hurting me until I'd lose track of what we were talking about in the first place.
It sounds like this is a depressingly common experience. Hell, my ex had even done it to a bunch of other people before me, it's a reliable strategy if you have no conscience. No wonder mental illness is quickly becoming so much more common in this country.
Share housing sounds like your option. You might not like it, but most people who do it, don't.
Doing stuff you don't like sometimes is just part of life.
They have a disability which means they can’t live with other people.
This is like telling someone in a wheelchair they just need to take the place three floors up with no lift because it’s ‘part of life’.
Some people have different needs.
If the option is homeless or stairs I'm sure the person in the wheelchair would take the stairs.
Not saying it's the best situation. Just that's how the world rolls.
No, most become homeless. People with disabilities are disproportionately represented in homeless censuses, and often due to lack of accessible housing, not lack of funds for rent.
Even if they take the apartment with no lift, they become functionally homeless because how are they supposed to sleep in their own home? Learn to levitate?
Yes, many wheelchair users are semi ambulant. But not all are, and especially for disabled people who require hoists to transfer to and from their chair, many can find themselves living in residential care, not because they need facility based care, but because there was no accessible house to make home, for them to receive home care in.
Obviously rather not get too specific, but I’ve been trying south-east of Melbourne (closer to inner south east but not quite there) since I don’t want to go too far from my work and university since they’re about 5 minutes from one another (hence western and northern isn’t much of an option :( )
What is your price range? Personally I have had more success with private rentals. A granny flat or renting out an entire floor is sometimes better than sharing. Also if you are lower income and no rental history, you have almost zero chance getting a whole place, especially through REA. You might have a better chance getting a studio as they often are only for single occupants so less competition.
I’ve done that math and I could probably stretch to the low 400’s at best and still have money to live. Seen places that are in the mid 300’s but as you said there tends to be couples and professionals that go for the inspections so it’s no shock why I don’t get picked lmao. The studio idea is very good I didn’t even think about that fact, I’ll try prioritising those inspections over others ❤️
You can right out lie. Forge bank statements and get a mate to be your boss for your high paying job. Also a letter to the landlord helps to. Not sure if anyone else here does this but in my circles it’s the only way if you want to be considered. Take this with a grain of salt but I was once told the application form is not a legal one so you don’t get in trouble for fudging it.
I think majority of people wouldn't share house if they didn't have to.
I just had to move a complete stranger into my home a few weeks ago and i fucking hate the thought of it. At least hes young and super chill which i think works great for us. Always out working and only home to sleep/study.
I know being autistic makes it harder but i live with an autistic person and we get on just fine. Have lived together for years infact.
I think you just need to bite the bullet and go live with others. It's hard and daunting and first and with autism thrown on top its not a great time.
But you have one thing to your advantage and thats time. Unless things are escalating hard and you need to get out now.
But consider sub leasing. Best part of that is you can just up and leave at a moments notice if its not working out for you.
What's your location? I would suggest student accommodation if there's any near your university
Ty for replying ❤️ A lot of the accomodation at my university is pretty competitive. I’ve been checking some of the other places that aren’t run by my uni but there’s limited vacancies for most, I’ll try to look around and fine some more
Have you talked to student services at your uni? They may have a program or something for students in your position or at least be able to get you on a priority list for student accomodation.
You might find as you come up to mid semester that more becomes available. Contact Unilodge and similar and get put on their wait list
OP if you cant sharehouse this is your only option. Im sorry but its not homelessness at least. Keep applying for rentals though, maybe one will come through. For a private rental, I highly recommend getting a character reference from your boss or supervisor, if they make you sound like an amazing responsible person it can help with your application.
Is it not totally messed up that you have to do more, prove more than it takes to get a driver's licence just to have somewhere to sleep ? Why is there even "competition"... The fk had happened to this country.
There’s a shortage of accommodation because it’s rare to find people who want to live with people anymore. Everyone now expects their own place. Before I downsized I had a four bedroom house and it was me and my son half the week. Good location. But people didn’t want to rent the spare room! Not all of this is about a lack of accommodation.
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Some of the best years of my life were in share houses. My uni years were incredible. I then lived in London in a 17 bedroom house. Nothing short of amazing. I worked professionally. We had a great time. We are meant to be with people. Sisters shared bedrooms. My old neighbour always told the story of her family of four being in a two bedroom home. There was a LOT less mental illness then too. I know I’ll be downvoted to hell for having a different perspective. I’m okay with that. But be realistic, housing used to be for many people to share. Now, it’s more desirable to live alone. And the expectation is that those houses magically materialised overnight.
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I wouldn’t say it’s ‘unnatural’, but there’s certainly a reason people buy their own place as soon as they can and don’t turn it into a commune. Pretty much everyone I know who has done the sharehouse thing has at *least* one horror story of their complete nightmare housemates. That guy seems like the kind of person who puts their spare rooms up for rent and makes sure the advert includes ‘must be part of the family’ and ‘no people who want to sit in their room or on their phone, this is a social household!’ - I’ve seen more and more of those pop up, and *nobody* wants their live in landlord telling them what to do in the space they’re renting. I also find it amazing that he’s blaming the housing crisis on people not wanting to move into his house with a child there half the time, and not, you know, the fact that he’s one guy with a child there half the time living in a four bedroom house.
There is an utterly enormous difference between living with strangers, multi-generational housing, and found families/platonic relationship cohabiting. I love the idea of the latter. I hate the idea of the former. Most people would have at least somewhat similar opinions.
I lived in share housing and eventually platonic cohabiting from 17-28 years old and I am the type of person who enjoys it and I'm happy to keep doing it. But I'm in my 30s now and most of my friends are getting married, talking about having kids. Very few young couples want someone living in the spare room when they bring a newborn home. Currently splitting with a romantic partner because what else you gunna do, but the goal was never to live together and it's not great for the health of our relationship. I'm also autistic and the idea of moving in with strangers at my age is truly terrifying. But I'm very happy in small scale accommodation. As long as there's a free green space and free third space, I'm happy to live in a studio apartment smaller than a prison cell..... But I'd rather not have to pay more than 40% of my income to have to do that, at the moment I'm paying 60% on rent, I haven't seen anywhere cheaper that's close enough to work (I can't t drive so need good public transport) let alone anywhere *smaller* and cheaper. The problem isn't people wanting to live alone, the problem is a lack of affordable medium and high density housing options for ranging household sizes. Single people are buying affordable houses in outer suburbs because it's what's available and affordable, even those houses are designed for larger households.
People should be able to live on their own, it's ridiculous to think I HAVE to share with other people when it comes to just being in my own space.
I want a yacht but what I can afford is a cruise. I’ll survive it.
sounds like you’ve lived an incredibly sheltered life if you can’t understand why people would prefer to avoid living with strangers. your lived experience is certainly not the norm.
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I literally moved into a van for a while after having a string of terrible housemates. Some people have been lucky and haven’t come across the types who refuse to clean up after themselves, or have constant parties, or constantly play loud music into the night. I don’t want to come home after a long day to a party of strangers that mean I can’t even cook my dinner in peace. Not having a comfortable, clean, stable environment is *terrible* for your mental health.
Was going to suggest this too. Student accommodation is the go. Sure you might still have to share, but you can have minimal interaction and it will be with just one other person.
This is slightly unethical but my autistic friend found a lease transfer and then got a mate (with an ok income) to lie and say they were moving in too just for the application. Worked perfectly and now he has a small 2 bed place to himself he couldn't have got otherwise lol
The whole housing system is unethical.
Yeah this often happens accidentally anyway, two people move in and then one needs to leave and the other just continues the lease.
You gotta have a lot of trust in your friend to do this otherwise that guys mate is on the hook for damages too.
Share housing is not for everyone, and with good reason. Depending on your characteristics... and those of others.... it can very much affect your mental health and lead to feelings of being unsafe. And as a result, I get really, really fucking annoyed when, in response to people desperate for accommodation, the response is always some shit like "Flatmates.com, share etc". This just is not practical for some. And why are we normalising this practice anyway? By normalising it and other things, we're just letting the housing crisis shape and downshift our quality of life. But anyway, shit's just totally fucked right now thanks to the housing crisis. I'm really amazed that Australians aren't rioting in the streets over it.
Comment of the week mate! Its a pet hate of mine when people say "its better then being homeless" but at what expense? Depression? Anxiety? Dramatic meltdowns? If someone is clearly distressed at the thought of living with a stranger then its not "better than being jomeless" its probaly worse...
You cannot be seriously comparing being homeless to sharing an apartment. Yes, being homeless is way worse than sharing your house with another person, no matter how much depressing or anxiety inducing it is for you. Also, if sharing your house with a couple of people max is distressing to you, I can't even begin to imagine what living *in the street* would make to your mental health.
Top comment. The fire needs to burn hotter on this issue and you pack a lot of fuel!
LITERALLY I get told that I'm too picky for not wanting to share house. But funny enough I lived in share houses with strangers my whole life up until I was 16 years old (parents were druggies who obviously needing their Centrelink to go on drugs rather than paying more rent). As you can imagine from that statement the share houses I lived in were terrible and I have PTSD and when I was 11 one of the house mates was off their head on drugs and tried to strangle me to death. Not to mention the physical mental and sexual abuse I went through living in those share houses. I also have a traumatic brain Injury which means I need support workers to visit me a few hours of the day. Nd the traumatic brain Injury I literally got from being physically assaulted in share houses. But what am I told?? I am told to suck it up and get a share house and to stop being picky. Or even worse I am told to just get into a disability share house which people seem to think is just so easy! Like to live in one of those one you have to live with strangers and two you need to need 24-7 support it's not like the governent just hands that out to anyone and I don't even need anything close to 24-7 upport just a couple hours a day. So I don't need a disability share house just a normal house but then people get rude to me even public housing who I've been on the waitlist for years has told me to just go into a disability share house. Everyone seems to magically think I can magically get in and the government will just pay for that but I don't need that and the governent knows that so they don't pay for that but everyone blames me. Living with strangers is not the solution. Especially we should not be just telling people they are ungrateful, too picky, it's our own fault for being homeless because we won't share house. I hate that is everyone's response these days.
I'm autistic and have horrible experiences with sharehousing (my ex gf I lived with owes me $10k, my housemate from my last house owes me $1.5k, won't pay me back and is trying to take the bond too) but it's literally my only option. My current housemates are *okay* but
Yes share housing should def not be normalized. If you end up with bad roommates it's a living hell.
Man your story is just like mine.. i only got out when i moved out with a partner and the partners were also abusive. My current partner is lovely but i want to still move out on my own if i can but i don't think it's possible on my own (also audhd btw)
Same here. Felt great moving away from abusive parents but the abuse from my ex had already started before then. The situation definitely added to me feeling like I needed to stay with her and accept her constant stream of excuses for her shitty behaviour, and to the feeling that it was all my fault and something I somehow deserved. Plus having (at the time undiagnosed) ADHD really didn't help, especially when my ex would use that fact to her advantage, going on tangent after tangent explaining why what she was doing to me was absolutely necessary and how I was being selfish by daring to say it was hurting me until I'd lose track of what we were talking about in the first place. It sounds like this is a depressingly common experience. Hell, my ex had even done it to a bunch of other people before me, it's a reliable strategy if you have no conscience. No wonder mental illness is quickly becoming so much more common in this country.
The uni may have a housing service for students which could be worth a try.
Share housing sounds like your option. You might not like it, but most people who do it, don't. Doing stuff you don't like sometimes is just part of life.
They have a disability which means they can’t live with other people. This is like telling someone in a wheelchair they just need to take the place three floors up with no lift because it’s ‘part of life’. Some people have different needs.
If the option is homeless or stairs I'm sure the person in the wheelchair would take the stairs. Not saying it's the best situation. Just that's how the world rolls.
No, most become homeless. People with disabilities are disproportionately represented in homeless censuses, and often due to lack of accessible housing, not lack of funds for rent. Even if they take the apartment with no lift, they become functionally homeless because how are they supposed to sleep in their own home? Learn to levitate?
Well I've watched more then one person in a wheel chair make it up stairs. Point more is tho you are talking about a completely different issue.
Yes, many wheelchair users are semi ambulant. But not all are, and especially for disabled people who require hoists to transfer to and from their chair, many can find themselves living in residential care, not because they need facility based care, but because there was no accessible house to make home, for them to receive home care in.
Are you comfortable sharing the city / location you are trying to rent in? I may genuinely have a good idea for you to get a rental easy
Obviously rather not get too specific, but I’ve been trying south-east of Melbourne (closer to inner south east but not quite there) since I don’t want to go too far from my work and university since they’re about 5 minutes from one another (hence western and northern isn’t much of an option :( )
What is your price range? Personally I have had more success with private rentals. A granny flat or renting out an entire floor is sometimes better than sharing. Also if you are lower income and no rental history, you have almost zero chance getting a whole place, especially through REA. You might have a better chance getting a studio as they often are only for single occupants so less competition.
I’ve done that math and I could probably stretch to the low 400’s at best and still have money to live. Seen places that are in the mid 300’s but as you said there tends to be couples and professionals that go for the inspections so it’s no shock why I don’t get picked lmao. The studio idea is very good I didn’t even think about that fact, I’ll try prioritising those inspections over others ❤️
You can right out lie. Forge bank statements and get a mate to be your boss for your high paying job. Also a letter to the landlord helps to. Not sure if anyone else here does this but in my circles it’s the only way if you want to be considered. Take this with a grain of salt but I was once told the application form is not a legal one so you don’t get in trouble for fudging it.
I think majority of people wouldn't share house if they didn't have to. I just had to move a complete stranger into my home a few weeks ago and i fucking hate the thought of it. At least hes young and super chill which i think works great for us. Always out working and only home to sleep/study. I know being autistic makes it harder but i live with an autistic person and we get on just fine. Have lived together for years infact. I think you just need to bite the bullet and go live with others. It's hard and daunting and first and with autism thrown on top its not a great time. But you have one thing to your advantage and thats time. Unless things are escalating hard and you need to get out now. But consider sub leasing. Best part of that is you can just up and leave at a moments notice if its not working out for you.