The Sandoval family has had three homes in three months since moving to Australia. Here's why

Camilo Sandoval and his wife Amelia Vergara say Australia's housing crisis has forced them to move three times since arriving in the country in July, and it threatens their dream of raising their family Down Under.

Camilo Sandoval, his wife, Amelia Vergara, and their son Natán (5) have been forced to move three times since arriving in Australia in late July. Credit: Camilo Sandoval

Key Points

• Camilo Sandoval, his wife Amelia Vergara and their young son are in Australia on temporary visas.
• The current housing crisis has seen them forced to move three times in three months.
• They have finally secured a single room in a share house.

After being asked to leave their shared house in the suburb of Box Hill, Camilo Sandoval says his family had no choice but to "aimlessly" catch a train into the Melbourne CBD to secure a place to sleep that night.

Along with his wife Amelia Vergara and their son five-year-old son Natán, the family was at its "lowest point", Mr Sandoval laments.

Luckily, they received a call offering a discounted room in a three-star hotel 90 minutes from the city centre, where they remained for a week while searching for alternative accommodation.

The couple from Chile says Australia's housing crisis has impacted their family particularly hard, while their visa stipulations are hindering their ability to afford a place to live.

Ms Vergara studies full-time while her husband works, however, as he's on a temporary visa, he's only permitted to work 24 hours a week.

After encountering "roadblock after roadblock" trying to secure a place to live, the family accessed support networks of fellow migrants in the same situation.

“[Other migrants have] taken the time to ask us how we are doing, to help us find places to live, to transport us, even to give us food, to give us money for food. It was really special,” Ms Vergara tells SBS Spanish.

Amelia, Natán and Camilo Sandoval. Credit: Camilo Sandoval.

Mr Sandoval says while they understood that other tenants of their first shared house were disrupted by their son's noises including yelling, singing, crying and playing indoors, they had felt "discriminated against".

“That's when our [house] hunting journey began and the living from house to house.

"We jumped from one place to another for a month."

After their stay on the outskirts of Melbourne, they found temporary lodgings in an apartment they found through a church contact.

They now live in one room in a shared house in Pascoe Vale, in Melbourne's north, and say they're grateful that the arrangement is for the longer term.

Thank God ... now we have a place to rest our heads.

Camilo Sandoval

Housing crisis and financial stress

Australia is experiencing a housing crisis that impacts various sectors of the population in all parts of the country.

A recent study by the charity, Anglicare Australia, indicates that the effect of the housing crisis is much deeper than expected and that the perception that residential rental prices are high only in cities such as Sydney and Melbourne is completely wrong.

Anglicare Australia Executive Director Casey Chambers says the results of the study show that even people with jobs and a willingness to live far from big cities cannot find affordable housing.

Housing in all states and territories is generally unaffordable, but we found that, in Western Australia, the (Australian) Capital Territory and the Northern Territory, properties are slightly cheaper.

Casey Chambers.

The survey focused on the affordability of nearly 46,000 rental properties, advertised during a specific weekend across the country.

According to Anglicare, the results reveal that in the case of essential workers, even those with average incomes would not be able to pay the rents of the homes advertised during the survey weekend, even properties that were located far from large cities.

“What we found surprised us, we couldn't believe that in terms of affordability, even among workers, such as firefighters and teachers, they wouldn't be able to pay the prices of most of the available properties during the weekend we conducted the survey," Ms Chambers says.

"For this group, only three per cent of those 46,000 properties were affordable."

Trapped in the middle of a rental crisis

If the reality for people who receive a salary and live permanently in Australia is difficult, for temporary visa holders, life is even harder, Mr Sandaval says.

“We used different apps to find houses, but when you get to the inspections, there are 10 or 15 people for a single house. Applying is very challenging, it's crazy,” he says.

Ms Vergara added, “They ask for payslips but since we are newcomers, we don't have many, and sometimes they even ask for two years of information related to living here, things like income history, but you don't have that either.”

"There are many things you could add to get a better score when applying for a house to rent, but unfortunately we didn't have those because we had just arrived."

Camilo Sandoval, Amelia Vergara and Natán arrived in Melbourne in late July 2023. Credit: Camilo Sandoval

Ms Vergara says oftentimes securing a place to live was made more difficult as they had a child.

“There were places we could share, but usually it was a room inside a house, so they told us it was going to be too small for the three of us because it had only one bed,” she said.

“It's not a problem for us to sleep with our son, but in most cases, they told us that we needed two rooms or a house for ourselves and that they couldn't help us, because the place was very small, and the cost was going to go up.”

The couple say they also found certain buildings where children are not allowed.

Listen to the full story of Camilo, Amelia and Natán by pressing the play icon at the top of the page.