Isabelle (not her real name)is a single mother fromthe Bega Valley and, despite renting all her life, she has recently found herself without a place to call home.
The 42-year-old has spent more than six months applying for rentals across New South Wales, from places in Wollongong to the Victorian border and up into the Snowy Mountains.
However, like many in the far south coast area, she hasbeen unsuccessful in securing a place to live.
"It's humiliating telling people that we're homeless and it's terrifying," she said.
"Especially being a mother of a 12-year-old child who doesn't know when he's going to have a stable roof over his head."
Mission Australia has helped her family find some temporary accommodation on the far south coast.
Isabelle relies on her disability pension for income and she is now sleeping at a motel in Eden withher son and her brother.
She said while she was grateful for a roof over their heads, she was concerned about how long they couldcontinue to pay $600 a week for the two rooms.
"It's not something we can afford," she said.
"But there are no options, absolutely no options left, short of sleeping in the car."
Local serviceproviders across the South East of NSW said there simply was not enough housing stock to keep up with the "ever-increasing" demand.
Southern Cross Housing's chief operating officer Eric Coulter said it couldtake more than a decade for people on the list for social housing to get a property.
"In our areas, we're looking at a minimum wait time on a social housing waitlist of between fiveand 10 years," he said.
"For some properties, it's beyond 10 years."
However, Mr Coulter said to fix the issue there needed to be input from everybody.
"While we need to lead the way [to fix] homelessness and the ongoing crisis it's not just a government or not-for-profit solution," he said.
"It needs everybody to be involved in it."
Isabelle believesvoters need to think about the housing crisis during the upcoming Bega and Monaro by-electionson February 12.
She said it was time for the government to take urgent action and properlyaddress the issue.
"The people that we are voting for are the ones that have our lives literally in their hands and they need to step up," she said.
"That's what they're paid for."
Last week, the NSW government announced $30 million to address the housing crisis. Eligible councils can apply for $1.4 million each to fast-track the supply of shovel-ready land for homes.
Liberal candidate for the Bega by-election Fiona Kotvjos said the funding was just one of the many strategies needed to address the issue.
"This announcement is one announcement that will help address housing and there is a range of strategies that we need to take," she said.
"A lot of the real challenges that we face are a consequence of a lack of a really integrated approach and that's what we need to do."
Both major party candidates are yet torelease any specific policies that they would bring to government if elected but agreed more money and work was needed to address the issue.
Labor's Bega candidateMichael Hollandsaid government taxes could be better usedto address the shortages.
"They're raising lots of taxes through housing with stamp duty, land taxes, and the taxes that they raise through Airbnb," he said.
"That could be fed back into supporting housing."
Isabelle said, regardless of the by-election result, politicians needed to use their positions of power to make meaningful change for vulnerable Australians.
"I don't even know where I'm going next week, living pay chequeto pay cheque," she said.
"I'm having to ask for help from services and [politicians] couldn't even imagine the humiliation of that.
"You can build a house but let us make it a home."
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