A bitter winter and nowhere else to go: Hobart housing crisis forcing people to live in tents

Scott Gadd, manager of the Hobart showgrounds, and Hannah, who lives at the showgrounds in a tent with her partner as the rental crisis in Hobart forces people to sleep outdoors in winter. Photograph: Peter Whyte/The Guardian

Sitting in the Tasmanian winter sun cuddling her neighbour’s fluffy white dog, Hannah is typical of many 21-year-olds, and studying hard. But unlike most of her peers, she logs on to her administration course from a patched-up tent where she lives with her partner, Dylan, who is off work with a broken foot. Snow-capped Mount Wellington looms in the background of a place where Antarctic blasts bring freezing nights.

Hannah and Dylan are part of a growing number of working poor forced into tents and caravans, and among those who now shelter at the showgrounds of one of the nation’s coldest cities.