At the St John's Crisis Centre in Surfers Paradise, times are always tough.
The service provided about 33,000 free meals last year for people facing homelessness.
But manager Dianne Kozik said she has been seeing more "people with homes but they’re just struggling".
"By coming to us it means they can then pay their rent, pay their utility bills," she said.
"If you came to us Monday to Friday, you would not need to fork out any money for food."
The cost of living has been rising rapidly, with record-high fuel prices set to push the price of everyday items such as groceries even higher.
The housing market has been prohibitively competitive and unaffordable for many — a problem compounded by the loss of properties in recent floods.
Even coffee has been tipped to reach $7 a cup by the end of the year.
First-timers needing help
Ms Kozik said "because life is so tough", more people have been accessing support for the first time.
"If you lost your job tomorrow, how long would it be until you were going 'I can't pay my mortgage, I can't pay the rent'," Ms Kozik said.
"There are a lot more people living in their cars, families, than there were a year ago."
But Dianne Kozik said she was "really concerned about interest rates".
"There have been a lot of people that have gone out there and have bought a property on a really low interest rate, and geez, it only needs to double," she said.
'It does sound bleak'
Queensland Council of Social Service chief executive Aimee McVeigh said the rising cost of living "does sound very bleak".
"Not only are people coming out of the shock of two years of a pandemic, to be hit by a flood and now to be facing increased costs."
In its 2021 Living Affordability report, QCOSS found that housing accounted for between 33 and 46 per cent of the weekly budget for people on low incomes across the Gold Coast.
Ms McVeigh said low income earners would be "acutely" affected by fuel prices.
"What we mean by that is keeping a roof over your head, three meals on the table, taking your kids to the doctor and having a little money in the bank for those emergencies that come along," she said.
Housing a consistent problem
Median vacancy rates remain below one per cent on the Gold Coast, according to SQM Research, with about three per cent considered balanced.
Ms McVeigh said "we're expecting the housing crisis that we're experiencing in Queensland is going to get a lot worse".
"Rising rent prices, pressure on your social housing register and almost no rental availability."
Ms McVeigh said about 150,000 people on the Gold Coast relied on some form of income support.
"There are just over 3,000 families on the social housing register and about two-thirds of those families have a person with disability," she said.
"You might be a woman escaping domestic violence, you could be a person with disability, you could be an older person ... these are the kind of people waiting for up to four years."
Govt seeks 'innovative solutions'
The state government has committed $2.9 billion to increase the supply of social housing over the next four years, with plans to build 7,400 new dwellings.
Housing Minister Leeanne Enoch said the broader housing market has been under additional pressure from high levels of interstate migration.
"Before this major [flood] event we were seeing housing stress right across the state," Ms Enoch said on the Gold Coast last week.
"Innovative solutions are what we're looking for.
"Everything from whether it's relocatable homes, everything from the granny flat situation, what are the planning laws that local councils have in place that might prevent those innovative ideas moving forward?
"How do we fast-track some of those bills we were already putting in place with regards to social and affordable homes?"
