Haya Arzidin and her family have rented the same house for three years in the south of New South Wales.
She and her partner work casually and earn a lower income than the average Australian, but they have always been able to make rent in Wagga Wagga.
But when their lease of three years expired earlier this year, they emerged into an "unrecognisable" rental market.
"The rental crisis has just, it's gone crazy," Ms Arzidin said.
"A lot of the rentals that I inspected were places that I inspected a few years ago, and they're in the exact same quality with no improvements and a good $100, $150 or $200 more dear with issues like black mould."
Unable to find a rental by their move-out date, Ms Arzidin and her family are now living in a friend's backroom with their belongings stored in their shed.
"So we've got our mattresses on the floor, and on one side of the wall, we've got our essentials," she said
"All four of us are in there, me and my partner and our two kids in one room."
She said they could not see a way out of the situation at this stage.
Extreme rental stress
A new housing report from CoreLogic and ANZ shows rental affordability has plummeted since the beginning of the pandemic.
Across the country, low-income earners are spending an average of 50 per cent of their income on rent, far above the recommended 30 per cent.
"Rental housing can be summed up as a bit of a failure," said Eliza Owen, CoreLogic's head of research.
"Across regional New South Wales, you have … one of the worst measures of rental affordability behind Hobart."
She said in the state's regions, low-income households needed to spend 57 per cent of their income on rent, leading to "extreme rental stress".
In southern NSW, prices have increased dramatically since the pandemic.
The Riverina recorded a median rent price increase of 25 per cent, and the nearby Murray region recorded an almost 45 per cent jump.
Ms Owen said a drop-off in investment buying and previous regional migration had put pressure on the market.
"There are many, many factors that have gotten us to this point, " she said.
"And I think, as well as making sure that the most vulnerable are taken care of, we need to take a serious look at how we provide rental accommodation in Australia."
Ms Arzidin said the figures correlated with her experience on the market.
"We were finding that as time went on, rent was pretty much 50 per cent of our income or more," she said.
"It's a level of absolute disappointment that I can't explain. It just feels so dehumanising."
Rental market 'dire' for low earners
Wagga Wagga real estate agent Paul Gooden said he had never seen a rental market like this.
"It's pretty dire still. Even properties at the bottom end of the rental market are expensive," he said.
Mr Gooden said instances of homelessness were on the rise as rents climbed.
"In Wagga now, we see quite a few examples of people living in tents and makeshift accommodation," he said.
"Because at the lower end of that social spectrum, there's just no space for them, and once there was."
Ms Owen said the figures showed more people were likely to find themselves in the same situation as Ms Arzidin.
"There's not a lot of reprieve in the short term," Ms Owen said.
"And what you'll see in the short term is more tenants getting into shared housing and overcrowded housing."
