More than 50 people are estimated to be living in a campground at Moruya, as the South Coast battles a housing crisis forcing families to sleep rough.
Sonia Wellington has been living in a tent with her partner and eight-year-old grandson for about five months. Her adult nephew Justin Green moved in several weeks ago after struggling to find an affordable option on the South Coast.
"I've got my eight-year-old grandson and it's hard to get him to school. You haven't got a bus that comes out," she said.
"We've got no where else to go."
Ms Wellington said her rent went up $45 a week to $700 a fortnight during COVID, which was unaffordable on her $718 fortnightly JobSeeker payment.
Having moved into social housing through the NSW Aboriginal Land Council, Ms Wellington said she was forced out when that property was sold.
She said her only option was to move to the campground while she waited for another house to become available.
In the camp next door, a family with four children have also spent months waiting for something affordable to come up.
Ms Wellington said they all looked out for each other, but it hadn't been easy. She said giving her grandson a bath meant boiling water in pots on the fire.
"Winter was absolutely freezing," she said.
Housing in the Eurobodalla Shire was already stretched prior to the Black Summer Bushfires, when 501 houses were lost. Sea changers moving to the region during COVID, coupled with the region's increasing popularity as a tourist destination has further priced local residents out of the market.
The growth of Airbnb is thought to be increasingly compounding the issue.
Eurobodalla Council manage the Moruya's North Head campground and have allowed residents to stay beyond the NSW government's 50-day limit.
Mayor Mathew Hatcher wrote to NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet in December asking for help to deal with what he has called a critical situation.
Mr Hatcher has suggested the NSW government could purchase a motel or block of units to temporarily house people in crisis.
He said NSW Labor's election commitment to pilot a build-to-rent program on the South Coast had his support, although it wouldn't fix the current crisis.
"The reality is it will be years before this housing is available.
"We need action now that will deliver immediate solutions to providing accommodation for those who are homeless, including people living at council's North Head campground.
"These are primitive campgrounds, meaning there is no permanent hot water or enclosed showers. They simply aren't a suitable place for people to be living permanently.
"I don't want people living in freezing cold tents again this winter."
