Hillsview Tourism Park sits on the outskirts of the lead smelting city of Port Pirie in regional South Australia.
It is not the typical holiday park filled with grey nomads and contract workers moving through town. For some tenants, it is their permanent home.
A zero per cent vacancy rate for local rental properties means it is almost impossible to find a private rental and the waiting list for public housing is long.
Caravans line the gravel entrance to the park all the way to the back perimeter, where empty pastoral land stretches as far as the eye can see.
'I'm pissed off'
Pregnant caravan park resident Tayla Soan has been living at Hillsview for more than two years.
She says she has applied for more than 40 private rental properties in that time.
Her partner is on a disability pension and unable to work, and Tayla receives fortnightly JobSeeker payments.
She believes her financial situation makes her an undesirable candidate for the city's landlords.
"It's pretty much that they are giving [properties] to someone else because I don't have a job or income," Tayla says.
"It's not helping people that actually need housing."
Costing $370 a fortnight, not including power, Tayla's caravan barely fits her and her partner, though they have managed to keep their cat.
She says she is making it work right now but has no desire to have her baby in the caravan.
"I don't really want to raise a child in a caravan. It would just be so hard."
'Go live in a tent'
Just metres away from the permanent caravans and closer to the park entrance is a set of well-kept cabins.
In one cabin, Jodie Sherry has just brought three of her seven children home from school.
Jodie says she has been without a home for two months after her landlord decided to sell the rental she was living in.
"All my seven kids are with me in the one cabin," she says. "It's putting a lot of strain and stress on me."
Jodie currently pays $560 a week for the cabin, a cost she is not sure she will be able to cover next week.
She receives some welfare payments but is down to her last $400 until the next payment comes through.
She is also on a waiting list for public housing, a list she knows is long.
Jodie says she quickly dismissed the idea of living in a tent, partly because one of her children has health issues and another has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Daphne's place
Hillsview Tourism Park owner Daphne Hill knows how important her park is to its permanent residents.
Some 18 residents currently occupy Daphne's permanent caravans, of which she has 20.
"It has been quite recent — the last six, maybe 12 months — that accommodation in Port Pirie has become really dire," she says.
"So if we've got a caravan available, we've got a caravan for someone who needs it."
The permanent residents have, at times, affected her business.
She says some tourists who book a spot with her arrive, don't like the look of the park, and disappear moments later.
"We have people who don't even come in. They take one look from the driveway and leave."
'We've had to hand out tents'
Harry Randhawa is the chief executive of Uniting Country SA, the community service provider that told temporary Hillsview resident Jodie to try living in a tent.
Dr Randhawa is not surprised to hear it.
"My heart does break for her, but at the end of the day, putting a roof over someone's head is our first priority and an employee might say something like that," he says.
Dr Randhawa has some recommendations for a housing situation he describes as being in crisis.
"I would love to see a system for community housing organisations like ours to be able to build and develop social and affordable housing under a demand-driven system.
"To describe what we currently have in the community housing space as a system — well, system would be a polite way to describe it."
Pregnant welfare recipient Tayla taps on the window of her caravan to greet her cat as she ponders what might happen if she cannot find a house before her due date.
She decides she will have to move back in with her parents on Kangaroo Island, five and half hours away from her partner.
"[Tayla's] situation is really heartbreaking but we have a whole number of people on our books whose situations trump hers," Dr Randhawa says.
