It's been decades since I have visited Townsville, but I always felt it was a bit of an underappreciated place. I made my first visit there backpacking as a university student, and thought Magnetic Island was a lovely backwater that might do well in future development. Yet I get the impression it has never really "taken off" - although perhaps I should just go there and have a look.
Anyway, my impression from recent years of reporting about Townsville was that it was suffering economically and had large social problems with some pretty poor unemployed and indigenous families in particular.
Yet today, I read this on the ABC:
A North Queensland family of six has been forced to live in a tent for almost two months as rental shortages reach crisis point in Townsville.....
The Kennison family is among a growing number of residents in Townsville finding themselves homeless for the first time.
With the rental vacancy rate in the city at 1.2 per cent — largely driven by interstate migration and the return of ex-pats to the community — Townsville is not alone.
Across the state, the majority of rental vacancies remain under 2.5 per cent, according to the Real Estate Institute of Queensland (REIQ)
The Red Cross in Townsville is supporting more than 200 people every month who are experiencing problems with securing affordable accommodation.
Maybe because it hasn't been doing so well in recent years it hasn't had more housing built? But you usually associate lack of enough housing with boom towns, not economic struggle towns.
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