Father puts his kids in care and lives in a car because of Australia's deepening housing and cost of living crises Father puts kids in care and lives in car Blames the housing and cost of living crisis READ MORE: Single photo of Sydneysiders queuing at Martin Place highlights cost-of-living and homelessness crises By Max Aitchison For Daily Mail Australia Published: 10:44 EDT, 20 August 2023 | Updated: 11:36 EDT, 20 August 2023 e-mail View comments A desperate father has been forced to put his children in care homes and live in his car because of the nation's spiralling cost of living crisis. Shane, from South Australia , has been living in a broken-down vehicle in North Adelaide with his wife since the end of last year. He made the painful decision to relinquish custody of his children to the state while he tries to get back on his feet, in the hope it will give them a brighter start in life. 'Our kids are in care because we can't afford to buy the house that we need for our four kids to be doing the things that they need to do,' an emotional Shane told 7News . 'They're just reaching those ages where everything costs money (and) kids need money.' Shane and the broken-down car he lives in with his wife in North Adelaide READ MORE: Brisbane protests: Construction workers and CFMEU members march across city as they demand action on housing crisis CFMEU members during a rally in Melbourne in April this year, calling for reforms to industrial relations and the Fair Work Ombudsman Advertisement Each day is a battle for survival for Shane and his wife. In the morning they travel to the city where they are offered free food by some local businesses and at night they scour local shopping centres for discounted meals. Shane has been unable to get help with housing because of the unprecedented demand in South Australia. 'I've been in the industry a long time, and I've never seen it this bad,' said Nicole Dwyer, chief executive of employment provider Workskil Australia. 'Any housing provider you speak to, the demand for services is unprecedented.' WorkSkil has even been handing out around 150 swags each month to jobseekers who have no place to live. The Mission Australia charity has claimed more than 122,000 Australians are homeless on any given night. To put that figure in context, if Australia's homeless were in one place, it would be the nation's 18th biggest city, just behind Darwin in terms of population size. Escalating basic living costs such as rent, power and groceries are now believed to be making housing more unaffordable for people on the margins. Rental vacancy rates are still around half what they were pre-Covid. Last month, vacancy rates increased slightly to 1.45 per cent, with more rental properties coming on to the market contributing to the modest rise. But the return of migrants, students and tourists to Australia could mean vacancy rates will worsen. It comes as national rents have increased an estimate 27.4 per cent on average since the start of the pandemic - equivalent to almost $130 a week per each average household, according to CoreLogic. Share or comment on this article: Father puts his kids in care and lives in a car because of Australia's deepening housing and cost of living crises e-mail Add comment Comments 0 Share what you think No comments have so far been submitted. Why not be the first to send us your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards. Add your comment Enter your comment By posting your comment you agree to our house rules . Submit Comment Clear Close Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. No Yes Close Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook. You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy .