A family has been forced to leave their life in Australia because they could not find a home amid the nation's chronic rental crisis. Dominique Tetreault and her husband Scott Kennedy left Queensland for Quebec, Canada , on Thursday with their three children aged seven, 12 and Ms Tetreault arrived in Australia 20 years ago as a backpacker but Mr Kennedy and the children were all born in Australia.
They left in to travel the world in the hopes of returning to the Gold Coast to find a new house. The family sold their Currumbin Waters home that year before the Covid pandemic struck - and before the ensuing rental crisis emerged. Since returning in October they have come to the 'horrendous' realisation that they can't find another house in the city they call home.
Dominique Tetreault, her husband Scott Kennedy and their three children pictured are moving to Canada because they cannot find a rental in Australia. Ms Tetreault told the Gold Coast Bulletin that she had 'tried everything' to find another house but the only option left was to leave.
School was starting in a few days for my children. I needed a roof for them in a safe place,' she said. You need to find a place for your family. So I spoke to my husband and we decided on Canada. The couple enrolled their children at a school in the Gold Coast suburb of Elanora in anticipation of returning to the country but only recently realised rental prices had gone 'through the roof'.
Their plan was to switch from owning a home to renting one but looking back, Ms Tetreault estimates that the property she sold in has doubled in price.
