A Gold Coast charity is using state funding to fly homeless Kiwis in Australia back to New Zealand and says it’s offering more of these flights than ever as Queensland grapples with a growing housing crisis.

With New Zealanders crossing the Tasman in record numbers, the Nerang Neighbourhood Centre – who supported local families in need and specialised helping Kiwis across Australia – is concerned many may be arriving unprepared.

Dave Porter is one homeless New Zealander in Queensland who has lived in Australia for 16 years.

Stark warning for Kiwis jumping the ditch as housing crisis deepens – Watch on TVNZ+

“We’ve tried everything, like I was working up until about four, five months ago, then I got an injury and I couldn’t work and it just, yeah, went downhill.”

Until recently, Porter had been living at a caravan park. Now, he lives in his van.

“The owner sold it, and the new people who bought it basically turfed us.”

The Real Estate Institute of Queensland said the sunshine state had the lowest rate of home ownership in Australia, and rental prices have skyrocketed.

Nerang Neighbourhood Centre general manager Vicky Rose said: “Increasingly with our New Zealand cohort, the only option is going back to New Zealand, more often than not.”

The organisation has offered an all-expenses-paid flights back to Aotearoa for the last decade, using emergency relief funding provided by the government.

“It came about from a need at the end of the day, the economic climate here is just getting worse, we’re having the conversation a couple of times a week, I dare say we’re sending a couple back a month.”

Australian government ministers referred 1News to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, which said it was aware circumstances “can change quickly” for New Zealanders living in Australia, and some may wish to return home, and acknowledged the support available.

Rose said the New Zealand High Commissioner and the Sydney consulate knew about the centre’s work, which included sending people back to New Zealand.

According to Stats NZ, a record 72,000 New Zealanders left in the year to September, primarily headed to Australia.

“It scares me,” Rose said. “The amount of numbers that are coming out of New Zealand at the moment to Australia, I just hope they’ve done their research.”

Despite his situation, Porter said he would rather stay, and was worried he’d be no better off in New Zealand.

“I’ve heard from people that I know who have gone back… way too expensive.”