It's often prescribed as a solution for those struggling with the lack of affordable housing in cities like Sydney: just move to the country.
However, those people living on low incomes in coastal regions of NSW are faring just as badly as city dwellers as they hunt for an affordable roof over their head.
In Nowra, on the south coast of NSW, a lack of affordable housing is cited as one of the main driving forces behind a surge in homelessness.
Last year, the problem became so acute homeless people resorted to sleeping rough at the local showground.
This unprecedented phenomenon has tested the social fabric of this small town, inspiring both compassion, and fear and loathing.
The tsunami from the city
Judy Stubbs, an expert in social planning at UNSW, has studied the Shoalhaven — the region that takes in Nowra.
Over the past decade, huge numbers of low income earners have fled Sydney, Dr Stubbs said.
"That tsunami from Sydney is rolling down the coast," she said.
"In net terms, everybody who has moved into the Shoalhaven in the last 10 years has come from Sydney.
"That profile tends to be tree change, but also increasingly low income people."
It's a perfect storm. The proportion of people living on low incomes has increased, while the proportion of affordable properties has decreased.
"For the very low income households, who are largely the people who are the homeless population on pensions and benefits or no income at all, there is really almost nothing available for them," she said.
Kerri Snowdon from the Shoalhaven Homeless Hub says people started sleeping rough at the Nowra showground because they had no other choice.
"There is nowhere else for people to go. This was the last resort. People don't want to be up there in the heat, the wind, the wet," she said.
No shelter at the showground
At a meeting of Shoalhaven City Council in late 2016 a crowd of 130 residents turned up.
Council had been bending the rules by letting the homeless stay at the showground, but many residents wanted that to end.
"We know we have a problem in the town with it. It's everywhere around the place," Peter Maconochie, a Nowra local, told the council.
"But this showground is our showground and we want it back.
"This is a showground. It is not a camping ground for drunks and drugs ... we want the showground back for the use of the people, not as a dumping ground. It is disgraceful."
After a heated three-hour meeting, the council voted to ban tents from the showground — essentially an eviction notice for the homeless.
Driven into dense bushland
While the homeless are now out of sight, most still do not have a roof over their head.
Peter Dover, a pastor at Salt Ministries, has been trying to find where the homeless have moved on to.
"Moving them on? That's not what is happening, they are getting kicked out," he said.
"These people are being scattered, some are in dense bushlands without any services at all. It's quite scary."
Ash McHudson, a volunteer with Salt Ministries, drives the Salt Mobile Response van, providing food and supplies to Nowra's homeless.
"We know that some are staying in their cars and couch surfing, or going on a list to stay in a caravan park, but other than that, we don't know," she said.
One woman, who did not want to be identified, said that when a ranger told her to leave the showground she went deeper into the bush.
"Sometimes I don't feel so safe," she said. "There has been a few nights where you hear some things out in the bush and the dogs start growling.
"I don't even have any defence. The only defence I have is one of the tent pegs. So it is a bit scary."
Another woman, Sharron, has been sleeping in her car on and off for nearly a year. She struggles to even find a place she's allowed to park.
"I parked at the showgrounds for three days in a row and I was told if I didn't get out of the showground they would fine me $800," she said.
"Everywhere I seem to park I get fines. I went out to Huskisson and I got fined $230 for parking out at the beach. You can't park in the main street because the police move you on. They put it down to loitering."
'No other place to go'
Someone like Vernon, who lives on Newstart, has virtually no chance of being able to afford somewhere to rent.
He lives in a van with his two dogs, and says he thinks some local residents don't understand that the homeless community is full of good people.
"We're all tarred with one brush, but we are all like a little community ... we all help each other," he said.
After the council banned tents from the showground, some of the homeless, like Vernon, got round the ban by staying in vans.
But when the show came to the showground in mid-February, the final group was moved on.
"Apparently you can't go here, you can't go to Kangaroo Valley, you can't go to Berry, you can't go anywhere like that ... it's buggered," Vernon said.
Ms Snowdon, from the Homeless Hub, is frustrated. She has homeless people turning up on her doorstep, and she is out of options.
"There is no other place they can camp, that they can access today. There is no way they can get private rental," she said.
"They are here today and they have to find somewhere they can go. And a lot of them have dogs and the dogs are their life.
"I don't know what we're going to do today. Sometimes it's like banging your head against the brick wall."
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