In Windsor, an affluent suburb in Melbourne’s inner southeast, there’s a pristine multibedroom house that has stood unoccupied since 2018. But it’s not abandoned — judging by makeshift locks built from twisted coat hangers and dog leash chains, the owners have tried to secure the house against squatters.

In a city where one in twenty houses is vacant, it’s a symbol of a system that prioritizes investors over people who need somewhere to live. And it’s also why Jordie van den Lamb — better known on social media as “purplepingers” — suggested the backyard as a good spot to chat with Jacobin about Australia’s housing crisis.

Van den Lamb, by day a twenty-eight-year-old public servant, is an outspoken housing activist. His uncompromising social media crusade on behalf of renters and people experiencing housing stress or homelessness has earned him the ire of real estate agents and landlords everywhere. After gaining an audience thanks to “Shit Rentals,” a series reviewing dangerous and often illegal properties, van den Lamb founded a website of the same name. Now hosting over 1700 reviews of crap properties, dodgy property managers, and landlords from hell, it’s a weapon designed to help renters turn the tables in a fight that was rigged against them years ago.