LIFE’S IN-TENTS
I’m a mum who works six days a week – but I’ll be forced to live in a TENT and a car as I can’t afford to pay rent
A MUM who works six days a week could be forced to live in a tent and her car because she can't afford to pay rent.
Jessica and her nine-year-old son were left homeless after their landlord evicted them from the family house to renovate it.
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The struggling mum has submitted rental applications for 60 properties but has been knocked back every single time.
Now the Aussie fears losing her son and is begging "someone" to help her and other low-income earners find stable housing.
She told Aussie news show Four Corners there were simply "no vacancies in town" and had resorted to calling her sister, who lives above a pub, for help.
"Children aren't allowed above the pub but there was no choice," she explained.
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"I paid for my own accommodation out in the caravan park. It's the cheapest place I could get a cabin. That's $110 (£60) a night and that's the cheapest in town."
This was despite being offered 28 days crisis accommodation and applying for 10 properties a week.
"Essentially, my son will have to go with my sister. I'm in the back of her car, but if not, I've got a tent to sleep in. That's scary.
"I don't want to lose my boy. A simple thing of not being able to house my son means I could lose him and that's not that's not fair when I raised him solely.
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"To work so hard and to get so far and to have everything gone from underneath you.
"Not for my own choices. Not because you're a bad mum. No. It's because there is no housing. You go through every avenue to try and you get nothing."
She called on Australia's PM, Anthony Albanese, to give mums like her more support to find housing.
"Help us, help us do something. Help the low-income earners and the unemployed to get good stable housing," she said.
"Just help us. We need help. Someone needs to do something for us."
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Australia is in the middle of a crippling rental crisis with low housing stocks driving up rent by 10 per cent since the beginning of 2022.
According to research data by Domain, Australia's national rental vacancy rate is at a record low 0.9 per cent - down from 41.8 percent on £230-a-week rentals at the start of 2020.
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