Aldinga Beach mum’s nine-year wait for housing trust home – despite being category one

A single mum has waited nine years for Housing SA to remember her – despite being classified as the highest priority at times.

A southern-suburbs mother waiting for a Housing SA home for nearly a decade – sometimes sleeping on couches – says she is shocked to hear public housing is being sold off.

When Sam Hall of Aldinga Beach first joined the Housing SA waiting list, of nearly 20,000 people in 2013, she was listed as a category-three case – the lowest priority – but has since been moved to a category one and back to a category two as her situation deteriorated.

“They told me that I had to be living in a tent or completely homeless before they’d helped me,” she said.

“Apparently since I can afford to rent a home I’m not their problem, but on the amount of money I receive from my pension I am struggling to get by.”

The Advertiser revealed on Friday that 120 available Housing Trust homes were sold last financial year.

Ms Hall has lived with her mother for the past four years until she finally found a rental property in June 2021. She was shocked to hear homes were being sold despite her years of sleeping from couch to couch.

Sam Hall with her son Jedd, 9, at their rental home south of the city. Picture: Tricia Watkinson

“I was never offered one of those 120 houses, I have never been offered a house in past nine years.

“Each of those homes is one that I could have lived in. It just makes me mad knowing that there was a solution to my problems and they sold it away.”

Ms Hall suffers from a speech difficulty that has made it hard for her to find work to pay for treatment and therapy for her son Jedd, 9, who has autism.

“Currently with the money we have coming in most of it goes to rent and whatever I have remaining goes towards looking after my son.”

The 30-year-old currently receives roughly $900 a fortnight from her disability pension and a further $270 from the family tax benefit.

After paying her rent of $730 a fortnight she is left with only $440 to care for herself and her son over two weeks.

“With the cost of food and petrol at the moment it is nearly impossible to survive. I always focus on buying food for my son, which leaves me with barely anything.”

While the young mum is desperate for a home she would be hesitant to move to the northern suburbs.

“We have moved around a lot throughout Jedd’s life and he has just gotten settled at his school, I would hate to move anywhere that would mean him having to leave there.”

Human Services Minister Nat Cook said the state government had committed $177.5m for new and upgraded SA Housing Trust homes because of “the pressure on the housing market, and the circumstances of people like Sam”.