Desperate mother of two sons with severe autism, Kelly Ann Ord denied housing because of computer bungle

A woman and her two sons with severe autism says she is stuck in inadequate housing because of a critical computer bungle.

Kelly Ann at her Salisbury Downs home. Picture: Ben Clark

A woman says she is stuck in inadequate housing because SA Housing Trust kept removing her from the waiting list as they told her repeatedly she still owned a house she sold 20 years ago.

Full-time carer Kelly Ann Ord, who has two sons with severe autism, said she repeatedly went into her local trust office with a clear title deed for the property, but the trust kept removing her from the list without telling her.

Ms Ord said this meant she was staying in a private rental in Salisbury Plains where she paid 50 per cent of her carer’s allowance each week on rent.

Kelly Anne at her Salisbury Downs home. Picture: Ben Clark

She said the hall was so narrow that when her adult son needed to be wheelchaired she had to put him on a blanket and pull him along the floor to his bedroom.

She said she told the trust about that situation two years ago when she moved into the house and pleaded for help.

“But it keeps coming up that I own a house in Darwin.

“They don’t tell me this, they just remove me. I only find out when I call up,” she said. “Then to get back on the list I have to go in and show them the title. Then go in and reapply all over again.”

Ms Ord said because her home was not large enough for physical therapy for her two sons, who cannot leave the house, they have lost verbal and physical functions since moving there.

Kelly AnneÕs Son at her Salisbury Downs home. Picture: Ben Clark

The title deed, seen by The Advertiser, shows Ms Ord sold the Darwin property in 2004, shortly before leaving her employment to become full-time carer to her sons. Ms Ord owned a property at Parafield Gardens in 2016 but says she sold it to pay for sons’ therapy.

After ministerial intervention, Ms Ord was finally placed on the public housing wait list in April, and put on the highest needs category.

The trust told The Advertiser it did so because she showed them a clear title deed.

The trust did not respond to questions about how many other occasions she had shown her clear title search since 2021 nor how long she would have been on the waiting list if this did not occur.

Kelly Anne at her Salisbury Downs home. Picture: Ben Clark

It has declined Ms Ord’s requests for her place to be backdated to when she first applied.

A trust spokeswoman said: “Our staff assess Centrelink income records when assessing a customer’s eligibility for public housing, and Ms Ord’s showed she had a rental income until April 2024. We can’t begin an application for public housing if official income records show an individual has a property”.

Ms Ord said that despite years of making inquiries she was not told this until June this year so had no chance to rectify the situation with Centrelink.

A Services Australia spokesman said: “We’re concerned to hear about this customer’s circumstances. We’re urgently investigating and working with this customer to resolve the issue.”