Hayden Patterson evicted from house into his car says we won’t survive

The Advertiser spent the final morning with a sick, distraught 48-year-old Unley man as he moved his stuff and his eight dogs from the soon-to-be-demolished house he was evicted from.

Hayden Patterson is being forced out of home. Image/Russell Millard Photography

Hayden Patterson carries his pillows to his car, his five little dogs wagging their tails behind him.

He stops to reflect on his new reality. He feels like his time is up – in one more ways than one.

The Advertiser spent a morning with the distraught 48-year-old as he shifted out of his soon-to-be-demolished rental house,and into homelessness.

Mr Patterson will be moving with his eight dogs (one has just had three puppies) into a car.

“I don’t think I can survive another round of homelessness,” he said as he stopped to chat while packing his car.

Hayden Patterson who is being forced out of home and moving into his car with his dogs. Image/Russell Millard Photography

At the beginning of the year he spent a week living in a park, and said his brain and his dogs haven’t “fully recovered” from the stress.

“When you live rough, your brain stops functioning. You get ‘baby brain’, you lose the ability to have complex thoughts and you can’t finish sentences,” he said.

But Mr Patterson finds himself back in the situation again and is worried what the coming months will hold for him and his beloved companions.

The Advertiser met Mr Patterson just two hours before he had give up the keys to the nine-bedroom boarding house he said he once shared with 23 other people, many of whom also struggled with mental illnesses. He paid $300 a week to rent a single room there.

The rest of the residents moved out months ago. Mr Patterson said he begged the landlord to let him stay longer so he could find another place but he had been rejected from private rentals and share accommodation.

He said he doesn’t blame the landlord for wanting to knock down the crumbling, fire-damaged building he has called home since January.

But when Mr Patterson contacted a housing agency for help, he said they told him they had nothing for him and offered to give him a tent.

He has been previously evicted from SA Housing Trust houses and community housing following complaints from neighbours and other residents.

“I have been knowing this day would come, but I have no words to describe how I feel. I don’t want my dogs to suffer through this, they are like my family,” he said.

Mr Patterson – who is HIV-positive, has bipolar 1 disorder and epilepsy – said he was also losing his sight and recently spenttime in ICU because of severe asthma.

“I’ve been getting sicker and sicker these last few months with all the stress. I’ve lost so many friends in the last couple of years who died once they had to live on the streets,” he said.

Hayden Patterson fears what comes next for him and his eight dogs. Picture: Russell Millard Photography

Studies have suggested people who are homeless die an average of 22-33 years younger than those in stable housing.

The average Australian life expectancy is 83.

For a little while, Mr Patterson started to jump around to different topics as he spoke, becoming fixated momentarily on old relationships, text message chains, then the number of storage units he used to own, to the way he has been able to dissemble parts of the house and sell it for the landlord before it was sold.

But then he returned to his main concerns – his dogs, and his health.

“I don't want to die tormented, homeless, being judged,” he said.

“When I lived in a house I used to look at my friends who lived on the streets, and think ‘wow’, but I can tell you it doesn’t take long before you end up like him.”

Mr Patterson thanked us for coming and told us he needed to be left alone to decide what to keep and what to throw out. He flushed red in the neck and started to sweat as his new reality sank in.

“It’s going to be tedious in a car,” he said

“I don’t know what to pack and what to just leave. I can only take so many things and I have thrown so much out and I have to make that decision right now.”