Adelaide single mothers reveal SA Housing Trust’s tough conditions on accommodation help

Seven women have come forward to explain the rules and conditions they had to meet for emergency shelter amid SA’s housing crisis.

Single mothers say SA Housing Trust’s “overly onerous” requirements to allow them to stay in emergency accommodation are leaving them and their young children with nowhere to go but sheds, tents or backpackers.

Seven homeless or formerly homeless mothers with young children have come forward to talk about the stress they face from not-for-profits to apply for up to 20 private rentals a week and inspect up to seven private rentals week – or risk being thrown out on the streets while awaiting public housing.

It comes after 29-year-old single mother Sarah Wade told The Advertiser that she ended up living in a tent with her three young children after being evicted from motel emergency accommodation in June 2023.

“I had requirements of applying for rentals up to $450pw which I could not afford”, said Leah Pittwater with daughter Gwen, 1.

Sarah Wade, with children Allysha, Logan and Domenic, is a mum of four who has been on housing waitlist and lives in a tent in her mum's backyard. Picture: Keryn Stevens

That was after failing to attend the required amount of weekly private rental house inspections set by SA Housing Trust and overseen by Anglicare SA.

A mother living in a motel said she was required to apply for 10 houses a week.

Ms Wade said her ability to attend the required four inspections per week was limited after she got a casual job with casual hours.

One of the seven women who spoke to The Advertiser on Tuesday, mother of two Leah Pittwater from Goolwa. She said that when she spent three months in emergency accommodation she was required to apply for 10 houses a week for three months.

“That’s (120) applications and attend all inspections,” she said, adding all of them were unsuccessful.

She said it was pointless as it was months of rental rejections that had led to her to emergency accommodation to begin with.

She said she had to show the agency medical evidence when Covid prevented her from going to house inspections.

Stephanie Scott, who is currently housed in a motel, said she was required to apply for 10 houses to get more nights in the motel on a week by week basis. But she kept getting rejected in the notoriously tight rental market and was constantly worried about possible eviction.

Nick Champion MP Minister for Housing and Urban Developlment. Picture: Mark Brake

Single mother Stevie-Lee Bergman, who lives in a western suburbs shed, said Anglicare SA moved her on from her from emergency accommodation six months ago, when she had a newborn baby and two other children under the age of six.

She said she was told she was not allowed to have guests after the children’s father stayed the night after a stabbing in the motel complex left her scared for their safety.

A spokeswoman from the SA Housing Trust said people provided with emergency accommodation pay for some of their accommodation costs and are otherwise expected to engage with services to find a “pathway out of emergency accommodation”.

She said weekly requirements were determined on a case-by-case basis. Housing Minister Nick Champion said: “Like all government programs, emergency accommodation has eligibility criteria and stipulations which encourages people to find housing.” Anglicare SA was contacted for comment.

Originally published as Adelaide single mothers reveal SA Housing Trust’s tough conditions on accommodation help