Launceston mum, adult son with disabilities, on housing registry for 15 months fear homelessness
A Launceston mother and her son, who lives with multiple disabilities, have been waiting more than a year for state housing – but now they fear they’re months out from being left homeless or separated, as demand for social housing continues. DETAILS >
Tasmania
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A Launceston mother and her son, who lives with multiple disabilities, have been waiting more than a year for state housing – but now they fear they’re months out from being left homeless or separated, as demand for social housing continues.
The pair, who have asked to remain anonymous, have been on the Homes Tasmania registry for 15 months, and have until early October to be out of their current private rental.
Amy (not her real name), 69, has always cared for 48-year-old son James (also not his name) who lives with autism, epilepsy, schizophrenia, early onset Alzheimers, cardiac failure and excessive hearing.
This is not the first time the pair have faced possible homelessness after waiting for state housing to become available, having gone through a near-identical situation in 2005.
In their most recent battle, Amy said she was told by a Housing Connect worker that they would not be able to find a house where the pair could stay together – a situation Amy said is not an option – due to James suffering from separation anxiety, leading to excessive scratching.
“They said they wouldn’t be able to find a suitable place for us to be together, and that he (James) would have to go to respite and I’d have to be in a shelter,” she said.
“James stays with me, that’s it, I won’t budge. We have come this far, all these years, we can’t have that destroyed now,
“The government has got to do something, forget about the stupid stadium, forget all the stupid superclinics – think about the people who need a home.”
“We’ve got nowhere to go.”
According to the latest 2023 Homes Tasmania housing dashboard, there are currently 4,603 applications on the housing register.
This figure is up by 198 compared to March 2022 figures.
The indicator includes applicants housed in “various housing situations”, but is not a measure of homelessness.
The report also shows that as at March this year, Launceston’s vacancy rate in the private rental market was sitting at 0.9 per cent, down from 1.0 in March 2022.
Amy said a second Housing Connect employee later told her that she and James may not be separated, but that she was asked to list suburbs that were further away from Launceston.
Many of those private rentals, she said, had rents that were higher than she could stretch her carers pension to afford.
“A private rental, that’s my whole pension; I can’t do it,” she said.
“You can’t make something stretch that cannot be stretched. I have nothing to give up; I don’t go out, I don’t drink, I don’t buy coffees – I can’t stretch any more,
“We can’t even afford meat sometimes.”
Amy said respite care was simply not an option for James, and said she also held concerns about whether she could keep her son’s current support workers if they did have to move outside of Launceston.
“We just want a place where we don’t have to leave again, where we can have a bit of life where we are just content, settled, nothing more,” she said.
“We don’t want a mansion, we just want a home.”
A spokesman for Minister for State Development, Construction and Housing Guy Barnett said the Minister could not comment on specific cases as a matter of privacy.
In response to questions from the Mercury, a Homes Tasmania spokeswoman said strong demand had “unfortunately left many people experiencing longer wait times to be allocated a suitable property”.
They said that social housing properties, in particular houses with modifications making them suitable for people living with disability, were in “high demand with limited vacancies”.
They encouraged Amy to continue engaging with the service.
“We would also encourage (Amy) to consider as wide a range of preferred areas as possible as this will increase the likelihood of receiving an offer of a suitable social housing property,” the spokeswoman said.
The spokeswoman said the state government $1.5bn housing package, which promises to deliver 10,000 new social and affordable homes by 2032 would meet “the diverse housing needs of Tasmanians, including those living with disability”.
In February, Mr Barnett in a statement said the government was “on track” to meet their promise of building 1500 homes by June this year.
A spokesman for Mr Barnett said 850 out of the 1500 dwellings had been completed as at the end of March.
The housing dashboard also reported 1298 long-term homes and units of homeless accommodation had been “started”, and that Homes Tasmania remained “on track” to achieve supply targets by June this year.
According to the dashboard, dwellings are considered “started” when land is secured, if applicable, and progress towards milestones had commenced.
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