Tasmania housing crisis: Mum of three living in a garage after fleeing family violence
Family violence or living in a garage: This is one Tassie mum-of-three’s impossible choice as she languishes on the waiting list for public housing. HER STORY >>
Tasmania
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IN the room that Samantha and her three children call home for now, two double mattresses take up most of the floor space.
A single child’s bed has been set up by one of the roller doors.
There’s a couch, a small TV, a shelf with a few books, pantry staples, toiletries and a kettle.
The family’s clothes are in plastic bags.
This room, which is actually someone’s garage, was the best housing option Samantha could find after fleeing a violent home fourteen weeks ago.
“We fled home with basically a bag each and left everything behind,” she said.
Samantha (not her real name), and her children share the garage with their dog and two cats.
Samantha said while the animals were an impediment to securing housing, there seemed to be nothing available anyway.
“The shelters told us that they couldn’t help us because we had animals. And even then there wasn’t anything available, so we go onto a waitlist and we have to call every two days,” she said.
Samantha said the animals were a significant comfort to the children at a traumatic time in their lives.
Not only are they homeless, the youngest child is undergoing treatment for a brain tumour.
Samantha said she was in constant contact with Housing Connect.
“I ring Housing Connect and basically I get told the same thing every single time. Your circumstances haven’t changed, your information hasn’t changed, your information is up to date and you are category one … they must get that many phone calls a day it’s a generic message or something,” she said.
“They advocate for women to leave (violent situations) but where do they expect us to go?”
Rapid rehousing is the safeguard meant for people in Samantha’s situation.
The government-owned transitional accommodation is designed to assist people leaving family violence while they look for a more permanent home.
“What happened when there was a functioning system was people could flee family violence relationships and there would be emergency accommodation available to them that night,” said Labor housing spokeswoman Ella Haddad.
Ms Haddad said it was unacceptable that a family leaving a violent home could not be housed — regardless of whether they had pets.
“(The state government has) de-prioritised all sections of social and affordable housing to the point where people who need family violence rapid rehousing aren’t looked after,” she said.
According to the latest data from Homes Tasmania, 437 households were being assisted through rapid rehousing.
As of December last year there were 4569 people on the public housing waiting list.
The average time to house priority applicants was 77.9 weeks.
A spokeswoman for Homes Tasmania said Samantha was strongly encouraged to expand her selection of suburbs, which will increase the likelihood of receiving an offer of a social housing property.
“We acknowledge the importance pets play in people’s lives and that they can be vital to people’s mental health and wellbeing,” the spokeswoman said.
“The family might also like to explore the RSPCA/Petbarn Foundation’s Safe Beds program, which may be able to help support her pets while they seek more stable accommodation.”
Originally published as Tasmania housing crisis: Mum of three living in a garage after fleeing family violence
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