Townsville housing crisis: Elderly lady evicted from Railway Estate home
A Townsville grandmother says the pain of being told to vacate her rental home of three decades just a week before Christmas was worse than battling cancer.
Townsville
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The eviction of an elderly grandmother from her rental home of 30 years has shone a stark spotlight on Townsville’s housing crisis.
Margaret Tadd, 89, said she had been given just one month to vacate her home on Twelfth Avenue, Railway Estate as the owner was putting it up for sale.
She said the news received just before Christmas was one of the worst things she had experienced in her life, including being diagnosed with cancer.
The 77-year-old owner, however, said that although she had issued the notice in writing, she had told Ms Tadd that she could have as long as she needed to move.
“I told her she could have as long as she wanted to, I just gave them the four weeks’ notice but I haven’t even put it (the house) on the market yet,” she said.
“I’ve known her for years, I said, ‘I’m not holding her to it at all’, I just had to notify her so she had some sort of notification.”
Ms Tadd’s daughter Rosslyn Tadd, a teacher who lives on Palm Island, said the situation was “dire”.
“My mother has been a perfect tenant, always paying her rent, maintaining the property and gardens,” she said.
“She is just a quiet, little-old lady who now has nowhere to live: She has no family around and most of her friends have passed.”
Ms Tadd, who is from Brisbane, said she had no contacts in Townsville to help source alternative accommodation, particularly given the state-wide housing crisis.
“What can we do? Mum can’t live with me, I’m in shared accommodation in an Indigenous community and I’m the only remaining family member,” she said.
She said her mother, who was given just two weeks to live after she was diagnosed with cancer two years ago, was “broken”.
“It’s heartbreaking.”
The grandmother, who remains active, is mentally sound and still drives, said she had no clue what would happen next in her rush to pack a lifetime’s accumulation of possessions.
“It’s pretty hard out there.”
She said a negative experience where a previous carer had stolen from her and gas-lighted her over an extended period of time meant she was distrustful of aged-care workers.
According to Tenants Queensland, a lessor must give a tenant two months’ notice.
The landlord reiterated that she had told Ms Tadd and Rosslyn that she would not hold them to the four-week notice.
“I’ve known her for years ... it’s not like anyone is kicking her out or anything.”
The lady said she gave Ms Tadd the eviction notice as soon as she made the decision to sell to allow Rosslyn time to help her mother move over the school holidays.
She said she was only selling because she had only made $1400 on the property last year and would not be able to afford any costly repairs if needed.
“I honestly can’t afford to keep it,” she said of the home that had been appraised at $400,000.
“For the last year she’s paid $250 a week, but before then she was paying about $200 for years.”
Rosslyn said she was cautiously happy at the news, but said she would ask for the offer to be put in writing.
“I’d just like to be sure because we are going 100 miles an hour and I’m spending my whole holidays packing but if I can be assured she’ll wait, that changes the whole thing.”
She said the elderly were among the worst-affected by the housing crisis.
“It’s crazy and the most vulnerable are the elderly, they don’t have the capacity to go online to apply for rentals … and they are not prioritised, DV victims are, people with disabilities, the Indigenous and families,” she said.
“The elderly are the ones that are forgotten about.”
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Originally published as Townsville housing crisis: Elderly lady evicted from Railway Estate home