I'm homeless & have since lost my kids... it will take years to get them back

A NSW mum lost her children after becoming homeless and has no idea how she’ll get them back. 

In 2019, *Jane, a single mum-of-two, moved to a country town to give her children a better life after being priced out of the Sydney rental market.

Now, four years later, the 37-year-old has found herself homeless and suffering an even more imaginable loss - her relationship with her daughter.

“This has broken me… I’ve paid over $200,000 in rent in the past 10 years and now I have nothing to show for it,” Jane tells Kidspot.

“I came here because we couldn’t afford to live in Sydney, and it’s happening to me again now.”

Last year, Jane was paying $440 a week rent for a run-down house with a housemate, but was forced to move out of her rental of nine months following a violent attack from her then neighbour.

“I pleaded with the landlord to install a fence and safety lighting as I had nowhere to go, but they said no and just told me to leave,” she says.

“They were ruthless. Then they tried to keep my bond for things that were already broken when I moved in.”

Want to join the family? Sign up to our Kidspot newsletter for more stories like this

“I came here because we couldn’t afford to live in Sydney, and it’s happening to me again now.” Source: Supplied to Kidspot

“If I hadn’t come here, I wouldn’t be alive now"

Jane and her 11-year-old daughter, *Mia, then moved into a share house, but were forced to move out after just four weeks.

Her desperate search for another rental proved fruitless when she was told time and time again by real estate agents about the long waiting lists for housing in the area.

Faced with homelessness just before Christmas last year, Jane was given a saving grace by a work colleague.

Using a fixer-upper caravan donated by another friend, she is able to live on her colleague’s property for the time being.

“If I hadn’t come here, I wouldn’t be alive now,” she says through tears.

“I’m in a state of shock because for so long, I’ve worked so hard to never be homeless. I’m still paying off my fridge and washing machine and I’ve got nowhere to put them. I told Centrelink I was homeless and they didn’t ask if I was okay, they just took all my benefits off me because I wasn’t paying rent anymore.”

RELATED: ‘After being homeless – we finally have a house’

RELATED:Breastfeeding mum left homeless in Queensland

"I really worry about the impact on the kids’ mental health in the future." Source: Supplied to Kidspot

“My daughter had to go live with her dad”

While Jane’s seven-year-old son, *Marcus, who lives with his dad in another town two hours away, visits her for the weekend every two weeks, her relationship with Mia has completely broken down amidst the upheaval of their lives.

“She has had to go live with her dad,” Jane says tearfully. “Mia is angry at me because she had to change schools and doesn’t want to go. It’s really hurt our relationship because she doesn’t understand why I can’t get a house when we’ve always had one.”

Jane was left devastated when Mia returned for a weekend earlier this month to celebrate her 11th birthday but would only see her mum briefly.

“She stayed with her friend - she says she won’t come to stay in a caravan.” she says emotionally.

“I feel like I’ve absolutely failed her and that I’ve lost my daughter. I don’t know how to get her back and be a strong mum who she can trust. I really worry about the impact on the kids’ mental health in the future. I feel like it will be years before I can get my kids back.”

Jane’s own mental health has suffered so much that she struggles to face each and every day.

“I so desperately want a home… every day I wake up, I’m surprised when I don’t die in my sleep,” she cries.

“I think, ‘How much stress can my heart take?’ I’m not going to kill myself because I don’t want to give my kids generational trauma - but I just wish there was a way out.”

*Names have been changed to protect identities

Originally published as I'm homeless & have since lost my kids... it will take years to get them back