‘I lived in a car’: Disabled woman booted from emergency accommodation fears she will end up in a tent

A disabled northern suburbs woman said Anglicare SA evicted her from emergency accommodation because she did not apply for enough private rentals, fears living in a tent will be next.

A northern suburbs woman with a spinal condition and emphysema says Anglicare SA evicted her from emergency accommodation, leaving her to live in her car and then couch surf, and she now fears she will end up in a tent.

Janet*, 60, said she was required by Anglicare SA – which is funded by the state government to oversee emergency accommodation – to apply for 15 private rentals a week and attend two open inspections a week or face eviction from the motel in which she was housed.

She said that she was forced to seek emergency accommodation in 2022 with her teenaged grandson after 12 years living in a private rental that her landlord needed to move into after a marriage break-up.

She said she applied for 300 private rentals after that but kept getting rejected.

Janet, who is on a disability pension because of a spinal condition and also experiences emphysema, said she struggled to apply for the quota of rentals the week her father died.

“They don’t care if you’re grieving or ill,” she claimed.

A woman sleeping on the street. Picture David Clark

“They just kept telling me I was able to afford a private rental on a disability pension, but I was also paying off storage fees and kept getting rejected from the rental applications.”

Janet said that when Anglicare SA discovered she had not been making enough rental applications, she was informed at 4pm on a Tuesday that she and her grandson had to leave by 10am the next morning.

“I cried,” she said. “I stayed in a car until a friend put me up. We have been here for two years and I’m staying on the couch but we need to leave soon.”

Janet said that when she told SA Housing Trust about her situation she was told that couch surfing is not considered as bad as “living in a tent.”

But as it stands, she said, she and her grandson might have to end up living in a tent because the vacancies she can find are in caravan parks which she says cost around $800 a week – too much for her to afford.

In a statement, Anglicare SA CEO Grant Reubenicht said the organisation “considers the treatment and wellbeing of our customers paramount as we support them on their journey to appropriate and secure housing”.

Mr Reubenicht said the Emergency Accomodation Program was “short term crisis accommodation funded and administered by the state government” and clients were required to “actively seek alternative accommodation during their stay”.

“Due to privacy reasons AnglicareSA cannot comment on individual circumstances.”

SA Housing Trust has previously denied that its workers tell people couch surfing that they are not homeless or have lesser needs than other homeless people.

In relation to the mutual obligation criteria imposed on people living in emergency accommodation, SA Housing Trust has said: “Like all government programs, emergency accommodation has eligibility criteria and stipulations.”

*not her real name

Originally published as ‘I lived in a car’: Disabled woman booted from emergency accommodation fears she will end up in a tent