Inside an Adelaide family’s life in a three-room tent in a suburban backyard

She works and says she always paid her rent on time before the landlord decided to sell up. Now this Adelaide mum shares a look inside the last option she had left.

Sarah Wade has four children, a job – and a tent she’s called home for the past six weeks.

After two years of severe parental guilt that she and her children – all aged under 12 – have been forced to sleep on couches and in cars, they now live in a large tent in the backyard of her mother’s SA Housing Trust property at Pooraka.

The 29-year-old single mum says she keeps being knocked back for rental housing, and banks won’t give her a home loan because she is employed on a casual basis.

After learning that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has splurged $4.3m on a clifftop mansion on the NSW Central Coast, Ms Wade said it was “disgraceful” that politicians could live in luxury while struggling families they represented could not even get a roof over their heads.

Ms Wade – the mother of three boys aged 10, 8 and 4 and a 12-year-old daughter – said it was difficult living in the tent.

“The tent is made up of three spaces – one has two single-bed mattresses in it, one has a double-bed mattress and the third is the entrance and classified as our family space,” she said.

Ms Wade said she reacted angrily when she heard Mr Albanese, who grew up in public housing in NSW, had bought a $4.3m house overlooking the beach at Copacabana.

Sarah Wade lives in a tent in her mum's backyard with her kids Allysha, Dominic and Logan. Picture: Keryn Stevens

Sarah Wade lives in a tent in her mum's backyard with her kids Allysha, Dominic and Logan. Picture: Keryn Stevens

“It is hugely disappointing and rather disgraceful to see that he can manage to do good for himself and nothing for the people he was supposed to be making a stand for,” she said.

Ms Wade, who works 24 hours a week in the food and beverage industry for a Keswick company, has been on the SA Housing Trust waiting list for 12 years.

She told The Advertiser that period had been the “toughest years of my life”, with countless rental rejections and a crippling sense of guilt.

“Not only has my life suffered due to this, but my children have, too, and that makes me feel like I don’t deserve to have them anymore, as I can’t provide the things they require,” she said.

Sarah Wade lives in a tent in her mum's backyard with her kids Allysha, Dominic and Logan. Picture: Keryn Stevens

Ms Wade didn’t see things panning out this way.

Until two years ago, she had a five-year tenancy in a home that was well looked after and where the rent was always paid on time.

But she had to leave when the landlord sold the house.

Since then, Ms Wade has been rejected for dozens of rentals. With nowhere to turn, and all her family and friends already living in crowded accommodation, she and her children lived in a car for two weeks.

“We ate dinner at parks with a barbecue station, or I fed them takeaway food,” she said.

“We showered at truck stops and used toilet facilities at service stations to get us by.”

Not long after, she was diagnosed with depression.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese holds a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Anthony Albanese is spending a whopping $4.3 million home on a cliff top home on NSW’ Central Coast. Picture: Realestate.com.au

Then after 11 years on the public housing waiting list, on January 20 last year, she was placed in a motel by the SA Housing Trust – with the children in one bed, her in another, and no kitchen.

Ms Wade eventually found a job working 11am to 7pm over a seven-day week. However, she was eventually evicted from the motel because the SA Housing Trust claimed she wasn’t meeting her “weekly obligations” of applying for private rentals and having regular welfare checks. Ms Wade denies this claim.

She then stayed at her father’s home for a while, and then a friend offered her a place with two spare bedrooms – but eventually she had to move out.

With nowhere left to turn, Ms Wade made the drastic decision to move into the tent in her mother’s backyard.

“Finding a home is such a struggle for most people, and the government doesn’t seem to care how many homeless people are out there any more,” Ms Wade said.

South Australian Council of Social Service chief executive officer Ross Womersley said Ms Wade’s case highlighted the sad reality of thousands of people struggling to find affordable homes or somewhere to rent.

“If we look carefully around our community, we find people spread right across the state who are living in tents, living in caravans, living in cars, all of whom are hoping to find a property that they can move into that’s affordable and available,” he said.

Mr Womersley said it was “unrealistic” to think that anyone homeless was constantly available to answer a phone call or attend a meeting when they were trying to care for children, find a job or were on a “cycle of rejection” by being forced to constantly apply for rental accommodation.

An SA Housing Trust spokesman said the department had been working with Ms Wade “for some time to help her find a permanent housing solution”.

He said Ms Wade was assessed as category 1 – the most urgent category on the housing register – in 2023 but “as she has not attended or rescheduled appointments to discuss her application for public housing, her application has been downgraded”.

“Given the high need for housing, applications are deemed less urgent if applicants don’t attend housing appointments and don’t seek to reschedule missed appointments,” the spokesman said.

“As Ms Wade has an income, we have also approved her for private rental assistance for bond and rent in advance for properties up to $600 a week in rent. This would assist her to find a private rental.”

He said Ms Wade had been supported throughout the past two years, including emergency accommodation.

“When people are being supported with emergency accommodation, there is the expectation they work with service providers to actively look and apply for housing,” the spokesman said.

“Despite the continued support, Ms Wade did not meet these and other obligations.

“We are committed to continuing to work with Ms Wade and will arrange another appointment for her.”

About 15,000 people are on the housing register, with about 4000 in categories 1 and 2 and 7400 in category 3.

Originally published as Inside an Adelaide family’s life in a three-room tent in a suburban backyard