A Housing Tasmania unit in West Moonah provided a secure childhood home for UTAS neuroscientist Lila Landowski

Growing up in secure public housing can be the starting point for success in adult life - just ask neuroscientist Lila Landowski.

Neuroscientist Dr Lila Landowski with her mother Krystyna Landowski at the public housing home where Lila grew up and where her mother has lived for more than 30 years. Picture: PATRICK GEE

THE importance of long-term public housing is not lost on Hobart neuroscientist Lila Landowski, who associates a secure home with her academic success.

Dr Landowski and her brother Peter grew up in a West Moonah Housing Tasmania unit which has been home to their mother Krystyna for 33 years.

“Having a roof over your head is a basic human right,” Dr Landowski said. “Knowing that meant I could just focus on being a kid and going to school and learning things and trying to do my best. I wouldn’t have had that experience if it wasn’t for this house.”

Dr Landowski, who works at the University of Tasmania School of Medicine, said she was concerned about Hobart’s current housing crisis.

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“As a neuroscientist I can’t help but reflect on how having a stable environment or not having a stable environment can change your brain.

“It makes me realise how privileged we were to have a roof over our heads. To think people are growing up now without any certainty around that is devastating,” she said.

“We are all just people trying to survive, and it doesn't matter what walk of life you come from — everyone has a right to a roof over their heads.”

For Dr Landowski’s parents, both Polish migrants, the home was the foundation of their family. Mrs Landowski and her late husband Miroslaw were both affected by chronic illness and their finances suffered as a result.

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Having a secure Housing Tasmania home allowed their children to focus on their schooling.

“Education was always very important in our family,” Mrs Landowski said.

“I am and he was very proud. We were kind of poor people but we were happy.

“A roof over your head and bread on the table is the basic thing that everyone deserves.”

However, Mrs Landowski was concerned that shorter leases now being offered by Housing Tasmania were creating uncertainty for tenants.

“My lease is finishing in 2020 and I don’t know what will happen later. But I know there are many people in worse situations than me,” she said.

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