Helena Ambrosia: Penguin artist shares her emotions after her rental of 15 years was resumed

A North-West Tasmanian art therapist of has shared her fears of becoming homeless after the owner of her rental home resumed their property. She’s scared but she hasn’t given up.

Penguin artist Helena Ambrosia, 54, was recently told she had six weeks to vacate the rental property she had lived in for 15 years. Picture: Barefoot & Windswept Photography

October 18. That is the day Penguin artist and art therapist Helena Ambrosia, 54, will become homeless, barring a miracle.

Not only will she lose her home of 15 years after the owners decided earlier this month to resume their property – she is also set to lose her workspace and thus her ability to earn income.

“It’s a lot. I’m exhausted,” she said.

“There have been rivers of tears. The shock – I was given six weeks, after 15 years.”

Ms Ambrosia said she is painfully aware she is entering a rental market with a vacancy rate of just 1.7 per cent.

Ms Ambrosia said she was prepared to cop another big rent increase – rent had been steadily climbing over recent years – in order to retain her home, even though it would break her financially, but she wasn’t given a choice in the matter.

Ms Ambrosia said she is determined to stay strong and stay in control of her destiny, and did not blame the property’s owner.

“I don’t want to be painted in a tragic light. I am a self-determining being, even though it’s of course incredibly traumatic and overwhelming and scary,” she said.

Penguin artist Helena Ambrosia, 54, was recently told she had six weeks to vacate the rental property she had lived in for 15 years. Picture: Barefoot & Windswept Photography

“I’m choosing a different path. I want my dignity intact.”

Ms Ambrosia said her hunt for a new rental is complicated by the fact she needs a large space – her current rental is four-bedroom – to conduct workshops and therapy sessions, and that she is a single woman of limited means.

“I know I am in an age group and demographic – I’m single, 54, don’t have any big assets and now I’ve been kicked out of my home – where I am walking on the edge of the biggest homelessness demographic in the country and it’s terrifying,” she said.

Ms Ambrosia’s friend Adam Chamberlain has established an online fundraiser to help the Penguin artist ward off homelessness and find a new place to rent. It has raised more than $2000 at the time of writing.

“After 15 years in her home she has six weeks to uproot and shift her art studio, her therapy studio and her home whilst finding herself caught up in the housing crisis [and an] inflated rental market with limited funds,” he said.