This human-interest story from the Guardian shows the extent of human misery from the mass immigration tsunami, which has produced the greatest accommodation crisis Australia has experienced in this century at least, arguably in its history. There is no mention of mass immigration, coming from a Left-wing source, but still the point is made that the level of suffering out there among the homeless is intense. This should be the number one issue for the freedom movement to address. As well, the weak Leader of the Opposition, Dutton needs to be replaced by someone who will take on the immigration issue. My hopes are on Senator Price, who being Aboriginal will be immune to the "racism" magic ray gun.
"I am a single mother of three children ages seven, nine and 17. We are currently homeless and living in a caravan in a friend's front yard in the south-east suburbs of Melbourne.
We had 30 days to leave our rental house after I, with help of a legal aide, sought for the property's minimum standards be upheld. I was hoping this would lead to repairs being made at the house. Instead, the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal – Vcat – deemed the property "uninhabitable" due to a water leak causing structural issues, as well as mould and mushrooms growing from the walls, posing a threat to our health.
Despite my cleaning efforts, there were even mushrooms lifting up the floorboards, allowing slugs to make their home in the damp and rot. A possession order was made by Vcat, which meant that we had to move out.
I made the rental provider aware of these issues many times, but they did not remedy them. As they were not addressed in a timely way, they became very large and costly repairs for the homeowner.
But the larger and more costly problem was that my three children and myself had nowhere to go and limited finances, so my very small amount of savings went towards leaving quickly and putting everything in storage. Our mental health has suffered immensely through all of this.
This is not the first time that I have faced homelessness. I had to leave another rental home because I was given a notice to vacate to allow the landlord's daughter to move in – but instead the home was renovated and put back on the market within months. The family of a girl at the same school as my daughter's later moved in.
Both of these rental properties were desperately in need of repairs; I asked to have things fixed that were never fixed. These were not small things. The bathroom ceiling in one house was so water-damaged it sagged almost halfway down the wall and rain would gush like a waterfall. Every time it rained the windows in some rooms wouldn't close; there was even an old 1950s ventilation hole above the stove which possums used to enter the house almost nightly.
I have several severe chronic illnesses which affect my daily life. Having received notice to vacate, we have nowhere to go. We have been on the public housing waiting list for years, but some people have been on it for more than a decade.
We've now been homeless for six months. The support services that are meant to help are so overwhelmed and don't have enough resources to help. At many places, you cannot even get through when you try to call. I've called so many times over the past months and never gotten a callback. And when you do manage to get an appointment, it's set for weeks away and isn't useful anyway.
It's a vicious cycle of trying to get help where there's none available. I'm in chronic pain and I'm depressed. I'm trying so hard, in vain it seems, for the sake of my kids.
Homelessness is a huge problem in this country: so many individuals and families with children are either sleeping in their cars or couch surfing. If they're lucky enough to have friends and family, they can maybe put them up for a day or two.
There's no access to affordable housing anywhere in this country, and it looks like this is a problem that's only going to get worse."
One takeaway thing here is not to complain about the conditions of one's rental if one is lucky enough to have one, since the government authorities would rather keep up standards, even if it means you are homeless, and die on the street!