Affordable housing
- “The mining boom took hold with accommodation shortages, and rental prices sky-rocketed. We had to find cheaper accommodation. I contacted Department of Housing to discover that we would probably qualify for Homeswest housing, but that we could not specify the suburb we needed to be in, and the waiting list was long. I explained my desperate situation but it didn’t seem to matter. I could not be transferred through to the man I had been recommended to contact. We didn’t really know what to do about Sam’s schooling, but we knew we could not live in a typical low socio-economic area as our sensitive boys would not cope. At the eleventh hour we found a private rental house in Canning Vale and jumped at it to avoid living in a tent in my in-laws backyard.”
Accessible housing
- “It has been a struggle to find accessible housing, and when I was evicted from my private rental 3 years ago, it took the Department of Housing two years to find me somewhere accessible. This resulted in great physical and mental stress. Again, I have NO family support at all, and have to do everything for myself - something that most able-bodied people can't do, even yourself.”
Appropriate housing
- “I’m forty nine and I live in regional WA. I used to work in a pretty physical job. I lost my leg when I contracted septicemia...When I left, I went home with no leg and no support at home. It was pretty hard. I had a wheelchair but I couldn’t get to the toilet because my house wasn’t cut out for it.”
- “That, compounded by my cerebral palsy, means that I am now on the DSP with my husband as my full-time carer. My marriage has suffered unbearable strain and we are now living in a caravan and basically broke because the only information you receive is through talking to someone else who has already been there and then there is the stress of dealing with uncaring government departments like Centrelink and Homeswest.”
Safety and
security
- “I have a form of muscular dystrophy called Facioscapulohumeral. Muscular dystrophy is a degenerative condition. When I was diagnosed they told me a wheelchair would come one day. Over time my legs became weaker, it because more difficult to walk and climb stairs...There was a period of time when I couldn’t access my own home, I couldn’t get in my own front door because I could not lift my arm to reach the key in the lock. I had to get in through the side gate, and come through the back door. But I couldn’t put a padlock on it. I applied for some funding for alterations to my front door so I could come in and out. It took 12 months from the first phone call to the new door being fitted. While I didn’t have a lock on my back gate, I was vulnerable, and I had someone break into my house while I was home. It was very scary – being a single woman on my own and hearing someone coming into my home in my back window. It took me quite a while to sleep again after that.”
Losing the family
home
- “My child can’t be supported at a specialist school because his IQ is too high and he can’t be supported in life because there is nothing out there for him. Even basic information early on and fewer waiting lists would have made a huge difference. Now he has chronic anxiety at the age of 11 and he has talked about suicide. He has to go to high school next year and I now have to get a job, we are going to lose our house if I am not working too. I don’t know how I will do this and the financial strain and the strain on my marriage is huge. I don’t know what to do, where to go and how to fix it.”
