Rental Affordability Index

The following case study was provided to Shelter WA in May 2021 by ‘Meg, a 50 year old single parent sleeping in her car with a daughter with a disability’: “I am a single mother with a disabled child who have the landlord from hell. I have always paid my rent and bills before the due date. I am eligible for the $2000 Rent Relief Grant yet the real estate will not allow me and my disabled child to stay. They issued us with an eviction notice just for complaining to Consumer Protection about the toilet that would not flush. We got an eviction notice that same afternoon. At the court the horrible Registrar screwed up her face and said “Why have you not vacated?”
I explained I had applied for many houses but did not get a single response and explained they go for two-income families not single parents on a Carer’s pension. She was cold and heartless and was from Armadale Court.
I have no family in Perth and now need to live in my car with my child during the cold winter ahead. I have been on the Homeswest Priority waiting list and the manager told me “the houses have dried up”. When I went into the Department of Communities Housing Cannington branch yesterday the customer service person barked at me, saying “you are not the only one on the waiting list”. I have nowhere else to go and have no family in Perth and have to live in my car with my child. I contacted Entrypoint who referred me to Centrecare and Indigo who have no available emergency housing. When I asked them how long the waitlist was they said five years.
If our Emergency Crisis housing centers have a waitlist of five years why are they called Emergency Housing when you have no hope of getting anything from them?
Our young children should not have to sleep in cars. This is not a 3rd world country and I cannot believe people in their 50’s with young children under the age of 6 need to live in their cars after paying their taxes all these years.
It brings tears to my eyes to think I cannot house my child. I am not a no-hoper. I have an accounting degree and worked in government myself. I happen to find myself caring for my disabled child full-time and cannot work as I need to care for him. Hence the Carer’s pension. This State has a strong surplus yet the government watches on whilst children live on the streets or in cars or tents. There is an emergency crisis in our backyard. This government needs to do something fast.
This is a rich state and it is disgusting to treat West Australians with no dignity.
Please do something we beg you.
Thank you for listening.