Tight squeeze

By Bridget Cook
Single parent Kelly Mills, 45, and her 15-year-old and 21-year-old daughters have been homeless since Monday this week after the lease ran out on their Cranbourne rental home.
The family have moved all their belongings into storage and have been living out of their car, along with their three cats and a bird, in the hope of finding another rental property soon.
Cranbourne Information Support and Services (CISS) manager Leanne Petrides said the family’s case was not isolated and reflected how the state’s housing crisis was at “breaking point”.
In the past month, Ms Mills has applied for more than 35 rental homes in the south east, but with no success.
“We have applied for everything’s that’s come up, whether it suits us or not, and have not got anywhere,” she said.
Ms Mills said she had never been behind in rent and had a good rental history.
“I was in this home for four years, the home before that for two and the home before that for eight,” she said.
Ms Mills is on a disability pension due to back problems, while her daughter is on a carer’s pension and works part-time as a nanny.
“A house is more important than anything else to us. It would be the first thing we would have in our budget,” she said.
Ms Mills visited local housing and support service WAYSS on Monday, but could only get boarding rooms in a boarding house at $350 each per week, with a $150 upfront deposit.
“We have spent every cent we have putting our furniture in storage and getting in a removalist,” she said. “We don’t have that kind of money.”
Unable to hold back tears, Ms Mills said having to live in their car had devastated her family.
Ms Petrides said Ms Mills’ situation highlighted how bad the housing crisis was in the area and statewide.
“At that moment, housing has a less than one per cent vacancy rate,” she said.
“For the private rental market to be viable, that needs to be at least four per cent.
“This means that more people are applying for less properties. This means owners can push up the costs and choose from a far wider variety of tenants.”
To help Ms Mills out, call her on 0421 777 156.
For crisis support call CISS on 5996 3333 and for housing support call WAYSS on 9791 6111.