Where can I go?

By Melissa Meehan
THIS is the face of homelessness.
While an empty house awaiting repair in a quiet suburban street remains empty, a Healesville mother of two is forced to camp on the riverbank.
The Wurundjeri elder, who has asked to remain anonymous, was forced to do so because she cannot find affordable housing to put a roof over her sons’ heads.
Circumstance forced this mother of two, according to friend Linda Fabb, to go against her normal character and squat in the empty house.
“She is at her wit’s end, she was in a private rental for over 15 years and then the property was sold so she had to leave,” Ms Fabb said.
Ms Fabb said that her friend had not been left homeless through lack of trying to find accommodation.
“She has been without a home for over three months, camping on riverbanks, in her car, at friend’s places,” Ms Fabb said.
“But it’s not like she hasn’t been trying, there is just nothing available.”
When the mother of two heard that the Badger Creek house had been empty for months she moved in.
The woman was asked by the owner of the property to leave on Wednesday.
She contacted the Mail when police were called to evict her.
“I need people to understand my situation, I have had no other choice but to do this, I need to provide a roof over my kids’ head and right now this is my only solution,” she said.
Friends of the woman rallied to help her remove her belongings from the house.
In between mattresses and blankets being packed in cars, the woman was frantically calling local welfare organisations for help.
“I need help, I have been asking for help for the last couple of months and it has got me here,” the woman said during one phone call.
“I don’t understand why I am not a priority when I do not have anywhere to live with my children and there is a house that has been empty for months.”
Healesville police Sergeant Tony Van Gorp and Senior Constable Sharlane Wilson were called to remove the woman from the property.
“She is being removed for trespassing,” Sgt Van Gorp said.
“The owner of the property has called us and what she is doing is illegal by the letter of the law.”
The empty house is run by the Coranderrk Aboriginal Housing Co-operative Limited (CAHC).
Irene Swindle from the committee of management declined to comment to the Mail but released a statement.
The statement described CAHC as a private housing body set up to house indigenous people who are in need of housing. “In an incident that happened regarding a family gaining illegal access to one of our properties, the family were asked to leave but refused, it left the organisation no alternative but to have them removed by the local police,” the statement said. “This family were trying to claim squatter’s rights. Where is the fairness to the other tenants as their rents are maintaining the properties?”
The statement said that Coranderrk had a “very long” list of prospective tenants who had been on the list since 2003.
“What hope have they of being housed if we had let this family break the rules?”
Accommodation at a local hotel was arranged for the woman for three nights, and she was then given accommodation at the local caravan park over the weekend.
On Monday, the woman told the Mail she did not know where she would sleep that night.