A family-of-seven have revealed how they were forced to live in a tent after being booted from their home that needed repairs.
Patricia Thompson took to social media app TikTok to document the family’s struggles during Australia’s horrific rental crisis.
The family needed to leave their home in August after the property was required to have much-needed repairs.
In the time since, the family applied for homes between Nowra, on the NSW south coast, and the Victorian border.
“We stayed in mum’s backyard for a bit, but in the end her real estate didn’t want a big family staying there so we had to move on,” Ms Thompson told 7 News.
The family then moved into a caravan park, living into a cheap tent they bought, but had a strict time limit on how long they were able to stay.
Ms Thompson said living in the tent was a “cosy” experience.
“And it was difficult at times, you know,” she said. “Our youngest is a one-year-old and she likes to wake up at the crack of dawn and then everybody else wakes up, too.”
The family also started a GoFundMe to help
As their time limit was coming to and end, and other caravan parks in the area became booked out, Mission Australia stepped in and put the family on a prioritised housing list.
However due to the size of their family it took a while for them to be placed.
But the family were finally given good news.
Patricia took to TikTok to say, “I’m really sick at the moment, but we’re in a hotel room and we got some really good news.
“We have a house! It’s a four-bedroom house and it is about two-and-a-half hours from where we are.
“So we are just trying to organise getting our stuff out of storage and get it up there. It’s really great.”
She added was sick so she likely didn’t sound incredibly excited about the amazing news but she was over the moon.
After her family’s ordeal, Patricia said she believes the government needs to step up to assist people in rental stress.
“When you are renting it’s just crazy because they can really just decide to terminate your lease at any given time, they don’t even really need a reason,” she said.
For others in her position, she tells people to keep their heads up and try to stay together.