Housing for seven children

and their mother? Their mother is single. She has left an abusive relationship and she is on a "10yr wait list" for public housing. Those responsible for that wait list told her that because she had a car and a tent she had "a roof over her head".

This was one of the "human interest" stories in the paper this morning. I had also seen it yesterday online.  In a second piece on the "housing crisis" there was a statement that there were also 80,000 empty houses in the state on Census night. Really? 

If that figure is true then there is something else wrong here. I know a little about the rental market. The first is that, having no rental history as such, I would have no chance of getting a rental - even if I was able to pay the inflated prices being demanded by some landlords. The second is that landlords who do try to do the right thing are being penalised over and over again.

When Middle Cat was working she was self-employed. She was putting money aside for her retirement in the form of an investment in property. It was a perfectly reasonable thing to do, indeed what she was advised to do.  Her husband will have superannuation but it won't be a lot. He is a professional person but he gets paid less than a plumber or an electrician while taking even more responsibility than they do. They are going to need the extra money Middle Cat put aside.

But, own a rental property now and the government is increasing the cost of doing so to the point where there is no income from it at present. If they sold it they would sell at a loss because of the capital gains tax. They cannot increase the rent but all the charges they must pay on the property have gone up. When they set the rent the rules were different and they tried to do the right thing by setting it at a very reasonable rate - on the low side - because it meant housing a family. My BIL does most of the maintenance because paying anyone to do it would be another drain on their finances. The interest rate on the mortgage has gone up and up.

Does it pay? No. It may not even pay in the long term. This may be why there are so many empty houses around. The government is making it too difficult for them to be used. People don't want to risk tenants doing damage and losing even more money. They don't want the worry of not being able to remove someone who is not paying the rent. They don't want the worry of not being able to pay all the other associated expenses while trying to keep to all the rules the three levels of government are imposing on them. 

I know there will be someone out there who will say of the woman seeking accommodation for herself and her children, "Well she shouldn't have had seven kids and she should have tried to make her marriage work." My response to that is, "Well she does have seven children and she has had the courage to leave an abusive relationship. Do you really want the children living in a tent?"

As regular readers of this blog know I am looking for something smaller but despite the strenuous efforts of myself and others I have not yet found something accessible which I can afford. When I do find something then this house should be available for a family. I think the young ones in this street would welcome seven more into their gang.