Narooma mother Leslie Campbell and her seven children have found themselves without a home, in a case that is symptomatic of the housing shortage across the region.
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Ms Campbell, her partner and her children aged between 14 years and 3 months, were recently evicted from the house they were living at the Wallaga Lake Koori Village.
She moved into that house last year when it became vacant but housing authorities said she had not gone through the proper channels and so the sheriff was sent out to remove her and the kids.
With no where else to live, she and the kids were forced to stay with her mother in Narooma and in recent days the NSW Aboriginal Housing Office has paid for her stay in the Whale Motor Inn in Narooma.
“I am now residing in the Whale Motor Inn in one bedroom with my seven children and I want to know if I am going to be helped any further,” she said last week.
She is frustrated that she was not allowed to continue living in the vacant house, when others were allegedly “squatting” in other vacant houses at the Koori village.
Life has been particularly challenging for the mum with her 10-year-old daughter Takeisha having a heart condition requiring multiple operations and trips up to Sydney.
Management of housing at the Wallaga Lake Koori Village is overseen by South Eastern Aboriginal Regional Management Service (SEARMS) and Ms Campbell said she has had numerous meetings up at Batemans Bay in an attempt to secure housing in the village.
Housing has long been issue at the Koori Village and in 2013 the Campbell family was frustrated and protested about not being found suitable houses. Click here
Merrimans Local Aboriginal Land Council owns the houses at the Wallaga village and its chief executive officer Anne Greenaway said both the NSW Aboriginal Housing Office and SEARMS were working to find a solution for Ms Campbell and her kids.
She confirmed the housing shortage was very real at Wallaga Lake with demand far outstripping supply. There were 32 residences at the Koori village, three of which were uninhabitable due to being in bad condition.
“Things are changing and there is now more demand for one or two-bedroom houses and not for the three or four-bedroom houses,” she said.
One solution for Leslie Campbell would be to move a single or couple tenant living in a larger house to a smaller house, making way for the large family, she said.
There were long-term plans to build more housing at Wallaga Lake with a plan to knock down some of the older, larger houses in a state of disrepair to make room for more higher-density housing.
“We have the land, we just need the funding to do it,” she said.
The lands council saw a need to build more houses for the aging population and many of its houses already had amenities for elders, such as ramps and hand rails.
In another recent positive for the village, a new sewerage system had just been installed linking each dwelling to the treatment plant in Bermagui, ending years of problems with septic tanks. “We’ve been working on this for 20 years,” Mrs Greenaway said.
Charity Anglicare meanwhile in recent weeks announced a housing shortage is threatening low income and single parent households across the Far South Coast. No suitable rental properties are affordable across the Batemans Bay region for a single parent earning a minimum wage, according to Anglicare’s annual Rental Affordability Snapshot.
The snapshot surveyed 137 properties advertised for rent in Batemans Bay and surrounding areas including Moruya and Narooma on April 1 in terms of affordability (up to 30 per cent of disposable income) and appropriateness to accommodate the required number of people. The survey found no affordable and suitable properties for a family or single person living on Newstart, young people on Youth Allowance and single parents receiving a Parenting Payment. Click here for more
One possible source of more housing in Narooma was the La Salle Motel recently purchased by local businessman Harvey Ball.
Mr Ball had been considering turning the motel into affordable housing for single mothers, but now with no obvious support from local and state governments, he was thinking aged care housing may be the way to go.
“I have been gravitating toward aged housing for those who cannot afford the large upfront payment to retirement villages and need affordable rental accommodation instead. This seems to be a sector in need - post complete autonomy and before aged care/nursing home,” he said.