Home plea

By Casey Neill
A MOUNT Evelyn mum and her three children desperately need a home.
The family is living in fear after escaping domestic violence and is battling serious medical issues, but has been left waiting almost a year for government housing.
The mother is now calling on the State Government to fund more accommodation for those in need.
“I just want to get us a house,” she said.
The 42-year-old, who has asked to remain anonymous, shares a one-bedroom bungalow on her mother’s property with her two daughters.
Her four-year-old has a severe dust mite allergy and her eldest daughter, aged 6, was recently diagnosed with kidney reflux. They share a bedroom while their mum sleeps in the living area.
“It’s very cramped,” she said.
“It would be nice to have my own room. I’ve got no private area for myself.
“I can’t have people over, my daughters can’t have friends over.”
Her 15-year-old son sleeps in the main room of his grandmother’s house.
“Which makes it hard for me to keep an eye on him,” his mum said.
He suffers from autism and epilepsy, has an intellectual disability and needs access to Mount Evelyn Special Developmental School and other local services.
The mother was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis six years ago.
“It’s stable but the stress of this is not doing me any good,” she said.
She left full-time work in May last year to focus on her children and move closer to family and friends.
“The kids need stability, support and a lot of love,” she said. “I never thought I’d see myself in this situation. But I’ve got to do what’s best for the children.”
She joined the government housing list last August.
“After what we’ve been through we want a normal house to function in,” she said. “The State Government needs to make funds available to clear the housing list.”
Evelyn MP Christine Fyffe said Victoria’s public housing system was overburdened because of a lack of housing stock.
She said almost 40,000 Victorian families were on the housing waiting list for the March quarter. The average wait is now eight months, up from 2.8 in 1999.
“What hope can people feel when this kind of figure is quoted to them?” she said.
A State Government spokesman said they were working with the Federal Government to deliver “the biggest investment in decades” in public and social housing.
“The government understands the private rental market is extremely tight, putting pressure on vulnerable Victorians,” he said.
“We will build more than 6000 homes across the state in the next couple of years due to the Rudd Government’s $1.167 billion Nation Building program and our own record $510 million investment.”