A mother and her four children were forced to live in a tent after losing their entire home in a fire amid Australia’s worsening housing crisis.
Kristine Meakins and her children aged two, five, eight and 15 have been living in a tent at a caravan park in South Perth for the past two weeks.
Their rental home in Rockingham burned down in January, leaving the Meakins family with nothing.
They have been put on the priority list for social housing and Ms Meakins said she has made 50 applications for rental housing without success.
‘This is not habitable. “You’re not supposed to live this way,” she told the ABC in tears.
Kristine Meakins and her four children, aged two, five, eight and 15, have been living in a tent at a caravan park in South Perth for the past two weeks.
After their house burned down, Meakins bought camping equipment, mattresses and a stove, but said the first camp they went to kicked them out after three days.
The family then moved to various caravan parks, but it is becoming increasingly difficult to find a place to sleep.
Additionally, visitors are only allowed to stay in caravan parks for a maximum of two weeks, so the Meakins family will soon be on the move again.
“I felt angry, very, very angry, because not everyone’s house burns down and not everyone has to see how everything you have accumulated throughout your life is destroyed in front of you,” said the Mrs. Meakins.
“I feel like I’m hitting a brick wall every time, and then we come back here, go to sleep, and do it all again the next day.”
The mother desperately tries to make life as normal as possible for her children, with toys and coloring books seen in the store.
He said he had attended every open house and turned in applications on time while trying to make a good impression.
“And I’ve been rejected every time and it’s depressing because it makes you not want to even bother, but if you don’t bother you don’t have a chance,” Mrs Meakins said.
Tragically, their situation is becoming more common as the housing shortage increases and many caravan parks reach capacity across the country.
The family has moved from different caravan parks, but it is becoming increasingly difficult to find a place to sleep.
The rental property vacancy rate in the Perth metropolitan area is below 1 per cent, the lowest in Australia.
It is estimated that just under 200,000 people need housing.
WA Housing and Planning Minister John Carey offered a bleak outlook for the future.
He said he hoped Meakins and his family would get housing, but said the housing shortage would not be overcome quickly.
“It won’t be next year because our market, like all markets in Australia, is facing the same limitations and pressures,” he told the publication.
At a time when the population is booming due to record migration, the country’s construction industry is in crisis due to a shortage of skilled tradesmen and the rising cost of materials.