A domestic violence survivor who emerged from homelessness by building a small house on a friend’s property faces being kicked out onto the streets by city bureaucracy.
Teena Keys, from Geelong, southwest of Melbourne, became homeless after losing her business during the pandemic and fleeing an abusive relationship.
In a damning indictment of Australia’s growing housing crisis, she was turned down from more than 60 rentals and was forced to spend three years couch surfing and sleeping in her car as she tried to rebuild her cleaning business.
But his luck changed in December last year when he built a small off-grid house on a friend’s 100-acre property in the rural Victorian town of Anakie.
‘I just think this is a solution to a big problem here in Victoria. “There are so many people on the streets, so many people without housing,” Ms. Keys told Sunrise.
Teena Keys (pictured), from Geelong, south-west of Melbourne, became homeless after losing her business during the pandemic and fleeing an abusive relationship.
But his luck changed in December last year when he built a small off-grid house on a friend’s 100-acre property in the rural Victorian town of Anakie (pictured).
‘There are so many older farmers who can’t do the work they used to do. The solution here is to build some houses on these properties so that people have a place to live.”
However, Ms Keys now faces expulsion after being given 60 days to shell out thousands of dollars she does not have for a retrospective building permit.
“The permit is just the beginning,” he told the program.
‘Then you have to keep everything up to date, which means accessing exchanges and services that I simply can’t afford.
‘I’m not the only person in this situation. Many Australians are in this boat.
‘I’ve worked all my life. I don’t understand Centrelink or anything. If I don’t work, I don’t get paid. It’s just… they keep kicking you out.
Keys said she had no other permanent place to go if the council forced her to leave.
Ms Keys said she had nowhere else permanent to go if the council forced her out of her small home (pictured).
“I’ll probably go back to Couch Surfing for a few more years because I don’t have a solution after this,” he added.
TO GoFundMe pageCreated by a friend to raise money to allow Ms. Keys to keep her home, it has so far raised $300.
“Teena left a violent marriage with a police escort in 2019 and returned to her hometown of Geelong, only for Covid to hit and destroy her growing cleaning business,” the fundraising page said.
He revealed that Ms Keys was forced to couch surf because she was seen as a “high-risk tenant – a single, self-employed woman and her business in decline”.
The housekeeper, who relies on food banks for food, suffered two bouts of pneumonia and underwent surgery to remove a precancerous growth during this stressful time.
“She never thought her life would take the turn it has with thousands of dollars and surgeries needed to get her little cabin approved and after five years she could finally feel grounded,” the GoFundMe page reads.
“She feels like this hard work is about to be ripped out from under her.”
Daily Mail Australia has approached Greater Geelong City Council for comment.
