Sarah and her two daughters are used to setting countdown timers “for the fun things,” but on Wednesday, when the clock stops, they won’t be going on vacation.
They will be left homeless.
The brown boxes lining the walls of her cozy downtown apartment, filled with her most prized possessions, serve as a stark reminder of her desperate deadline.
Sarah, who is in her 30s, and her daughters, aged six and 15, are the last faces of a growing crowd left on the streets by the country’s rental crisis.
“This is the first time I don’t know where to take my children,” Sarah, whose name has been changed for privacy reasons, told FEMAIL.
The national unemployment rate is at a record low of 0.7 percent, highlighting the huge gap between supply and demand.
Sarah and her children have to leave their two-bedroom apartment on Wednesday.
Adding to the pressure, rent has soared in Sydney, where Sarah and her children live, by 15 per cent in just 12 months.
“I saw prices going up and I was glad I could pay the owner more, but that wasn’t an option, they had to sell,” he said.
His calm voice echoed over the phone line. She seemed completely shocked, exhausted and terrified for her daughters as she described exactly how they went from happy to the brink of homelessness in a matter of weeks.
The working mother has been plagued by feelings of doubt and shame despite being able to pay to keep a roof over her children’s heads.
He budgets $700 a week for a rental and has tried to be flexible while searching for a new home in 13 suburbs across metropolitan Sydney.
She has submitted dozens of rental applications for one- and two-bedroom apartments within her budget, even though some of them are “barely livable,” but rarely hears back.
The layoff notice gave the mother three months to find a rental place; At first she was sure, then she realized that she could face homelessness.
When it does, it’s a generic email weeks after an inspection saying “Sorry, you weren’t successful on this occasion.” She then follows a link that invites her to subscribe to be “among the first to know” about new rentals.
‘I feel like I have failed my children. My six-year-old daughter doesn’t deserve to be homeless, she’s afraid. “My 15-year-old daughter is fine, but I don’t want her to live like this,” she said.
This family of three has lived in their current apartment for more than three years. Sarah always paid the rent on time and they were happy to stay.
But just before Christmas 2023, they received terrible news: The owners wanted to sell and didn’t want tenants there when they did.
Sarah’s hands shook as she read the layoff notice.
Then she took a deep breath, looked at the apartment she and her children had called home, and put on a brave face.
The mother has a shed to store her things, but faces living in a shelter or worse as she can’t get a rental property despite submitting dozens of applications.
“I thought, ‘I can do this, I can find something, they’ve given me three months,'” he said.
Weeks passed and shock slowly began to set in, followed by overwhelming feelings of terror and shame.
Sarah asked for an extension, however, the real estate agent she had always had a good relationship with “turned cold.”
Faced with homelessness, he did not hesitate to take them to court where he won another month of reprieve. However, they told him that would be the end of any extension and that he would have to leave by May 1, whether or not he had a place to go.
The court was a big victory for Sarah, but it also made her fear for the future, so she picked up the phone to ask homeless advocacy services for help.
(File image) There is a 0.7 percent unemployment rate in Australia; As a result, rental prices have skyrocketed and people have been left “fighting” over a handful of properties.
“They told me they couldn’t do anything while I was on the floor. They told me to call back on Wednesday when we were already homeless,” she said.
The mother then frantically posted anonymously on social media advising her to move to the country where rent is more affordable.
“I would have left years ago if that was an option,” he said. ‘But the children’s father lives in Sydney and I can’t move that far away.
“They need to go to the same school and be able to visit, there are court orders.”
Others suggested applying for crisis accommodation, “decorating the car to live in” and “getting a good tent,” as many other families have been forced to do.
While the girls’ father needs access to his daughters, he is in no position to welcome them into his home while Sarah searches for one for them.
“We have been offered a room in a women’s shelter, but only for a maximum of 28 days,” she said.
She posted on Gumtree and was inundated with housing offers, although most are believed to be scams.
‘Will it be safe for us, will I be able to cook and take care of my children?’ she said of the shelter, despite being grateful for the option.
‘I understand not having a place to live if I can’t afford it. But I can… which is very frustrating.”
She will also have to “get rid” of her six-year-old dog to accept a room at the women’s shelter, only to be back on the street within a month if estate agents continue to ignore her requests.
“We really don’t want to have to say goodbye to her,” Sarah said.
Sarah has been told that social housing lists last for years and, due to her income, do not meet the criteria for other types of crisis accommodation.
The desperate mum even tried posting on Gumtree to see if anyone would be happy to rent her house outright.
This opened it up to scammers.
“I knew they were scams from the beginning, they would say it was an apartment, but I Googled the address and it was a house.” Or they would ask for $500 but it would be a modern, furnished apartment,” she said.
“On Facebook it was the same, all the scams.”
Other places were “too good to be true.” She has looked at all the real estate and even tried Facebook to find a house.
Even though she knows that most offers are scams, Sarah continues the conversations in hopes of finding a genuine offer.
She abandons the conversation when they ask for cash to view the property or a bond and weeks of rent in advance before viewing the place or a contract.
Sarah said she has never faced homelessness before and is furious with the state of the rental market.
“The government needs to take control because the families are the ones who suffer,” he said.
“And realtors need to stop overlooking single parents just because there aren’t two names on the application – I can afford to pay the rent, which makes being homeless even more ridiculous.”
Speaking to FEMAIL, another single mother suggested Sarah add a friend to her application after she herself faced a similar housing struggle.
The mother of two, who takes home $130,000 after taxes, was shocked when, despite her strong income, she was unable to secure a home for herself and her children.
She then had a candid conversation with a real estate agent who revealed that singles are overlooked “most of the time.”
She confirmed that her friend, a nurse with a modest income, signed on the dotted line with her and “they” got the first house “they” applied for.
Sarah continues to apply for properties (some without even attending viewings) and hoping for a miracle.
Most of the family’s items are in boxes. with everything the family needs on a daily basis organized in the trunk of the car for easy access.
School uniforms, summer clothes and winter jackets are all within reach of this desperate mother who is still shocked by how she ended up unable to keep a roof over her family’s heads.
‘I feel like nobody cares. And that makes it difficult for us parents to keep our children safe,” he said.
Sarah’s apartment has not yet been put up for sale.
She said she will feel devastated and betrayed if the owners simply raise the price and put it back on the market.
‘I’ll pay what they want. “I just want my children to be safe.”