Labaro now has six children,and has left that partner for good,set up by Housing Trust in a social housing unit that costs just 25 per cent of her income. “[My ex] controlled all the finances. I lost my confidence,” she says. “But I believe in myself again now.”
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Adair is part of a growing chorus of experts calling for governments to build more of this social housing. Australia’s economy is already recovering from COVID shutdowns,and the eviction bans and ramped-up welfare and emergency accommodation programs that helped keep people in their homes during the pandemic have largely wound down. But manyeconomists say there is still a strong case for a social housing construction boom to keep people off the street - and create jobs. Nationally,public housing stock has dwindled compared to countries such as the UK,Scotland and Finland yet demand is increasing as the cost of living continues to rise. In June 2019,before the pandemic hit,there were already more than 140,000 families on the public housing queue Australia-wide.
Adair,who is critical of the “missed opportunities” by both NSW and federal budgets so far,is not heartened by what she sees among those in power. “Generally,the people making the decisions can afford to make it different for their loved ones,if their[child] can’t get a deposit[to buy a home],they go guarantor,” Adair says. “And before we lost the house,believe me,I was one of them:very upper middle class,private school girl,married at Scots College chapel.”
Then,for the second time in her life,everything changed. Just as her marriage was unravelling,Adair was rushed to hospital with suspected leukaemia. “They told us to celebrate Christmas early because they didn’t think I’d make it.”
As she lay there,her turn in the hospital bed with bad news,she remembers holding her two-year-old daughter and trying not to think of those final weeks with her own father. Instead she thought:“there’s no way you’re growing up without me”.
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She was right. Within weeks,her husband had left with the car and his creditors were reclaiming the house. But her daughter turned three with a mum that year,and she’s been there for every birthday of her two children since.
Still,the autoimmune disease actually to blame for Adair’s health scare has left her with chronic heart and lung problems. Today,she is at once frail and Teflon tough,warm and formidably forthright. The kind of woman to sneak suit pants on under a hospital gown,just in case she needs to pop out to close a deal. “It’s in my DNA,” she explains. Her mother served in the air force during WWII and her grandmother was a suffragette. Before Adair arrived,women were not allowed to play golf on Saturdays at her local Sydney club. (“They even still had blue and pink membership forms for men and women. Well not anymore.”)
She says it’s well past time to change Australia’s housing policy too. “If I see one more reform just aimed at buyers and not renters,I’ll scream. I know what it is to not have realtors call you back because you’re a single mum,to not have a fixed address to fill in a Centrelink form.”
Back then,when things were bad,even a “$4.50 return train ticket may as well have been thousands of dollars on my budget”,she says. “I couldn’t see myself in the reality we were living. I thought I’d completely failed my kids. Years later,I found out that the friend who gave me the bond and helped us get that first rental was the same person who left a bag of groceries at the door every week.”
Kindness and luck kept her family off the street,she says,not governments.
In Melbourne,Shirl Brown at frontline homelessness service Launch Housing says single parents still struggle to find affordable rentals today. The charity recently had to put up one large family in motels for four months before they could find a place. “There’s even less after COVID. No one will give them a go. Meanwhile some of our families have been on public housing lists for 10 years.”
Brown’s warning is echoed in the latestAnglicare Rental Affordability Snapshot which analysed the 74,000-odd listings available in Australia’s private rental market on a given day in March. A couple on minimum wage with two children could afford about 14 per cent of them,8 per cent less than the previous year. But a single parent in the same situation could only afford 1 per cent,compared to 4 per cent in 2020,meaning there were just 758 properties across Australia within their estimated budget,and just 97 for those surviving on the single parent payment,as Adair once did.
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While the federal government hasflagged it will look to drive down unemployment rather than chase austerity cuts in its budget on Tuesday,it has copped criticism for leaving public housing out of its COVID stimulus spending so far. It wants the states to stump up the cash,though both levels of government fund public housing and previous big builds have been driven by the Commonwealth. Housing Minister Michael Sukkar says the government has approved more than $1.8 billion worth of cheap loans for community providers offering affordable housing below market rent,and is spending $60 million to create 700 extra places for women and children fleeing violence across Australia. Domestic violence prevention isexpected to get a further boost in funding in Tuesday’s budget,though it is unclear if the money will go to expanding refuges.
So far,the government has released details of its new Family Home Guarantee,which will allow 10,000 single parents with dependents to purchase a home with a deposit of just 2 per cent over the next four years. But the scheme has already been criticised by Labor and social services groups as “minimum help,maximum hype”,likely to give a small number of families a foot in the door while missing the many already living below the poverty line.
The NSW government,meanwhile,has acknowledged the need for more social housing and last year pledged an extra $812 million to upgrade its public housing stock,which Housing Minister Melinda Pavey says will create up to 3000 jobs. But advocates want the state to match the ambition of Victoria,which has now committed $5.3 billion to build 12,000 new units in four years. Though Pavey notes that NSW’s existing social housing stock is larger than Victoria’s,the southern state’s new build is expected to generate $6.7 billion in economic activity.
“And think of the intergenerational changes that will bring for Victoria,” Adair says. “For mental health,for domestic violence,for unemployment,all these things you need a safe,affordable home before you can really fix.”
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Brown adds:“Once kids are on the street,missing school,they can get trapped there,you see them come back to services as adults and it just breaks your heart.”
Still,as Adair watches other mothers such as Labaro rebuild their lives,she says the little wins feel especially big. “We often talk,rightly,about the damage of exposing kids to this kind of stuff,but we don’t talk enough about the power of kids seeing their[parent] doing well.“
And then she sighs:“But it shouldn’t be this hard for them still.”
If you or anyone you know needs support,you can contact the National Sexual Assault,Domestic and Family Violence Counselling Service on1800RESPECT (1800 737 732)