Homeless for Christmas?

Two single mothers with three children under the age of five are facing a homeless Christmas after struggling to secure a house in Albany’s tightening rental market.

There has been a significant drop in the number of rental houses in Albany over the past six months, with only 47 properties available for lease in the September quarter, according to the Real Estate Institute of WA.

That was 28 per cent lower than in the June quarter, and by comparison there were more than 100 rentals available in June 2012.

Bianca Brown, 24, and her three children — aged four, three and two — have been homeless since their lease expired on October 26.

Ms Brown, who has lived in Albany for 14 years and rented for the past four, said she was forced to sleep in her car.

“I had nowhere to go,” she said.

“It was getting to the point where you park up and do what you have to do.

“I would go out of town or stay in town where you know no one is going to be, roll back the seat and try to sleep.”

Ms Brown said she has applied for about 40 properties since becoming homeless, with some viewings attended by between 15 and 30 people.

“I knew there was a big demand for houses but not this bad,” she said.

“We thought it won’t take us long to get a house, we will be fine.

“It is six weeks later and we still have nothing”

Ms Brown said the Department of Housing had told her there was an 18-month waiting list for emergency housing in Albany.

“I don’t know what else to do at the moment … I am lost,” she said.

Twenty-eight-year-old Ange, who did not want her surname to be published, is in a similar situation.

With three children under the age of five, the young family have been living in a caravan since their lease also expired in late October.

“We had nowhere else to go,” she said.

“I have lived in Albany all my life (and) … rented for seven years.

“I have never had a problem getting into a house or transitioning from one to another until now.”

She has applied for 34 houses but was losing hope and preparing to spend Christmas in the caravan.

“They (my children) ask all the time if we are going to have a house and you just have to explain as best you can that you have to be patient and wait and we are doing all we can,” she said.

“I get really stressed and overwhelmed and frustrated … I have cried a couple of times and the kids are going ‘it’s OK mum, we will get a house soon mum’.”