Family who lived in a shoe

A SINGLE mother of three is fed up with living in what she describes as a“shoe box ”, saying her young family has spent almost two years waiting for an alternative.

Mad die Gillies lives in a twobedroom Housing Tasmania unit at Austins Ferry and cares for her three children Tyler, 10, Kalani, 1, and Kaleb, five months.

The cramped nature of the unit means Ms Gillies is forced to sleep on a blow-up mattress in the lounge room, along with her youngest child, who has a brain condition.

The two eldest children occupy thetwobedrooms.

“It’s literally a shoebox,’’ Ms Gillies said.

Ms Gillies said Kaleb had an absence of his corpus callosum, a failure of his nerves to form connection between the right and left sides of his brain. This is associated with significant intellectual and developmental disabilities.

In her bid for a more suitable home, Ms Gillies has a supporting letter from a paediatrician who said there was“inadequate space” inside the home for developmental promotionforKaleb.

Ms Gillies said she had the support of the children’ s father—from whom she is separated — but there was insufficient space for him in the home to stay the night.

Ms Gillies said she was looking for a home with at least three bedrooms and had put down a wide range of suburbs in which she would be willing to live.

“It’s not suitable for me, but it could be suitable for someone else,’’ she said of her current home.

She said she had been on the priority waiting list for housing since at least March last year.

Ms Gillies said she had repeatedly contacted Housing Connect to plead her case—and had also contacted government representatives —but without success.

The 30-year-old was one of 3373 applications on the housing register.

Priority housing applicants are waiting an average of 63 weeks — almost 15 months — to be housed, asattheendofJune.

Housing Minister RogerJa en sch said the government was sympathetic to those experiencing housing stress and was investing at record levels in new social and affordable housing.

MrJa en schsai dan expression of interest was advertised recently to deliver up to 1000 new social housing dwellings over the next three years.

“We know there is more to do and we will continue to do all we can to help those in need into safe and secure housing ,’’ he said.