CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
With all this talk of a housing crisis, it’s rare that you ever hear any positive stories.
If you listened to the Greens or their Gen-Z voters, you’d think that the world was about to end. The fact of the matter is, it’s actually not that hard to find somewhere to live – if you are willing to make a few slight changes.
And that’s exactly what one recently-widowed frontline worker did, after being unable to find somewhere to rent within her budget in the neighbourhood she grew up in.
As someone who has gone on to raise her own family in this same old suburb, local aged care worker Delilah Webb (69) thought that’s where she’d live for the rest of her life.
But unfortunately that cannot be the case in this day and age, because Delilah’s once working class hometown has attracted the attention of people richer than she could ever be.
So what does she do? She improvises and adapts with one simple life hack! Totally uprooting herself and starting again in a foreign environment with no loved ones nearby.
She could have never predicted that she’d be facing a cost-of-living crisis after a lifetime of honest blue collar work – she also couldn’t predict that her husband was going to kick the bucket early with the best part of a mortgage staring down on them.
With two daughters facing a housing crisis of their own and two sets of grandkids to look after, there wasn’t one extra room for grandma nearby.
So grandma had to roll up her sleeves and find somewhere to live, to avoid becoming an all too familiar statistic and join the growing cohort of women over 55 experiencing homelessness – which has increased by 31% since 2011.
Using a little bit of creativity, and a lot of public transport – Delilah found a place to live on the outskirts of town.
“Yeah, there’s not many shops or hospitals out there, but they do have a bus that takes me into town where the train lines start” she says.
“That’s all I need really. Two hours on the train in the morning and voila, I’m back in my hometown, and back at my old job providing care for or elderly”
While Delilah says she does miss sitting on the sideline at junior football matches, and keeping an eye on the generational community members that she grew up alongside – she says at least she isn’t living under a bridge.
“Satellite towns aren’t too bad. I just need to find out where all the services like GPs and pharmacists are located. So far, all I’ve seen is a Costco and a heap of fast food restaurants that you can only access via a motorway offramp” she says.
“But at least I’ve got secure housing in my one bedroom apartment on the rural fringe. It’s warm too… It’s like the outback in summer!”
“I think they are about to privatise the bus service in my new suburb. Which I’m being told will be a good thing and ensure a more reliable public transport commute.”
“That’s really good because I can’t afford to miss any more days at work after paying for a $2000 rental bond and paying for my own background check”
