Geelong woman faces being kicked out of tiny home due to council red tape

A domestic abuse survivor who lifted herself out of homelessness by building a small house on a friend’s property is being thrown out onto the street by council red tape.

Teena Keys, from Geelong, southwest of Melbourne, found herself homeless after losing her business during the pandemic and fleeing an abusive relationship.

In a damning indictment of Australia’s deepening housing crisis, she was rejected from more than 60 rental properties and forced to couch surf and sleep in her car for three years as she tried to rebuild her housekeeping business.

But her fortunes turned last December when she built a small off-grid house on a friend’s 100-acre estate in the rural Victorian town of Anakie.

“I just think this is a solution to a major problem here in Victoria. There are so many people on the streets, so many people without housing,” Ms Keys told Sunrise.

But her fortunes turned last December when she built a small off-grid house on a friend’s 100-acre estate in the rural Victorian town of Anakie (pictured)

‘There are so many aging farmers who can no longer do the work they used to do. The solution here is to put homes on these sites so that people have a place to live.”

However, Ms Keys now faces exclusion after being given a 60-day deadline to pay out thousands of dollars she doesn’t have for a retroactive building permit.

“The permit is just the beginning,” she told the program.

‘Then you have to have everything in order, which means that you have to do professions and services that I simply cannot afford.

‘I’m not the only person in this situation. Many Australians are in this boat.

‘I’ve worked all my life. I don’t get Centrelink or anything. If I don’t work, I don’t get paid. It’s just…you keep getting kicked to the curb.”

Ms Keys said she had nowhere else to go if the council forced her to leave.

Mrs Keys said she had nowhere else to go if the council forced her out of her small home (pictured)

“I’m probably going to couch surf again for a few more years because I don’t have a solution after this,” she added.

a GoFundMe pageset up by a friend to raise money so Mrs Keys can keep her home, has raised $300 so far.

“Teena left an abusive marriage under police escort and moved back to her hometown of Geelong in 2019, where Covid was able to hit and destroy her growing domestic business,” the fundraising page said.

It revealed that Ms Keys was forced to couch surf because she was seen as a ‘high-risk tenant – single woman, self-employed and her business was in decline’.

The housekeeper, who relies on food banks for her food, developed two bouts of pneumonia during this stressful time and underwent surgery to remove a pre-cancerous tumor.

“She never imagined her life would take the turn it has now, with thousands of dollars and transactions needed to get her little shack approved so she could finally feel grounded after five years,” the GoFundMe reads -page.

“She feels like this hard blow is about to be pulled out from under her.”

Daily Mail Australia approached the City of Greater Geelong for comment.