Homeless woman Emma’s TikTok vent over ‘greedy’ landlords and soaring rents goes viral
A mother’s anger at being forced into homelessness with her two children was met with widespread sympathy and sparked heated debate.
Emma Lenz, who lives in a rented caravan in the Darling Downs area of south central Queensland, has rented to property investors who she says have ‘taken all the houses’.
In a video on TikTok, she writes: “I’m angry today. I feel bad and I’m homeless.”
Placing the blame on real estate investors, she writes, “If you own more than one home, you have made me homeless with your greed.
“I don’t want to pay for your houses, I want to keep one, just one I paid for for God’s sake. I hate the world and I hate investors. Give us back our homes, greedy bastards.’
In the video she anticipates a negative reaction to the video.
Emma Lenz, a mother of two, has expressed her anger at being forced to live in a rented caravan with her children due to the unaffordability of the rent
“I think one of the biggest reasons people don’t admit to being homeless, talk about it or own it is that when you say you’re homeless, the default response from any Australian is that it’s your own fault,” she says.
“Obviously you’ve made bad financial choices and of course that brings with it a lot of shame and humiliation and it’s terribly unfair.
“I’ve paid half a million in rent in my time, that’s enough for two houses here where I live now, but I’m homeless because if you pay rent, you don’t get any equity, you don’t get any return on that.”
She says those who accuse her of making bad financial choices don’t realize she had no choice.
‘I wasn’t allowed to buy because my income was never high enough, I did buy for a few years, but my ex-husband couldn’t keep a job, so we had to sell the apartment and we’ve been renting ever since. ‘ she says.
“I’ve been single for 10 years and I pay an average of $24,000 a year from a $30,000 income to watch rich assholes tell me how you’d survive paying 80% of your income in rent.
Someone said to me the other day: “Just spend less than what I earn”.
“With less than what I earn, I am homeless.
Ms Lenz explained that her son’s autism only allows her to work part-time, but she was ‘working herself to death’
“I can’t qualify for housing anywhere in Australia… because I’m not a crack I don’t qualify for social housing, so where the hell are you Australia, seriously?”
In a later video, she explained why she lived in a caravan despite being in a regional area where rents are cheaper than Australia’s major capitals.
“The problem is if you’re a low income earner of less than ,000 a year you don’t qualify for a rent, your income has to be three times the rent, so here the rent is 0 per week, so you have to bring in ,200 in revenue,” she said.
“As a single parent, I can only bring in about $700 to $800 in a good week.
According to Mrs. Lenz, she could never qualify for a home loan.
“I can’t buy a house because my income won’t pay off the loan on paper, even though I’ve never missed a week’s rent,” she said.
“I saw someone get killed and went home and paid rent that day. I had a baby and paid rent that day.’
“My ex-husband became completely psychotic. I think that shows that I will pay for my housing no matter what.’
While the majority of responses to Mrs. Lenz were sympathetic, some took a hard line.
“Find a job,” the first said.
“I am a single mother and have been for 15 years. I earn minimum wage. I own my own house. No excuse and you don’t have to be rich to own,” said another TikTok user.
One told her “good luck for being so angry and bitter,” to which Ms. Lenz posted a reply saying, “I’m deeply ashamed of how angry and bitter I am.”
Another TikTok user questioned Ms. Lenz’s financial claims.
“Sorry, this is what you’re going through. May I ask what job in Australia only pays $30,000? Or are you only part-time?’
Ms. Lenz confirmed that she worked part-time because her son has a disability.
In other TikTok videos, she explained her situation by saying she had a job that could bring in 0,000 a year, a gardening business and recently obtained a degree in Fine Arts from Wollongong University.
On her social media, she lists her profession as a nearby shaving shed.
‘I have a few jobs. I often go to work at 5 a.m. and try to be home by 9 a.m. so I can take the kids to school,” she says.
“We are the working poor. We have jobs.’
However, she explains that sometimes her autistic son can only attend school for an hour or two a day.
“Maybe I can’t go to work four or five days a week,” she says, but she explains that sometimes her son comes to work with her.
“We’re working our asses off,” she said.
‘I don’t take days off, I also work on weekends.’
Ms Lenz said her children, consisting of the son and a teenage daughter, had recently come to live with her as they were fleeing domestic violence and came with ‘very few clothes and no shoes’.
The majority of people who commented expressed sympathy or outlined being in similar situations.
“My husband and I realized that he has already paid off the owner’s mortgage in just over 10 years, but the rent continues to rise,” one person wrote.
‘It’s not your fault. Something is broken in this country. I’m sorry about your situation,” said another.
Another TikTok user commented that “the financial inequality between men and women, especially single mothers, is hitting very hard right now.”
Some agreed with Lenz that real estate investment skews the market.
“The rampant speculation in property, because it has become an asset class rather than a place of residence, is destroying society,” one wrote.
Ms Lenz also had a warning that no tenant could feel ‘safe’ to become homeless.
“Now you can’t get rent if you have less than $60,000[per year],” she said.
“Next year it will be $70,000 and the year after that $80,000.”