Moving boxes packed with nowhere to go: Aussie mum Sarah and her two girls will be homeless on Wednesday – despite a $700-a-week budget and perfect history

Sarah and her two daughters are used to setting countdown timers ‘for the fun stuff’ – but on Wednesday, when the clocks stop, they don’t go on holiday.

They will be homeless.

The brown boxes lining the walls of their cozy downtown apartment, filled with their most prized possessions, serve as a stark reminder of their desperate deadline.

Sarah, in her 30s, and her daughters, aged six and 15, are the latest faces in a steadily growing crowd that has found itself on the streets due to the country’s rental crisis.

“It’s the first time I don’t know where to take my children,” Sarah, whose name has been changed for privacy reasons, told FEMAIL.

The national vacancy rate is at a record low of 0.7 percent, highlighting the huge gap between supply and demand.

Adding to the pressure, rents in Sydney, where Sarah and her children live, have risen by 15 percent in just 12 months.

“I saw prices rising and wanted to pay my landlord more, but that wasn’t an option, they have to sell,” she said.

Her soft voice came through the telephone line. She sounded utterly horrified, exhausted and terrified for her daughters as she described exactly how they went from happy to the brink of homelessness in a matter of weeks.

The hardworking mother is struck by feelings of self-doubt and shame, despite being able to pay to keep a roof over her children’s heads.

She has a budget of $700 a week for a rental property and has tried to be flexible as she searches for a new home in 13 suburbs in the Sydney metro area.

She has submitted dozens of rental applications for one- and two-bedroom apartments within her budget – despite some of them being “barely habitable” – but receives scant responses.

When she does, it’s a generic email weeks after an inspection that says, “Sorry for this opportunity, you were not successful.” This is followed by a link inviting her to subscribe so that she can be ‘one of the first to know’ about new rental properties.

‘I feel like I’ve let my children down. My six-year-old doesn’t deserve to be homeless, she fears. My 15-year-old is doing well, but I don’t want her to live like this,” she said.

The family of three has lived in their current apartment for more than three years. Sarah has always paid the rent on time and they were happy to stay.

But just before Christmas 2023, they received terrible news: the owners wanted to sell and they didn’t want any tenants in when they did.

Sarah’s hands shook as she read the termination agreement.

Then she took a deep breath, looked around at the apartment she and her children had called home, and put on a brave face.

“I thought, ‘I can do this, I can find something, they gave me three months,’” she said.

Weeks flew by and the shock slowly began to set in, followed by overwhelming feelings of fear and shame.

Sarah asked for an extension, but the real estate agent with whom she had always had a good relationship went ‘cold’.

Faced with homelessness, she did not hesitate to take them to court, where she won an additional month of time. However, she was told that all extensions would end and that she would have to be out on May 1, whether she had to go anywhere or not.

The tribunal was a huge victory for Sarah, but it also made her fearful for the future, so she picked up the phone to ask for help from homelessness services.

‘They told me there was nothing they could do while I was in the flat. They told me to call back on Wednesday once we were actually homeless,” she said.

The mother then desperately posted anonymously on social media where she was advised to move to the country where rent is more affordable.

“If that was an option, I would have left years ago,” she said. ‘But the children’s father lives in Sydney and I’m not allowed to move so far away.

“They have to go to the same school and be able to visit, there are court orders.”

Others suggested applying for crisis shelter, “equipping the car to live in” and “getting a good tent,” as many other families have been forced to do.

Although the girls’ father needs access to his daughters, he is in no position to welcome them into his home while Sarah finds one for them.

“We have been offered a room in a women’s shelter, but it is only for a maximum of 28 days,” she said.

“Will it be safe for us, can I cook and take care of my children?” she said of the refuge, despite being grateful for the option.

‘I understand that I don’t have a place to live if I can’t pay for it. But I can, and that’s so frustrating.”

She will also have to ‘get rid’ of her six-year-old dog to accept the room at the women’s shelter – only to be back on the streets in a month if real estate agents continue to ignore her applications.

“We really don’t want to have to say goodbye to her,” Sarah said.

Sarah has been told that the lists of social housing are years long and that her income does not meet the criteria for other types of crisis housing.

The desperate mum even tried posting on Gumtree to see if anyone would like to rent their home directly.

This exposed her to scammers.

‘I knew it was a scam early on, they said it was an apartment but I googled the address and it was said to be a house. Or they would charge $500, but it would be a modern, furnished apartment,” she said.

“It was the same on Facebook, all scams.”

Even though she knows most offers are scams, Sarah continues the conversations, hoping to come across a real offer.

She leaves the conversation when she is asked for cash to view the property, or for a deposit and weeks’ rent in advance, before seeing the property or a contract.

Sarah said she has never experienced homelessness before and is furious at the state of the rental market.

“The government must take control because families are the ones who are suffering,” she said.

“And agents need to stop overlooking single parents just because there aren’t two names on the application. I can pay the rent, which makes being homeless even more ridiculous.”

Speaking to FEMAIL, another single mother suggested Sarah add a friend to her application after facing a similar housing struggle herself.

The mother of two, who takes home $130,000 after taxes, was shocked when, despite her strong income, she was unable to secure a home for herself and her children.

She then had a candid chat with an agent, who revealed that singles are ‘usually’ overlooked.

She confirmed that her friend, a nurse on a modest income, signed on the dotted line with her and “they” got the first home that “they” applied for.

Sarah is still applying for properties – some without even going to viewings – and hoping for a miracle.

Most of the family’s belongings are in boxes with everything the family needs every day, organized in the boot of the car for easy access.

School uniforms, summer clothes and winter coats are all within reach for the desperate mother, who is still baffled at how she ultimately failed to keep a roof over her family’s heads.

“I feel like no one cares. And that makes it difficult for us parents to keep our children safe,” she said.

Sarah’s apartment is still not for sale.

She said she would feel devastated and betrayed if the landlords simply raised the price and put it back on the market.

“I’ll pay whatever they want me to pay. I just want my kids to be safe.”