A mother forced to live in her minivan for five months after failing to pay her rent illustrates Australia’s deepening housing crisis.
Mandy Weber, 51, has been living in her minivan with her dog Diesel since February after she failed to pay her rent in Geelong, southwest of Melbourne.
The former level crossing guard travels the area looking for parking spaces for the night, but has had some terrifying encounters.
“You may not be too comfortable laying in the back…because people are approaching your car, they’re going to be banging on the window. It terrifies me,” she told the ABC.
Ms Weber made headlines more than two years ago after sharing her concern that she would be forced into homelessness due to the Covid pandemic.
She managed to keep a roof over her family’s heads thanks to increased government assistance, but has since been unable to cope with the pressures on living costs.
Mandy Weber (pictured), 51, has been living in her minivan since February after failing to pay for her rented house in Geelong, southwest of Melbourne
She described the agony of having to move her van every day while looking for a place to park so she could sleep for the night.
“You have the occasional aggressive person say, ‘Eff off, what are you doing, go get a job loser,'” she said.
‘It’s very scary. I’ve had people bang on my windows and tell me to move in the middle of the night, in the middle of the morning.”
The mother-of-two, who was forced to retire from work due to a heart condition, said she has now started parking in more remote areas due to the response from residents in urban areas.
‘At first I thought it would be safer to park on streets, you know, where people are around. But it’s not really any safer, because they don’t want you around,’ she said.
Mrs. Weber receives a disability pension, which pays her just over $1,000 every two weeks.
But that is quickly swallowed up by unpaid bills on her old property, various fines and tolls, and $175 every two weeks for a locker for her belongings.
Once those payments are made, she’ll have about $550 to last her for two weeks.
Her only indulgence is $75 for a Geelong Cats membership, which she eagerly follows.
Ms Weber called for more affordable housing.
‘It’s not a whining. The government should just step in and help people move out of poverty and lead normal lives,” she said.
‘I don’t ask much. I’m not asking for a mansion.
“I speak for all the other homeless people I know. We just need affordable housing.’
The former crossing guard travels the area looking for parking spaces for the night, but has had some terrifying encounters (pictured, Ms. Weber’s dog, Diesel)
Despite her situation, Mrs. Weber is grateful for what she has.
“People have really said to me that this (her van) is the cream of the crop for the homeless,” she said.
“I’m lucky to have a car to sleep in. I don’t have to rough it on the street.’
According to figures from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Ms Weber is far from alone with around 4,500 people accessing homelessness services while sleeping in their vehicle in the past financial year.
The rental vacancy rate in Australia’s capital stands at a very tight 1.2 percent, leading to a 20.7 percent increase in rents over the past year, data from SQM Research showed.
The number of new properties being built has unexpectedly crashed in every state or territory except one.
The first quarter of 2023 was the weakest quarter for building approvals nationwide since 2012, a result many experts didn’t see coming.
In NSW, total building approvals for March were down 34.1 per cent from a year ago, while in Victoria they were down 26.6 per cent.
Ms. Weber has previously opened up to the day-to-day struggles of ordinary Aussies.
Her living situation has deteriorated in recent years, with the mother saying she was afraid of becoming homeless in 2020.
She said she had managed to better support herself and her family thanks to JobSeeker’s raise during the Covid pandemic.
Mrs. Weber managed to keep a roof over her family’s heads and even afford a new refrigerator.
It means the world to us. It gives us the dignity to be able to pay the bills we need,” she said.
“It takes away the embarrassment of running errands and having to put things back because you don’t have enough money.”