By Joey King 

I desperately need help.

The Project will be sharing my story Friday, 6 October at 7pm. Please watch it and share about it.

I’m back in my car on the 12 October and I’m very stressed I won’t find anywhere before then.

I am a 54-year-old woman with long term, severe mental health concerns and I have been homeless since 07/19. I’ve been on the housing waitlist since 03/23 = 186 weeks when the average wait time is 113.5 weeks and I was priority list 04/22 = 75 weeks, when the average is 52 weeks.

I called the Department of Housing. They told me they were not allocating housing for 2022 approvals as yet. I could possibly have another 12 to 18 months of moving from house to house every month.

This is not a solution and while I like staying in beautiful homes and hanging out with cool animals, it is seriously affecting my mental health resilience and overwhelming despair I will ever have something of my own or be a part of a community again.

I have tried to house sit so that I don’t sleep in my car. I am on a couple of websites and four Facebook pages for sitting. Apart from students and tourists, there are more people struggling with the housing crisis wanting to house sit. People are also renting their homes and sitting to take advantage of the rental crisis. More competition and less sits available.

This is such an unstable form of accommodation, and the situation can change at any time dependent upon the needs of the people for whom I’m providing this service. When house sitting options are not available or the arrangement falls through, I’m at high risk of needing to reside in my car which puts my safety and health at risk.

I’m exhausted from this constant worry, my back hurts because I have to change beds so often and they are usually not good quality or sleeping in my car. I’m so tired of being surrounded by strangers’ belongings.

When I first became homeless, I was paying $200 per month for storage. I now pay $500 per month. My brother who lived with schizophrenia and has since died by suicide, used to work with wood and much of my furniture has been handmade by him. I haven’t seen any of it for more than four years.

I have no contact with my family. My support network is made up of old friends who live in Perth, mostly in the suburbs surrounding Fremantle. My long-term mental health conditions make it difficult for me to reach out to others and to establish new relationships. I am continually at risk of social isolation and my ongoing state of homelessness is detrimental to my mental health and as a result, continues to deteriorate because of the huge amount of duress I am endlessly under.

Due to ongoing homelessness, I am unable to establish roots within a community and I find it difficult to work toward my health, employment, and relationship goals. These goals have been identified within my NDIS plan and I’m currently receiving funding from the Federal Government to achieve these. I am unable to work toward these while I remain homeless and if I do not use this money, I will lose it through future audits and will not have funds once I am housed in the future to accomplish my goals.

Within my NDIS plan, I am funded for Core Supports. This funding can be used “to help with daily activities and my current disability related needs”. At times, I experience rolling panic attacks and I need overnight support. This requires the support worker to have their own room to sleep in. I currently cannot access these supports as it is usually a condition of the owners of the homes I sit, that I do not have people stay over. Another aspect of my transience is I cannot find an ongoing Support Worker. Moving north and south of the city and the southwest prevents me from forming a relationship with a Support Worker. This has obvious ramifications to my mental health, ability to interact and the risk of losing this funding because I’m not making use of it.

I have been diagnosed with major depression, social anxiety, Bi-Polar Disorder, psychosis, Borderline Personality Disorder, and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. As part of my recovery from these conditions, I engage in activities such as painting and exercise. Due to the social anxiety, it is often impossible for me to go outside, and I am currently unable to engage in these activities in other people’s homes.

My much-loved dog passed away last year, and on the advice of my psychiatrist, I have recently purchased a new dog.

I do not want to be this person but cannot see a way things will change without your help. I spent the weekend wondering what the point was anymore and regretting buying my dog. I should be in hospital, but I can’t because I’m looking after a stranger’s house and their pet.

Thank you for reading. Please share my story and watch The Project, so you understand what is happening to women in crisis circumstances, becoming the fastest growing demographic in homelessness.

I give consent for you to share my story with everyone you can think of and for everyone to share and watch my story on The Project.

Yours sincerely

Joey King