“I know it's not my fault, but I still feel like it's my fault. I feel like I've let my kids down."

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A woman living with disability in NSW says she’s become temporarily homeless after being given an ultimatum over her public housing situation.

Belinda Pearce is an amputee who suffers from kidney failure, relying on multiple dialysis sessions each week and a wheelchair to manage her conditions and injuries.

Her life has been uprooted despite raising multiple structural issues that she says went unheard; leaving her family indefinitely living in a motel now that it’s too late to save their home.

The mother of three said she was first notified of termites in her Sydney house over two years ago, and despite exterminators making three separate visits, the insects had eaten the beams, causing tiles to fall down and the back gutter to collapse.

To make matters worse, heavy rain in the state this year left a gaping hole in her lounge room ceiling that SES covered with a tarp, but still led to a constant cold draft, and widespread mould on clothing, beds, and furniture.

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She told Junkee that in both instances, she complained to the Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ) — the body that oversees public housing — but nothing was done repair-wise.

“It’s not just me, it’s other people as well,” she explained. “The [public housing] tenants tell them that there’s something wrong, but they just come out with a bandaid solution.

“If they had just come out and fixed it when I asked them to, this would never have happened, and now my family are homeless.”

During a six-week hospital stay after a recent surgery, DCJ Housing told her she immediately needed to move herself, her young kids, pet dogs, cats, and a bird out of their home as the roof could collapse at any moment.

Pearce said she felt pressured into taking the offered alternatives — including buildings with stairs she couldn’t navigate, or places in high-risk areas that she felt wouldn’t be safe for her daughters — only to be told that if she didn’t accept her next offer, she would be taken to a tribunal, and not offered further assistance from the department.

She is now stuck in a motel while a solution is being reached, enduring a room that is not wheelchair friendly, so that she can stay next door to her children, and has had to cough up cash to address the lack of cooking facilities in their current situation.

“I know it’s not my fault, but I still feel like it’s my fault. I feel like I’ve let my kids down…”

“For the first four, five nights, we were eating takeaway because there’s only a microwave, and you can only do so much in a microwave,” she said. “The kids were craving a cooked meal, and I had no money left — absolutely nothing because we’d been buying takeout.”

Pearce said the upheaval is affecting not only her mental health, but that of her kids too, who are struggling to adjust to the change of circumstances completely out of their control.

“With my daughters being cramped up in the room all day, we are not having our usual routine where they could go to their own room and have their own space,” she said. “They’re just all cramped up in one spot. Their friends can’t come over, they’re getting home late from school.”

The family have been in this temporary accommodation for a fortnight now, and are stuck in limbo as they wait for another house with enough rooms and accessibility measures to come up.

She said she really wants to be able to do her dialysis sessions at home instead of going into the hospital three times a week, where the risk of catching COVID a second time is amplified. The family has also been looking at private rentals to no avail, with Pearce feeling disadvantaged in the rental market as a low income owner competing with people offering more than the advertised rent.

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“We were comfortable at our house for seven years. I was happy there. I mean, it wasn’t a mansion, but it was my home, my castle. It’s got significant memories,” she said of her bygone house.

While it may be too late to save her family home, Pearce said she just wants herself, and others in similar positions, to finally be heard.

“I think the politicians need to stand up and take note of what we are saying,” she said. “It feels like my fault — I know it’s not my fault, but I still feel like it’s my fault. I feel like I’ve let my kids down.”

A spokesperson for the Department of Communities and Justice told Junkee they are focused on providing safe properties for all tenants, including people with disability.

“DCJ has offered the tenant alternate accessible housing options and continues to work with them to find a suitable solution. The tenant and their family are currently being supported in temporary accommodation,” they said. “As this is an individual matter, DCJ will not be making further comment.

The emergency fundraiser set up by Belinda’s daughter can be found here.

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