A mother’s desperate struggle: Pregnant woman and her young child are forced to live inside a car amid Australia’s rental crisis
- Pregnant mum Cassandra and her family lived in their car
- They couldn’t afford to rent in Rockingham, Perth
- Other struggling locals blamed former MP Mark McGowan
A young family was forced to live in their car after spiralling rent prices and a lack of social support left them without a home.
Pregnant mother Cassandra, her husband and their children, aged one and five, have lived in their Ford Territory in Rockingham, south Perth, for the last eight months.
Cassandra said her family has suffered through ‘extreme cold’ and struggled to buy decent food for their children, with her and her husband often going without.
‘There were times where our car battery actually would die because we’d have to use it to heat up the car trying to keep all of us from getting sick,’ she told Nine News.
The distraught mother said her family was pushed out of the rental market by inflated prices in December 2022.
Pregnant mother Cassandra (above), her husband and their children, aged one and five, have lived in their Ford Territory in Rockingham since December last year
Fortunately, they have been able to find a new home just a month before Cassandra’s due date.
The family said its main support system has been the Salvation Army.
They, and many other struggling locals, accused former Rockingham MP and Western Australia Premier Mark McGowan of neglecting locals to focus on the state.
The election for Rockingham will be held on Saturday, July 29, following Mr McGowan’s resignation in May.
Welfare funding has been a key topic of debate, with Salvation Army data showing homelessness has increased by 250 per cent since November, with 300 per cent more people seeking emergency relief.
‘Currently, we are seeing we are at capacity for what we can provide and we really do need to be resourced further,’ Chelsea Wilson from the Salvation Army said.
Cassandra (pictured with one of her children) said her family’s car battery runs flat from trying to keep them warm
Labor’s new candidate for Rockingham, Magenta Marshall, responded to criticism against her party, saying: ‘It’s great to talk about Labor’s strong record of delivering relief, although there’s always more that can be done.’
Other candidates said Labor has already lost support from the electorate with residents ‘looking for a change’.
‘The people of Rockingham are telling me that enough is enough. They feel ignored by the Labor government,’ Liberal candidate Peter Hudson said.
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