A single mother of three children, one of whom has a serious medical condition, has exposed the shocking reality of Australia’s rental crisis.
Bo-Anne Kolkman was ‘exhausted, sad, confused and on the verge of a mental health breakdown’ when two things combined to help set her family on a better path.
She turned to GoFundMe to seek help to buy a house in the Perth suburb of Byford by using the fundraiser as a deposit.
She was successful – and now Ms Kolkman has gone from paying $550 a week in rent, to living in her own home where her mortgage is $412 a week.
She is saving $138 every week and is beyond thankful after her rental was set to rise to $620 a week before she moved out into her own home.
Bo-Anne Kolkman (right) is pictured with her children Harrison, Hannah and Sienna outside the house she bought with help from GoFundMe
Ms Kolkman said her GoFundMe has had an ‘amazing response’, especially as she struggled with the idea of doing in in the first place.
‘Doing the fundraiser puts you in a very volatile position, letting people know that you’re struggling so much financially.
‘I spent a lot of time thinking I didn’t want to expose myself, then I thought, what have I got to lose,’ she told Daily Mail Australia.
The ever-rising cost of living and her family’s circumstances forced her to take the brave step of seeking help from complete strangers.
Her son Harrison was born with bilateral, dysplastic kidneys and underwent a living donor transplant at 20 months old.
He is now aged nine and has continued to have chronic health issues for the last few years that limits his time at school with his friends and also Ms Kolkman’s ability to work.
‘I was trying to work as much as I could in a job I couldn’t be reliable in because of my son’s health condition,’ she said.
‘And I was limited by Centrelink because I’m his primary carer and they only allow me to do so much work before they penalise me.’
Harrison (pictured) was born with bilateral, dysplastic kidneys and under went a living donor transplant at 20 months old
Bo-Anne Kolkman is pictured with her children Harrison, Sienna and Hannah
The cost of everything was going up, but her rent was the worst of all.
‘I was paying $550 in rent a week and I was told it was going up to $620 by March so to be prepared because if I couldn’t pay, then they’d have to find someone who could.
‘That lack of security for a single mum with three young kids was just debilitating, because I was trying so hard.’
Having set up the fundraiser, she then wondered if she could get onto a single parents’ scheme where it was a two per cent deposit and no stamp duty if you bought a house under $430,000.
Harrison, 9, is pictured cuddling the family dog Bodhi, who he and his sisters call a therapy dog
The first mortgage broker she went to said he wouldn’t even approach the banks about it as she was not financially secure enough.
‘That was really crippling. I went home and had a real moment, a real fall down moment,’ she said, breaking down just at the memory of it.
‘But I got myself up again and went to another broker. She said I qualified for the scheme and arranged pre-approval.
‘By that stage the GoFundMe page was up and people donated and that became my deposit,’ Ms Kolkman said.
The family has now moved in to their new home, but the fundraiser is still going.
‘The place has a few quirks and maintenance work needs to be done on it, so it would be nice to have some assistance with that,’ Ms Kolkman said.
Bo-Anne Kolkman and her son Harrison are pictured in a selfie taken in the Perth suburb of Byford
Her children Sienna, 12, Hannah, 11 and Harrison, 9, are ‘over the moon’.
The first thing one of her daughters did in their new home was ask if she could draw on her wall, which she couldn’t do in a rental property.
‘I said sure, so long as she didn’t write any swear words,’ Ms Kolkman said.
And while Harrison has some ups and downs with his health, his mum is hopeful the long-term prognosis will be positive.
‘His whole journey has been quite good in comparison to other rhenal kids, and this is what we keep reminding ourselves, even though it has been tough.
‘He’s on steroids at the moment, so he had moments where he’s absolutely manic and will talk until 11.30pm.
‘But then all of a sudden he’ll crash and say he’s so depressed.’
Harrison (pictured in a hospital bed) had a kidney transplant when he was just 20 months old
She said said getting his medication right as he gets older is a ‘fine balance’.
‘Hopefully, long term he’ll be able to last with the transplant he has, but it might be the case that eventually they’ll either get another transplant from me, or from a donor if they rule me out for any reason,’ Ms Kolkman said.
For now, the Kolkman family is just grateful to be living under their own roof and paying less for a mortgage than they were paying in rent.
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