A homeless young mother-to-be is preparing to raise her child in a tent because she can’t afford to rent a house and fears she will lose her baby as winter closes in.
The 20-year-old, named only as Rachel, lives with her boyfriend Harley McKenzie at Hobart Showground in Tasmania.
They had been living in a tent filled with bags and boxes of their possessions until the manager of the showground recently put them up in a mobile home.
A homeless young mother to be is preparing to raise her child in a tent at Hobart Showground (pictured) in Tasmania because she can’t afford to rent a house
The 20-year-old, named only as Rachel, lives with her boyfriend Harley McKenzie (pictured)
But Rachel, who is due in October, fears she may end up raising her child under canvas if she’s not able to find a home soon.
She told Daily Mail Australia: ‘We are currently living in a shed on the showground after the manager gave us a key but I may have to go back into a tent when my baby is born as I’m not having any luck with getting a home.’
Rachel said she fears for her baby’s life if she has to raise him or her in a tent battered by howling gales and storms as cold winter weather comes.
She said: I’m sorry to say this but with the wind like this I’m not sure if he or she will survive.
‘I’m scared the tent is going to be too noisy and may crash down on my little one.’
Rachel has been homeless for two and half years since living with family.
Rachel, who is due in October, fears she may end up raising her child under canvas if she’s not able to find a home soon. Pictured: Hobart showground
She said one stormy night when her and Harley were living in the tent, she curled up into a ball, put her pillow over her head and repeated to herself: ‘You’ll be fine.’
‘I was actually wearing the other side of the tent as a blanket when I was in bed because the whole thing just collapsed onto me,’ she said.
Harley said he and Rachel were forced to live at the showground while they apply for public housing.
He said: ‘There just has been no luck it makes me real upset when the real estate agents get back to me and tell us we didn’t get the house we applied for.’
He explained that the situation was putting a big strain on his relationship, adding: ‘Living in a tent was putting stress on Rachel and me.
‘The tent was getting wrecked and our stuff was getting broken all the time. It was causing arguments between us.
‘I was stressing most of the time about our baby being brought up in a tent in the wind cause the baby wouldn’t be able to sleep with the noise.’
The plight of homeless people in Tasmania has been exacerbated by increases in the price of rent in recent years.
Scott Gadd, who runs the showground (pictured) which accommodates people from $20 a night, told Daily Mail Australia: ‘I’ve noticed a large increase in the number of people coming to us for shelter’
Dr Kathleen Flanagan from the University of Tasmania puts this down to more people moving back to Tasmania from the mainland and others buying investment properties there.
Scott Gadd, who runs the showground which accommodates people from $20 a night, told Daily Mail Australia: ‘I’ve noticed a large increase in the number of people coming to us for shelter.
‘Last year I had one homeless unit and now I have 16 – it’s been quite shocking.
‘I’ve also noticed a change in the demographic – I’ve got good families here where the parents work but they’ve been squeezed out of the rental market.
‘One of the families has six children. They were living in two tents for two months before I could move them into a house.
‘I put this down to a lack of investment in public housing stock and a lack of rentals,’ Mr Gadd said.