Since her previous lease expired in July 2021, the mother of the family has submitted no fewer than 270 rental applications, without result.
An inseparable and impossible situation for the first person involved. For more than five weeks, Shikera Maher and her four children, ages 13 to 18, have been living in their car, parked in various places in the city of Ipswich, Australia. However, the mother would have the means to pay the rent of an apartment or a small house, but the economic situation decided otherwise.
The Australian state of Queensland, home to the city of Ipswich, has indeed experienced a spectacular real estate crisis in recent months, with demand far outpacing the supply of available housing. After her previous lease expired last July, Shikera Maher had started to find a new home for her and her four children as quickly as possible.
270 refusals, not the least positive response
The mother of the family therefore multiplied the rent applications in the hope of getting housing, but soon ran into a wall: according to news.com.auIndeed, she has had no less than 270 refusals and has not had the slightest positive response. The local media specifies that the young woman has had to remove all social housing from her survey, because she has not been eligible for this type of rental agreement since 2012 and a degradation committed by one of her children in a previous home.
Without a housing solution, Shikera had to decide to live with friends once in a while and move regularly so as not to affect their day-to-day lives too much. However, after living this way for several months, the family’s mother realized that “continuous moving was too difficult given the size of her family and the fact that most of her friends live in small apartments. She therefore opted for a Another solution, more stable but even less comfortable: to settle down with her four children in the family SUV.
Exhausted, the children no longer go to class
“I don’t wish this situation on anyone, not even my worst enemy,” sums up Shikera Maher, quoted by South Info† It’s no way to live, driving from park to park because we can’t stay in one place. It’s a very difficult situation. At night we have to hang blankets on the car windows to prevent people from looking in (…) I just want my kids to find some stability.”
For now, the situation of the Maher family remains frozen. For a little over five weeks, therefore, Shikera and her children have been living in their car, moving every evening to find a new location, showering whenever they have the opportunity, for example with friends, and spending a fortune on gasoline. to leave the engine on permanently to have the air conditioning. According to news.com.au, this situation is so exhausting the children of Shikera that they no longer go to class and cannot concentrate enough to attend classes…
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