My family have been let down and left homeless

Renee Orlando is organizing this fundraiser.

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My name is Renee and I’m a 28 year old living in Melbourne.

My Dad has been unwell for sometime with a brain condition known as a Cavernoma. A condition that resembles a tumour which causes brain bleeds and severe seizures.

My mother, supports my dad (despite no longer being ‘together’ and they also co parent my youngest brother Wayde who is 17 and autistic.

For a few years they were living in a government subsidised house on the Gold Coast that fell under the NRAS scheme. A scheme designed to help low income and vulnerable Australians access to affordable housing.

Since the government announced that the scheme would be phased out by 2026, lots of these vulnerable members of the community have been left in a huge blind spot during the worst rental crisis we’ve seen in this country.

The real estate they were renting through boast themselves to be a Tenancy Advocacy Real Estatr but had no issues pushing my family out and despite my parents being on pensions were also denied access to social housing. I pleaded with them to help me help my family but it fell short. I contact multiple crisis centres and other community organisations to help but they were all under resourced and were not able to provide much assistance.

Hundred of millions of dollars have been pumped into the social housing and homeless sectors these past few years and yet we are facing the largest growing scale of families being turned to the street.

Not a day goes by where I’m not trying to think of ways to support and assist my family, all while I too am trying to keep my head above water in this cost of living crisis and I cannot understand how the government is willing to turn the other way.

I had reached out to Leanne Enoch (previous Minister for Housing), Annastacia Palaszczuk (former QLD Premier), Gavin Potter (CEO for Community Housing LTD) and all correspondence was met with vague acknowledgement and dismissal. Being told constantly that yes, there is a housing crisis.

From the very people taking these grants, donations and six figure salary was a mere dismissal of my family who were on below living standard pensions.

I decided to take to the media and my own social media platforms to raise awareness and to share their story in the hopes they would be able to get the appropriate assistance to house them.

This has fallen short and they are still without stable accomodation today.

Since the latest article came out, there have been a few to reach out and suggest a gofund me. I don’t have a target or goal and I guess I just would be grateful for anything to come through that I can send them to help them get by.

❤️