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Family-of-seven forced to live in a tent due to rental crisis

A family of seven has revealed how they were forced to live in a tent after being booted from their home that needed repairs.

Patricia Thompson took to the social media app TikTok to document the family’s struggles during Australia’s horrific rental crisis.

The family needed to leave their home in August after the property was required to have much-needed repairs.

In the time since, the family applied for homes between Nowra, on the NSW south coast, and the Victorian border.

“We stayed in mum’s backyard for a bit, but in the end, her real estate didn’t want a big family staying there, so we had to move on,” Thompson told 7 News.

The family then moved into a caravan park, living in a cheap tent they bought, but had a strict time limit on how long they were able to stay.

Thompson said living in the tent was a “cozy” experience.

“And it was difficult at times, you know,” she said. “Our youngest is a one-year-old and she likes to wake up at the crack of dawn and then everybody else wakes up, too.”

Luckily, Patricia and her family were able to find a house.
TikTok / patriciathompson4958

The family also started a GoFundMe to help.

As their time limit was coming to an end and other caravan parks in the area became booked out, Mission Australia stepped in and put the family on a prioritized housing list.

However, due to the size of their family, it took a while for them to be placed.

But the family was finally given good news.

Thompson took to TikTok to say, “I’m really sick at the moment, but we’re in a hotel room and we got some really good news.

“We have a house! It’s a four-bedroom house and it is about two-and-a-half hours from where we are.

“So we are just trying to organize getting our stuff out of storage and get it up there. It’s really great.”

She added was sick so she likely didn’t sound incredibly excited about the amazing news but she was over the moon.

After her family’s ordeal, Thompson said she believes the government needs to step up to assist people with rental stress.

“When you are renting it’s just crazy because they can really just decide to terminate your lease at any given time, they don’t even really need a reason,” she said.

For others in her position, she tells people to keep their heads up and try to stay together.