‘I Had To Give Up 4 Of My 7 Kids Because I Just Couldn’t Afford Them Anymore’

She has seen sixty to seventy properties while on the waitlist for a decade, but with no success for each one she applied for. Hebriella George is a mom of seven and she’s currently among the almost 60,000 people in NSW on a waiting list for social housing, leaving her with the choice of either living in an inhabitable home or her car. 

George and her family have, however, opted for a mold-covered property in Southern Sydney as she knew no one would apply for the home. They pay $450 a week on average. 

Census data shows there are approximately 144K people in need of social housing. Hal Pawson, from the City Futures Research Centre at the University of NSW said some families have dropped off the list as they are sick of waiting while others saw no point in applying for properties due to how competitive the market is. 

Mr. Pawson added that the inner city suburbs of Erskineville, Zetland, and Beaconsfield are some of the hardest areas to get housing, with wait times of at least 10 years for any home larger than a one-bedroom unit. 

Reportedly, Australia’s housing crisis continues to rise with families left on waitlists and forced to cough out large rents for horrific properties. George further said of her situation in an interview with The Project: “I had no choice but to live in that, or the other option is to live in my car,” and added the home has a mould problem so bad she had to throw away possessions and rats, which she calls her pets. 

George concluded: “I had to give four of my children up because I couldn’t afford them anymore. There are days I don’t even know what to put on the table. It makes me break down that I can’t give my kids the home they deserve.”