Kelly Campbell was 46 years old when she had a sudden stroke and fell through the cracks of a system designed to protect people exactly like her.
Back in 2019, the Perth mother-of-five had a vital job running a dementia ward in a nursing home and a stable rental home where she had been living for almost four years.
Then came the stroke and its catastrophic health impacts, which left her unable to work.
“Initially, I lost my vision and speech and my right side mobility,” Campbell said.
READ MORE: There are now over three million Aussies at risk of homelessness
Over the next eight months, Campbell was able to regain her sight and speech, but was left with an acquired brain injury.
It was during this time that the owner of her rental home decided they wanted to sell the property to capitalise on the COVID housing boom.
“The owner decided to sell in February, 2020 but I had a fixed-term tenancy lease that didn’t expire until the end of July in 2020,” she said.
“They said to me, ‘Sign this sales agreement will give you $800 and that’ll help you with your moving costs.'”
Knowing how precarious her situation was, Campbell fought to stay in her home.
“I had this brain injury so I couldn’t comprehend what was what, but in my gut I was thinking, this doesn’t seem right – so I kept questioning them.”
Campbell was able to stay until her fixed lease ended, but then she needed to leave.
At the time, she was yet to be approved for the Disability Support Pension or support through the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) and was surviving on Centrelink JobSeeker payments, with a medical exemption.
“You’ve got to have your disability for two years before you can become eligible for both the Disability Support Pension and NDIS so it really restricts you financially,” she said.
Campbell was put on a priority list for community housing, but it would be two-and-a-half years before a home was eventually found for her – in December 2022.
Knowing she wouldn’t be able to afford another rental, Campbell began giving away many of her belongings.
“I just saw that I was going to be homeless, and my kids were freaking out, telling me, ‘Don’t be ridiculous’,” she said.
After initially trying to share a home with a friend, which didn’t work out, Campbell’s son took her in.
“My son had a housemate and his house wasn’t particularly set up for three of us,” Campbell said.
“They were young people and I didn’t want to be a burden on him – but that’s how it ended up working out. I ended up living in his lounge room for nearly two years.”
“I’m so grateful to my son and his housemate. They didn’t have to take me in and they treated me so respectfully and so well.
“But, on the other side of that, it was not where I wanted to be.”
When Campbell was eventually approved for NDIS support, nonsensical situations occurred, such as an occupational therapist visiting her temporary home to assess it for needed modifications.
Campbell’s breakthrough came when she made a public submission to the Federal Government’s Joint Standing Committee on the NDIS when its members visited Perth.
“I went and talked about how the NDIS was working out for me, and it wasn’t, I was homeless.”
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After making her submission, WA Greens Senator Jordon Steele-John reached out to Campbell and offered to help advocate on her behalf.
“He said he’d support me. They escalated my case, and that’s how I got housed,” Campbell said.
Within months, Campbell was offered a home by the Department of Communities in Perth’s north-eastern suburb of Bassendean, where she still lives.
Campbell said the system was so difficult to navigate that vulnerable people were left without support.
“So many people are left behind, they fall through the cracks, they don’t even get a look in, because they don’t know how to access the support. There’s such a gap between services and vulnerable people, and it’s not good enough,” she said.
While many people thought of the homeless as rough sleepers, in reality, there were many more ‘hidden’ homeless people who were slipping under the radar, she said.
“There is a huge amount of shame and fear in being homeless.
“There are people working full time who you wouldn’t necessarily know are homeless, because they’re not going to tell you that they’re sleeping in their car, or on someone’s couch.”
Homelessness a ‘man-made disaster’
Campbell is speaking out about her story to raise awareness for a parliamentary petition calling on the WA Government to declare a State of Emergency on housing and homelessness.
The petition was started by ending homelessness advocate Allan Connolly and is being supported by Greens MLC Brad Pettitt.
Connolly said declaring a State of Emergency would allow the government to put politics aside and focus on the issue at hand.
“We should be mobilising all of our available resources as we do instantly when there’s a natural disaster. This is a man-made disaster,” Connolly said.
“We have a broken housing system. There is very little social housing, very little affordable housing. If you want to build a house, it’s a two-to-three year wait. Our housing continuum is gridlocked.”
As of November last year, there were 34,505 people on the waitlist for public housing in Western Australia, including 9,829 on the priority list, according to figures released in parliament in February.
The average wait time was 138 weeks and 76 weeks for priority cases.
A report released today by Impact Economics showed the number of Western Australians at risk of homelessness increased by 77 percent between 2016 and 2022 to 272,000.
During the same time period, rental stress increased by 23.1 percent in the state.
Housing and Homelessness Minister John Carey told 9news.com.au in a statement that the government was “acutely aware” of the pressure on housing markets across the country.
“This is why we’re getting on with delivering a record $3.2 billion investment in housing and homelessness measures,” Carey said.
“Since the WA Government’s record investment in housing and homelessness measures we’ve added more than 2,550 social homes, with more than 1,000 social homes currently under contract or construction.
“In 2024 alone, we’ve announced nearly a $140 million boost to homelessness measures, including $92.2 million in the current State Budget to ensure the continuation of more than 120 critical homelessness services across the state.”
Do you have a story? Contact reporter Emily McPherson at emcpherson@nine.com.au