Lost rental property, then job, now kids: The life of a Perth mother unraveled

She told the commission that the price had gone up from $270 a week when she moved five years ago to $400 a week this year.

After the dispute between her and her landlord was finally taken to court, Garlett’s lease was not renewed, and she and her family moved out in May.

Despite being pushed from regulars to the waiting list for preferred housing, Garlett has yet to hear any positive news.

“I can go back to work as soon as I get a house. Before I lost my house, I was a traffic manager,” she said.

“I have always had a home for my children since I was 17. I am turning 41 this year and I am ashamed of my situation. you can’t.

“My house is broken…my family is torn apart.”

Perth renters are grappling with record high rents due to record low vacancy rates.

According to the latest Domain Rentals Report released last week, home rental prices surged from $450 in September 2021 to $500 in September.

Unit and apartment rents are also on track to break records, with weekly rents hitting $420 in September, the highest since 2013.

The heat in the private rental market is spilling over to public housing waiting lists, with 18,975 applications pending, including 4,257 priority applications.

Congressional figures revealed that by the end of June, there were 43,115 public housing statewide, of which 35,694 were public housing and 7,421 were community housing.

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By June 30, there were 1,927 vacant homes in the Department of Community housing stock, but only 1,505 of them were made available to those on the waiting list after maintenance.

The construction market heat is complicating efforts to build homes with materials and labor slowing home construction.

The Washington state government has committed $2.4 billion to housing and homeless services, targeting approximately 3,300 new homes and thousands of renovations over the next four years.

In August, the government announced that it had awarded contractors for 59 modular homes in rural Washington.

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