JOANNE Caton first experienced homelessness when seven and a half months’ pregnant.
She spent a frightening week sleeping on the sand dunes on Coolangatta beach after refuges had no vacancies and politicians told her there was nothing they could do.
“Living on the street was the scariest time of my life,” says Ms Caton.
“I was devastated and felt very vulnerable.
“I had no family and I didn’t know what else to do.”
That was almost eight years ago and still Ms Caton, and daughter Madison, are waiting for the Housing Department to find them a home.
As one of almost 1000 people on the waiting list at Tweed Heads, Ms Caton has been told by her social worker it will be at least another six years before she has even a chance of getting housed.
In the meantime she is spending the majority of her disability pension on a private rental of $230 a week, lives without a car, pays bills in small direct debit installments and restricts showers to every second or third day to save on costs.
Although she and Madison are grateful to at least have a roof over their heads, Ms Caton never knows how long it will be for and dreams of the day when they will not be at the mercy of others.
“I have been out on my own since I was 14 and I just want to feel stable for once in my life,” she said.
“At least I would know there would be no-one saying we have to move out because they want to renovate or because the owner is moving back in or something else.
“I’m always scared I’m going to lose a place and at least in housing I’d feel safe as a person and a mother.”
MsCaton said the only place she found prepared to take in a heavily pregnant woman with nowhere to go was the Salvation Army’s Still Waters women’s refuge in Southport on the Gold Coast.
She fears the situation on the Tweed has become worse since then and is speaking out to try to shame politicians into taking action.
