Homeless woman gets hit with a shocking council notice: 'It's so sad to see'

Amid the ongoing housing and cost-of-living crisis, some Aussies resort to several ways to live and keep a roof over their heads.

In a heart-wrenching turn of events, a woman's quest for stability was met with a staggering financial hurdle.


Teena Keys, who went through an abusive marriage and other hurdles amid the pandemic, is now facing the prospect of homelessness once again.

After three years of couch surfing across Victoria and facing rejection from 60 rental properties, Keys found a semblance of security thanks to a friend.

She constructed a tiny home on her friend's 100-acre property in Anakie, southwest of Melbourne.


compressed-pexels-tinyhome.jpeg
After years of domestic violence and losing her business, Teena Keys built a tiny home in her friend's property. Image Credit: Pexels/James Frid


The modest home, likened to 'a relocatable site hut', cost her under $20,000.

However, the City of Greater Geelong council threw a wrench into Keys' peace, demanding she apply for a permit to remain on the property—a process with no guarantees and a hefty price tag that could deplete her finances.

Keys found the council's objections difficult to digest, considering the private arrangement with her friend.


Keys' ordeal is not an isolated incident; it reflects a broader issue affecting vulnerable community members without a stable home due to various factors like financial hardship, health issues, or personal concerns.

The costs associated with complying with the council's demands are daunting.

'So I've got to hire a town planner first, and of course, that costs money,' Keys shared.

'Then, when I put the application in, it can still be knocked back, even though I'll have to pay $2,000. This is all before they even come to the cabin. I've got to get a building surveyor for that, so the building surveyor alone will be around $3,000.'

The $5,000 sum is something that Keys, and many in similar positions, cannot afford.

'It's not just me; it's about all the other people facing similar problems,' she shared.

'There are women and children sleeping in cars. There are elderly men sleeping down at the river in tents.'


Keys' also highlighted several innovative housing solutions, such as tiny homes, to address Geelong's housing shortage—a 'sad sight to see' according to her.

Her plea for a common-sense approach from local authorities resonated with the need for policies supporting individuals seeking creative solutions amid the housing crisis.

As Keys faces this hurdle, her plight is a rallying cry for a more compassionate and practical response to housing insecurity.

It's a call to action for communities and local governments to work together to find sustainable solutions that protect the vulnerable.

For those who wish to support Keys, an organiser set up a GoFundMe campaign to assist her with legal and living expenses.
Key Takeaways

  • Domestic violence survivor Teena Keys now faces eviction threats due to Geelong council's demands.
  • Keys built a tiny home on a friend's property, which the City of Greater Geelong council is now scrutinising.
  • The council required her to apply for a permit to remain on the property, with costs up to $5,000 and no approval guaranteed.
  • Keys called for a common-sense approach from the council to recognise her situation and not to exacerbate the housing crisis for those who found solutions.
Have you or someone you know faced similar challenges? What can councils do to support individuals like Teena Keys? Share your thoughts and insights with us in the comments section below.
 
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Geelong are the absolute pits of a council/ shire. They loathe RV’s staying anywhere. We go & stay & shop elsewhere. This lady is doing no harm staying on such a large property. AND how did they know she was there? Some lousy dobber neighbour I suppose. What darn harm is she doing? None!
 
I read yesterday that a Melbourne city council is threatening to raise the council rates of investment properties by doubling or even tripling them. (This is on top of the huge rise in land tax payable on investment properties!) They say that this is to force landlords to sell their houses so that first home buyers can buy them. Firstly, how are first home buyers expected to be able to afford these expensive, inner city properties? Secondly, where are all the tenants that were renting these properties expected to live? There's already a rental housing shortage! I believe that there are two reasons for this - (1) So that the government can achieve something of their promise to have more available housing to buy, and (2) so that councils can rake in even more money from investment property owners who want to hang on to their properties. Some of these may be people like my brother, who bought a house for our 90 year old parents to live in. (Luckily, this house is more rural.) They pay a lower rent and my brother is already running at a loss, but they can't afford to pay more rent.
 
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View attachment 50934On the other hand, do you REALLY want to encourage Brazilian-style favelas by allowing unregulated growth of tiny-homes anywhere people want to put them?
No, avoid that but the article is about one tiny house on a one hundred acres property.

A needle in a haystack that this council has found and is exercising its bureaucratic muscles to show its ultimate power.
 
instead of wasting time and resources chasing up unnecessary, outdated laws in todays society of homeless people doing their best to help themselves, councils should be putting the effort into approving the backlog of house, shed etc plans they all seem to have. Getting more houses built more quickly has to have a positive impact on the lack of rentals, as more people move into their own house and out of rentals.
 

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