Desperate family-of-four is forced to live in a TENT as Australia’s rental crisis worsens: Parents are forced to tell their children they’re on a ‘camping trip’ that never ends
- Young Australian family forced to live in tent after being kicked out of home
- Eric and Bec Reader have been sleeping in camping area in Brisbane
- They were unable to pay for motels and waiting to move to Tasmania
A young Australian couple are living in a tent with their two young children after moving to Queensland and finding it impossible to secure somewhere affordable to live.
Eric and Bec Reader recently relocated to Brisbane from Western Australia, and are now forced to live with their two-and-a-half-year-old daughter and four-month-old son in a tent.
‘Unfortunately, I’ve run out of money and the ability to do it anymore. It’s now a case of I have to do what I have to do to keep a roof over my family’s head,’ Mr Reader told Today.
A young Australian couple have been forced to live in a tent with their two young children after being kicked out of their home and being unable to afford a motel or rent
The father said a family member had ’caused a hell of a lot of drama’ and kicked him out of their WA house.
Shortly after, the rest of his family had also been asked to leave.
‘Unfortunately, I was forced to move out of the house and stay in motels,’ he explained.
‘Now it got to the point where my wife and children have been kicked out of the house as well.’
The family are now living in a tent in Eight Mile Plains in the city’s south, using portable cooking equipment to prepare meals for the children.
‘We’ve just run out of money. We’ve run out of the ability to stay in motels. So now we’ve resorted to this,’ he explained.
Eric and Bec Reader have been living in the tent in Eight Mile Plains, a suburb in Brisbane’s south
The mother provides comfort to their daughter by telling her they are just on a ‘little camping trip.’
The family are now saving money to move down to Tasmania where they have family to stay with and a job opportunity, but they are struggling to afford the relocation.
The parents said they’re desperate to get their newborn son out of the tent, saying they need to get him somewhere ‘dry and warm’.
Despite several attempts to reach out to government services, the father said the system had let them down.
‘The worst part is I’ve contacted organisation after organisation. For example, I went to Centrelink and I was given a list of different services to call,’ he explained.
‘I’d already called those services, and they told me they couldn’t do anything.’
The family are attempting to save money to relocate to Tasmania where they have family who can help