A young mum living in a tent with her husband and two children has revealed a disgusting act by a member of the public that has come to its lowest point.
A young Queensland mother-of-two who has become the face of homelessness for Generation Z has suffered a devastating blow to her lowest point.
She documented her harrowing journey on TikTok to show how the country’s housing crisis is having a real impact on families.
In a video posted this week, Sushannah reveals she was involved in a traffic accident while driving the family car with her two young children and all the family belongings in the back.
Sushannah’s car was hit by another vehicle driven by an elderly woman who, rather than stopping to help, drove away.
In the short term, this meant paramedics coming to check on little girls to make sure they weren’t hurt.
But in the long run, that means Sushannah and Tristan have been lumped in with the full cost of repairing the vehicle – a cost they can’t afford.
Sushannah said she had to ‘swerve the car so they don’t hit the front or, you know, the middle where my kids are’ and the kids got ‘a bit shook up but they’re fine’ .
“But here is the kicker. The person who hit me was an elderly woman. And when I stopped and tried to wave her down to say, ‘hey let’s stop, let’s get each other’s details, assess the damage’, she left.
“A hit and run. So we don’t have a car at the moment. And it’s gonna cost me hundreds of dollars to fix the damage.
In another video, Sushannah says repairmen gave her a quote ranging from $800 to $1,800 to repair the damage.
“He then said we’re looking at spending more on the car just to fix it than it’s actually worth,” she said.
“And I’m so angry because not even two weeks ago we had to put new tires on the car because they were completely (bald). It cost us about $900 to $1000 And someone just came along and screwed it up.
“What makes me so angry is the person who decided to crash into my car and run away like a coward. I am homeless. I live from my car. I need my car. It is an absolute necessity for me and my family to survive. And now I have to consider buying a new one. But you don’t have the money for that.
“I just want one thing to go well. Because right now I feel like the universe is laughing at me.
Sushannah shines a light on the homelessness crisis, documenting what the family eats at every meal and the constant unpacking of their lives to move to a new campsite.
“Obviously we can’t stay too long at a campsite because other people want to book in advance. It’s just the constant of having to move,” she told 7 Life.
“I know where we will be until Saturday but come Saturday morning, I do not know what we’ll do.”
Basic hygiene and cold nights are among the challenges of living outside a tent, but the young mother said the biggest challenge of being homeless was the cost.
“The hardest thing would be the financial challenges, being homeless is expensive,” she said.
“I always saved for a crisis like this because I knew what state the country was in.”
The young couple have applied for over 40 jobs and are now receiving Centrelink payments to support their family.
“I’ve been a stay-at-home mom for two years, so it’s going to be a little harder for me to go back, but I’m trying,” she said.
What little affordable housing there is in their new home in Bundaberg is extremely difficult to obtain given the intense competition for housing.
Sushannah called homeless shelters but said she was not surprised when told they were full.
In a study of 45,000 properties in Australia, the charity Anglicare found that only seven were affordable for someone on the Jobseeker payment.
The number is even more striking for those living on a disability pension or an old-age pension.
— with NCA NewsWire