By Emily McPherson • Senior Journalist 6:19am Mar 15, 2024
Housing crisis could worsen before conditions improve
When single mum-of-two Michelle separated from her partner, she knew she wanted to keep her own home on Sydney’s northern beaches.
With a newborn baby and a five-year-old, she also knew she didn’t want to have to work crazy hours away from her children to be able to afford to do so.
“I didn’t want to be leaving for work at 6.30-7 o’clock in the morning and coming home at 6.30 or 7 o’clock at night,” she said.
“That would mean long days for the kids at school and daycare – and I just didn’t want to do it.”
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Faced with that choice, Michelle made a decision that’s now becoming more and more common as single parents explore creative ways to afford the cost of living.
Michelle opened her home to boarders – specifically other single parents with children who needed an affordable place to stay.
The rent she received helped pay the mortgage and relieve some of the financial stress she was under.
“What it allowed me to do was to work two long days a week, and work from home on a Wednesday and Thursday and Friday, working shorter hours and not stressing my kids out,” she said.
That was 11 years ago. Since then, Michelle and her family have shared their four-bedroom home with many single parents and their children over the years.
Sharing her home with other single parents had several advantages, Michelle said, including the opportunity to pool resources.
“If you find the right tenant you can share meals, or even share childcare if you want to go out occasionally, but don’t want to pay a babysitter.
Michelle said she had previously shared the cost of hiring a university student to look after her kids with another single mother she was living with.
“The university student would come in the mornings and organise all our kids and we could go off to work on those two days,” Michelle said.
For other single parents, the advantages came from being able to move into a home that was already set up and furnished, she said.
“I know some people who have shared with me have left family violence or something like that. They don’t have furniture and that’s what they need,” she said.
“Also, I think some people – mainly single dads I find – use it as a bit of a stepping stone.
“They need a place which is child-friendly, so they can still see their kids or have their kids in their care. But they only stay for three to six months until they financially sort themselves out, and then they go and get their own place.”
READ MORE: Calls for housing overhaul as number of high-income renters triples
Original Story: https://www.9news.com.au/national/single-parents-turn-to-housesharing-as-answer-to-surging-cost-of-living/3e37c52e-aeea-413f-84d2-379e6083ba84
