Ex-nurse taken off public housing waitlist after being offered ‘unfit’ Port Hedland house

A homeless Port Hedland woman has been taken off the social housing list after declining a house offered to her by the Department of Communities due to it being “unfit” for her to live in. Gail Victor, 66, a retired nurse who spent 15 years caring for the Hedland community, recently found herself homeless and living in her car with her two dogs due to the town’s rental crisis. Ms Victor said she was “over the moon” when she received a call from the department saying they had a house ready for her. “I couldn’t have been more excited,” she said. “I asked ‘what happens if it’s not suitable?’ and they said to go and have a look, then come back and we will discuss it.” Ms Victor, pictured, viewed the property and was disappointed with what had been offered to her. “I wasn’t even out of my car when I was verbally abused by one of the neighbours,” she said. “In the 15 minutes I was there, there were three taxis dropping people off with booze and then going into the unit next to the one I was looking at.” “I am diabetic and have other health issues too, it was not sanitary or clean at all. There were also holes in the walls so people could easily climb in, and there was no room for my dogs or any of my stuff.” Ms Victor said her chronic illness nurse told her due to her health, there was “no way” she could live in the unit it its present state. When Ms Victor told the department the unit wouldn’t be suitable for her needs, she said she was asked to sign a refusal form, which would be reviewed. Later in the week, Ms Victor received a letter from the Department of Communities informing her she had unreasonably refused the offer of a unit and her application had hence been withdrawn. The letter stated “the above decision has been reviewed and found to be in line with the policy of the Department of Communities (Housing) ... If you would like to discuss the decision further you may phone either officer.” She plans to appeal the decision and said the situation she is in has been “a nightmare”. “I have been to every support service in town and nobody can help me,” she said. “The only way that they can help me is if I was a drug addict, an alcoholic or a victim of domestic violence. I’m over 60 and homeless, I don’t fit the criteria.” Department of Communities service delivery executive director Glen Mace said Ms Victor was advised that an invalid decline reason may lead to her removal from the public housing wait list. “The property offered is typical of one-bedroom public housing properties in the Pilbara,” he said. “It has been assessed by the Department of Communities regional office as clean, safe, and secure. Some maintenance items of a cosmetic nature are marked for renewal or replacement upon occupation.” “After occupation of a property, tenants may also use the return of the ingoing property condition report to raise any further maintenance requests they identify.” Mr Mace also said there had been no report of disruptive behaviour in the complex during 2021. Liberal Member for Mining and Pastoral Neil Thomson and shadow housing minister Steven Martin met with Ms Victor to hear her concerns on November 5. In response to questions in Parliament, Education and Training Minister Sue Ellery said there were 343 people on the public housing waitlist for Port and South Hedland. Of 668 public houses in the town, Ms Ellery said 30 were vacant and undergoing maintenance at the end of October, with a further 18 undergoing assessment. “As part of the record $875 million investment into social housing, the single largest investment into social housing in the history of the State, the McGowan Government committed $12.8 million to carry out building assessments on public housing and Government Regional Office Housing assets,” she said. “This, along with maintenance under the Social Housing Economic Recovery Plan, and business as usual funding, will help these properties stay in the system longer.” Mr Martin said the housing crisis was not exclusive to Port Hedland. “Spend the budget and maintain them and put people in them...I don’t understand why this is not a greater priority,” he said. “The Housing Minister needs to admit there’s a crisis and act like there’s a crisis. “You have elderly women living in their cars, that’s not acceptable in a country like this.” Ms Victor said there was no affordable housing for seniors in town. “There’s no plan as to where all the seniors are going to go. I know five people that are working at the moment who are living in cars because they can’t afford the rent,” she said. “We no longer have a retirement village and there are a lot of us retiring at the moment.” A housing summit is planned in Port Hedland on December 3.