Homeless physicist 'sick of smelling of my own BO' living in a van in a region with impossible rent
Homeless physicist 'sick of smelling of my own BO' living in a van in a region with impossible rent
Homeless since returning to Australia seven months ago, Dr Selene Routley is a physicist and space scientist who makes a small income writing articles for science magazines. She currently sleeps in a van packed to the brim with her possessions.
Poor woman. Jesus, that is nuts. Reminds me of Regular Car Reviews' video on the PT Cruiser where he said something along the lines of "Everyone is just a few bad scrapes away from driving a PT Cruiser."
A bad stroke, a marriage that fails, an inability to work, and suddenly, you are cashing in your retirement and living in a van down by the river.
I'm doing a Big Lap right now. Working from my laptop as I go. I'm quite fortunate.
However, the sheer number of homeless people living in vans (if they're lucky) and cars is astounding.
This is a new phenomenon to Australia (at this scale), and I don't believe most people realise just how very many people there are living in their cars.
The regional towns lie bundaberg, grafton, etc are just loaded with people in this terrible situation.
Some years ago, I remember reading posts (can't remember where I saw them) from a guy who lived out if his car in Sydney.
He was doing it by choice to save money to get an apartment. He had a job, but didn't want to waste money on rent. He covered a lot of tips and tricks, and answered heaps of questions. Eg a little heater for cold night, membership for 24hr gym so you could shower/ exercise, best places to park etc..
What struck me the most, was I started out thinking the guy was crazy, but ended up admiring him and thinking maybe he was the only sane one. I often think about this when I see homeless stories, and wonder what I would do if I lost my home.
This is just a side story though, and this guy (and I) had many advantages that other homeless people don't.
Being homeless is no joke, and we shouldn't have a society where people don't have basic shelter.
living in a van down by the river.
This also brings another phrase to mind. It's usually an American term, but I fear that we are inevitably heading to our own 'trailer park trash'. And by this I don't mean the trash is the people.
The 'trash' -no,tragedy- is that the housing situation is so fubar that we'll end up using caravans and temporary accommodation as stoogaps for shortages. And,.once it's established as a substitute for housing, it will never be replaced. Because it's cheaper.
The problem there, as we're already seeing, is arsehole councils taking action against people on private properties, where the people either own the property, or have the property owner's permission, and live in tents or caravans there.
Examples:
- Pensioner living in bus on private land because he can't afford to buy or rent facing council legal action
- Campers in central Victoria face eviction from own land by Mount Alexander Shire Council, despite rent crisis
Every layer of government has their fair share of blame to wear for this, from the snouts at the trough in the local city councils, to the fat wankers in suits in Canberra. Not one single government has done anything remotely positive to improve the future of housing in this country in the past 20 or so years.
Instead, they've encouraged and rewarded foreign ownership and rich landlords that own dozens of properties. Our monetary policy is tied to a broken measure of financial health, where the snake eats its own tail: higher rent contributes to higher inflation, which contributes to higher interest rates, which contributes to higher rent.
All our governments have done is create the perfect conditions for a massively bloated housing market that's almost impossible for anyone to get into without already being in the middle-to-upper earning brackets.
Councils have to start thinking along humanitarian grounds, and enable people to live self-sufficiently, rather than punishing them for it. It's not hard to see a future where a pensioner dies on a park bench in the middle of winter, because they couldn't afford to rent or pay their mortgage, got permission to live in a van on someone's rural block, and some cunt of a councilor decided a bullshit zoning law was more important than human dignity.
Something has to give.
A bad stroke, a marriage that fails, an inability to work, and suddenly, you are cashing in your retirement and LIVING IN A VAN DOWN BY THE RIVER.
you gotta scream that line with every ounce of your being!
Focusing on her high level education is a bit disingenuous, but obviously attention grabbing. The real points here are the vulnerability that disabled people and single people are exposed to in this housing market. Also older people, who really shouldn't be forced back into share housing and deserve a bit more dignity than that.
I wonder if a college in the states would cover relocation costs. It might be the only shot for her besides the lottery
"She earns a sporadic income of about $800 a month writing articles for science journals and doing freelance design work, but is unable to produce enough regular income to apply for rental accommodation."
Yeah, it's not like she's underpaid for her doctorate, she isn't really using her doctorate.
She needs some sort of University position, but it sounds like with her health conditions she wouldn't be able to maintain that either.
She wouldn't get a uni position here anyway. There's too few positions and you have to get one straight out of the gate unless you're transferring from some other academic position. She is shut out by her age. We don't value PHDs in Australia. When I worked in Germany my company had PHD students getting full time wages with the company paying for their education (Electrical Engineering PHDs doing chip design). Nothing like that exists in Australia, which is why I went into industry after a failed start at academia.
I have a spare room and my wife could do with some help with housework and baby sitting. How do I contact her to offer her a job and accommodation?