A mum whose video about being homeless went viral has revealed the heartbreaking way she keeps the dire reality from her children while they live in a mouldy caravan.
Last month Emma Lenz, 43, who lives in the Darling Downs region of south central Queensland, unleashed at property investors who she said had ‘taken all the houses’.
Her situation is all the more shocking because she runs her own gardening business, is a volunteer firefighter and in her life has paid around $500,000 in rent.
Ms Lenz and her two children – daughter Layla, 13, and son Bodhi, 10 – became homeless when their rent was raised too far beyond what she could afford.
Now they live in a caravan and she tells the kids they are on an adventure.
A mum whose video about being homeless went viral has revealed the heartbreaking way she keeps the dire reality from her children while they live in a mouldy caravan
Last month Emma Lenz (pictured), 43, who lives in the Darling Downs region of south central Queensland, unleashed at property investors who she said had ‘taken all the houses’
‘I’m trying to just make it feel like a holiday rather than homelessness,’ she said.
Originally from Sydney, she moved to rural Queensland in the hopes of a better life for her and her children after splitting from her husband.
When they first got there, she said properties were being rented out at $250 a week, but ‘The rent doubled or even tripled since I’ve been out here,’ she told 7News.
Ms Lenz said renting had ‘broken’ her after they became homeless and didn’t know where to go. ‘I was just going to sleep in my car,’ she said.
‘So I put an ad up for places I could park my car to sleep in. That’s when a couple offered up their old caravan for me to sleep in.’
The mum said she had no hope of finding an immediate fix. ‘Every renter out here is traumatised. The stress of it all, it’s ridiculous.
‘You have at least 50 or 60 people, if not more, trying to apply for every rental home that comes up.
She is trying to make the best of what she has, despite the caravan being 12 years old, leaking and covered in mould.
Originally from Sydney, Ms Lenz (pictured) moved to rural Queensland in the hopes of a better life for her and her children after splitting from her husband
Some say she should have bought a place years ago, but Ms Lenz said, ‘If I could’ve bought a house 20 years ago, of course I would’ve.
‘And then I wouldn’t be homeless and in this situation. But now I would take a cardboard box on a block of land.
‘I just can’t keep living like this and I can’t keep renting.’
A friend of Ms Lenz’s has set up a GoFundMe page to help raise money to support the family.
‘Let’s get her and her kids housed ASAP or get her a new caravan at least so her and her kids can live a proper quality of life instead of in a caravan that isn’t liveable and causing concern for her health and her children’s health,’ Clarissa Kitchener wrote.
‘I have known Emma for over 10 years and the struggle she is going through tears my heart into pieces.
‘She never asks for nothing and would give her last away to someone who is less fortunate.’
Now they live in a caravan (pictured) and she tells the kids they are on an adventure. ‘I’m trying to just make it feel like a holiday rather than homelessness,’ she said
On her TikTok video, Ms Lenz said she ‘can’t qualify for housing anywhere in Australia … because I am not a crackhead I don’t qualify for social housing so where the f*** are you Australia, seriously?’
She added that she had ‘paid half a million rent in my time, that’s enough for two houses up here where I live now but I am homeless because when you pay rent you don’t get equity, you don’t get a return on that.’
Ms Lenz said that because her son is on the autism spectrum and sometimes can only go to school for an hour or two a day, she can only work part-time most weeks.
‘We are the working poor. We have jobs … ‘We are working our arses off,’ she said.
