The real face of rent crisis | News

28th August 2008

The Pratt family, from left, Alex, 11, Sharon, Laura, 3, Bob, Nick, 13, Bob and Daniel, 8, in front.

UNLESS the Pratt family can find a house to rent today, they will be forced on to the street tomorrow.

The Grafton family are the latest victims of the rental accommodation crisis in the Clarence Valley.

"I'm desperate and stressed out and about to burst into tears," Sharon Pratt said.

With just one day left to find a home for her family, Mrs Pratt has made a public appeal for help.

"I need to find a house for my family to live in today," she said.

The mother of five said she had been desperately searching for a house since last September, when their landlord (the Riverside Church) announced it would sell the South Grafton house the family had lived in for three years.

The new owner gave the Pratts an extended deadline to move out, but that deadline will end tomorrow and they are still looking for another house.

Mrs Pratt said there were no affordable four-bedroom rental properties anywhere in Grafton.

"I've been on the internet every morning going through all of the real estate websites looking at the houses for rent and it's the same every day," Mrs Pratt said.

"You find a house you can afford and when you go to look at it, there are at least 20 other people looking at it.

"It's first in, best dressed."

To prove her point Mrs Pratt said she was one of dozens to look at a house on Tuesday night.

"When I got there the lady had an exercise book filled with three pages of names of people interested in the house."

Another home Mrs Pratt followed up this week was tenanted on the same day it was advertised and she missed out.

Out of desperation, the housing crisis has also forced the Pratts to look at houses outside their price range, pushing their budget to the limit.

"We can't afford $350- $400 a week that a lot of places are asking, but you've got to pay what you've got to pay," Mrs Pratt said.

"Because the number of houses on the market is so low, they can ask what they want for rent."

If the family don't find a house by tomorrow, Gloria Hughes, a family friend, has offered to take the Pratts in, but she already has her hands full.

Mrs Hughes's husband has just started chemotherapy and she has a son and two grandchildren living with her.

"We'll do as much as we can for them," Mrs Hughes said.

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