Real estate agent, Port Stephens Family and Neighbourhood Services and Yacaaba Centre help find Cliff a home
Port Stephens Examiner
By Alanna Tomazin
September 21 2022- 11.22am
Real estate agent Tracy Blosdale took finding someone a home to the next level when she became a stand-in caretaker for an 81 year-old man when his rental was sold and he had nowhere to go.
“I think I’ve adopted a grandfather,” the Port Stephens First National real estate agent said.
Ms Blosdale sold the unit in Shoal Bay that Cliff called home for seven years.
While it’s a financial win for landlords who put their homes on the market, it’s a disheartening loss for long-term residents like Cliff who are being pushed out with nowhere to go.
Given his age and having no friends or family to assist him in his next steps, Ms Blosdale felt the need to help.
“He just needed somebody to help him, to be his voice,” she said.
“As soon as I told him the news [about the sale] and he said he had no one, there was absolutely no chance he was going to be homeless on my watch.”
Ms Blosdale began searching for a home but was unaware at the time of the lack of affordable housing in Port Stephens.
Cliff is also on a pension, which meant his options were limited.
“He was only paying a portion of his pension. So I think it ended up being $270 a week and I haven’t seen anything in the Bay under that figure for a very long time,” Ms Blosdale said.
As the settlement date on the Shoal Bay unit ticked closer, Ms Blosdale continued her search and came across temporary and crisis accommodation options.
“It’s only for a short period of time … and then what? It’s like all these band-aid sort of approaches,” she said.
Fortunately after engaging in talks with the Yacaaba Centre, Port Stephens Family and Neighbourhood Services (PSFaNS) and Harbourside Haven, Cliff was given four weeks respite in
Harbourside and is now residing there permanently.
But Ms Blosdale still raises the concern of what would’ve happened if she didn’t help Cliff.
“He couldn’t have rang up and organised this himself and what would’ve happened if there wasn’t a bed [at Harbourside]?,” she said.
She said she felt there was a gap in the system on who looks after long-term, elderly residents who are at risk of becoming homeless.
“I got to a stage where I was thinking where do I go? What do I do?” she said.
“And if it wasn’t me then who helps these people? Where’s the social worker? Where’s the advocate for those people if they’re too old?
“I think it’s very difficult to navigate the system if you don’t know the system.”
Ms Blosdale said people like Cliff were stressed and needed to know of the help available.
She said despite putting her time and energy into helping him, she doesn’t regret it.
“I’ve taken it upon myself to a degree but I think anybody would’ve done it,” she said.
“It was instinct and I mean I’m on the pretty side of things, I haven’t been on this side and when I met Cliff, it really opened my eyes to it.”
She wanted to thank those in the community who helped find Cliff a home.
“There’s so many beautiful, caring people in the community that do good work and helped to take care of him,” she said.
The Yacaaba Centre’s Virginia Smith said if an elderly person came to them in crisis, they’d be referred to the homelessness intake officer at Port Stephens Family and Neighbourhood Services (PSFaNS).
“We’d also offer tangible assistance if they were struggling financially and counselling if they needed emotional support,” she said.
Depending on their circumstances, people could also be referred to the Salvation Army, St Vincent de Paul, home support services and My Aged care, Ms Smith said.
PSFaNS assistant manager Ann Fletcher said the centre was seeing an influx of people of all ages asking for help, with numbers “exploding” since 2019.
“We’re funded to see 348 individuals a year, in 2019 we’d seen about 350 to 400 in a year and in the past two years we’ve seen upwards of 870 people per year,” she said.
She said she had seen an increase of elderly people being pushed out of their long-term rentals as a result of the seller’s market.
“The properties sell and become owner occupied, it’s not coming back on the market as a rental and these older people are often on benefits and not in a position to compete in the private rental market,” she said.
To help alleviate the pressure PSFaNS can provide support in helping an elderly person exit their property and move them into temporary accommodation.
“They’ll be moved into a motel and we’ve had people living in a motel now for a couple of years of all ages,” Ms Fletcher said.
Clients will stay in a motel until potentially receiving an offer for social housing.
“It’s such a long wait, we need more social housing, but that is a much more long term option,” Ms Fletcher said.
“We need an immediate one right now and that is for rents to be affordable.”
She said she’d rather see government funding pushed into building homes over being injected into services.
“Honestly I could have a thousand case workers doing beautiful case plans, providing sort of piece meal solutions, but without a house, which is a basic human right, it’s really just putting lipstick on a pig.”
Despite the lack of housing Ms Fletcher said PSFaNS did its best to help lift people’s spirits and provide support.
“We can help you with applications, provide information, food etcetera. We definitely are willing to provide any support we can and if we don’t know about it we can find out about it,” she said.
