Jane Watts collected the keys to a three-bedroom house in Warilla yesterday, ending her five-month search and reuniting her fractured family.

Her plight prompted the Shellharbour Mayor, Kellie Marsh, to intervene and a family friend extended a six-month lease on the home last week.

"I screamed. I cried, I jumped up and down. My kids thought something was wrong but when I told them they were the same," Ms Watts said.

"It's awesome timing because I can get the kids back into school, get them into a routine."

Ms Watts said she walked out on a violent relationship in Tasmania late last year and had moved to the Illawarra to be near family.

She began searching for a property in the Illawarra's southern suburbs as the vacancy rate fell to just 1.4 per cent, once firing off 20 unsuccessful applications in a single day.

Her plight was highlighted in the Mercury and touched a nerve with Councillor Marsh, herself a survivor of domestic violence.

"There's so many Janes out there," said Cr Marsh, who wrote a letter of support for Ms Watts, approached real estate agents for her and "let her know the community would get behind her".

Community groups have since donated furniture, mattresses and food.

"I saw the paper and my heart went out to the mum and her children," Cr Marsh said. "Being a former victim of domestic violence, I understood her anguish."

Ms Watts said she "copped a little bit of negativity" as a result of publicising her struggle.

Last month, after camping in the backyard of her cousin's overcrowded home, she moved to a hotel in Berkeley with two of her children, sent two to stay with her cousin and one to live with her mother in Shellharbour.

"People were saying that I shouldn't have so many kids if I couldn't put a roof over their heads," she said. "But 99 per cent of people out there have been so supportive. I can't describe how it feels to have my family back together."