Cheryl Wheeler has had no time to grieve for her dead husband after receiving eviction orders from their public housing home a week after his death.
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Les Kemp, 41, died on September 24 when he lost control of his motorcycle at Unanderra.
A week later, Ms Wheeler notified Housing NSW of his death and was told over the telephone that she had three weeks to leave the property because her name was not on the lease.
"I haven't been able to grieve at all because I've been so tied up in trying to find another place to live and trying to figure out what I'm going to do.''
Mr Kemp and Ms Wheeler had been partners for 14 years and were married at Koonawarra Bay in September 2013. However, Mr Kemp had failed to include his new wife on the lease following the wedding.
Mr Kemp was attempting to overtake a car on his Yamaha 400cc motorcycle when he lost control and struck a gutter on Nolan Street.
Ms Wheeler said she had been living with Mr Kemp since April at the Berkeley address. She also said the electricity bill attached to the home had been in her name for the past three years.
Since the accident, friends and family had not left Ms Wheeler's side believing she may self harm or take her own life. The added stress of being forced out of her home had added to her burden.
At a hearing two weeks ago in the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT), NSW Housing said Ms Wheeler was not on the high priority list for housing and further that the department needed the property vacated.
"I don't know how desperate you have to be to get housing," Ms Wheeler said.
"I'm about to get evicted with nowhere to live. I was about to go and live in a tent under Macquarie Pass with my dogs."
The NCAT ordered her to move out of the property the day after the hearing. She was told that she must hand over the keys and liaise with NSW Housing about the removal of her belongings.
Ms Wheeler did move into a battered, old caravan in a friend's front yard, taking her personal belongings with her. Her furniture, however, remains in the home and the department has since changed the locks after she failed to return the keys.
With tears running down her cheeks, Ms Wheeler said the past few months had been horrific, made worse by an unsympathetic bureaucracy.
"Not once has anyone from the department ever said anything caring to me," Ms Wheeler said.
"I haven't been able to grieve at all because I've been so tied up in trying to find another place to live and trying to figure out what I'm going to do. The only time I get to cry for my husband is in bed at night."
Ms Wheeler keeps her husband's ashes close to the bed where she can see them as she falls asleep.
She described him as a loving, giving man who lived for his children and who would do anything for anybody.
A Family and Community Services spokesperson said Ms Wheeler had advised NSW Housing staff that she had never been a recognised occupant in the property and had only stayed at the property occasionally. Based on this information, Ms Wheeler was advised that she could not, as a non-tenant, take over the lease, but was provided with advice on other housing options.
The decision by Family and Community Services to issue a Notice of Termination was upheld by the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
