Having four walls to call your home is something many take for granted.
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The privileged will never have had to think about whether they pay the rent or buy food. They won't have had to make difficult choices about turning the lights on or using the money to buy their kids a new pair of school shoes.
As we watch the house prices reach unattainable heights, even for those in well-paid jobs, we all get that little bit closer to having to make some difficult choices about paying the mortgage or rent or stripping back the spending somewhere else.
You might be sitting in your multimillion-dollar home with a mortgage you can afford, but that doesn't mean you aren't just a few steps away from the unthinkable - having nowhere to live.
Michelle Adair, the Illawarra's Outstanding Business Leader of the Year at the Illawarra Business Awards, is living proof.
The Housing Trust chief executive knows exactly what it feels like to be on the wrong side of the housing crisis. She lost her home and car and could barely rent with two small children to look after. With the support of friends, she found her way through in the end, but she's one of the fortunate.
She is using her platform to warn that the housing crisis is not just about being able to get a mortgage. It's about being able to get a home.
She warned that if you are under the age of 45 you only have a 50 per cent chance of owning a home. In a country with an expectation of owning a quarter-acre block, her figures are striking.
In a speech delivered to the great and the good of the Illawarra on Friday night Ms Adair said: "please remember ... whenever you hear people say they don't want 'those people' living near them, or 'those sort of people' as a tenant, or 'that sort of housing' in their street or suburb."
"When you hear that please remember me, my son Jason and my daughter Kate, because we were those people. After I paid my rent I had $2 to feed by kids, pay the electricity and try and rebuild our lives."
She's got a point.
- Gayle Tomlinson
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Gayle Tomlinson
Editor of the Illawarra Mercury. Scottish but fell in love with Dharawal Land. Send us your feedback and questions. Subscribe so we can continue to speak up for the Illawarra.
Editor of the Illawarra Mercury. Scottish but fell in love with Dharawal Land. Send us your feedback and questions. Subscribe so we can continue to speak up for the Illawarra.
