“We’ve been fighting for the right to safe, comfortable housing for decades”

Autistic writer Elena Wewer sheds light on how Australia’s housing crisis disproportionately affects people with disability or chronic illness. 

This week a photo illustrating the intensity of Australia’s rental crisis went viral.

Originally posted to Reddit, this photo shows at least 20 people crowding around a real estate agent outside the doors to a CBD apartment building in Sydney, which currently has two apartments listed to rent: a two-bedroom apartment for $1180 a week and a one-bedroom apartment for $720 a week.

In the last week, a new report also revealed a variety of reasons Australia has seen a monumental increase in house prices that has unfairly affected the young and less wealthy, who are being locked out of the housing market while wealthy, older Australians rake it in.

For the young and poor, it’s not news that they are disproportionately affected by Australia’s housing crisis. There is, however, another demographic of people who shoulder the costs of exorbitant rent and have all but given up on the idea of owning their own home one day. Though underrepresented in the media, Australia’s disabled and chronically ill communities have been fighting for the right to safe, comfortable housing for decades.

What makes things even harder for this cohort is that, for some, living alone is not just a luxury - it’s a necessity. 

Consider the young person who is incontinent and needs 24/7 access to their own bathroom, but lives in a sharehouse and deals with the embarrassment of regular accidents.

Or the chronically ill student whose two-hour commute to uni uses all of their energy, but they can’t move closer to campus because they can’t afford the rent.

Or the autistic person whose sensory processing disorder and need for social isolation means living in their noisy, busy sharehouse is a constant source of energy-zapping meltdowns.

For people with disability and those who are chronically ill, housing affordability is not just a matter of financial freedom, but one of dignity, independence and quality of life.

Making matters worse, of course, is the fact that people in these groups are often low-income earners or relying on the disability support pension which doesn’t even cover the rent, let alone medical costs and other daily expenses.

I know, because my friend is the incontinent young person who needs 24/7 access to their own bathroom but can hardly work enough to cover their rent and medical expenses.

I know, because I was that chronically ill, low-income uni student who commuted to campus and had no energy to do anything but commute and study before falling into bed at night and sleeping all weekend.

I know, because I was that autistic housemate who had hidden meltdowns and lived in a constant state of stress. 

For me, at least, the story has a happy ending. Three years after entering the workforce, after nine years of living in share-houses, last year I was finally earning (just) enough to rent an apartment on my own. The change to my quality of life has been immeasurable.

As someone who suffers from severe eczema and ichthyosis vulgaris, I can now bathe and dress my wounds whenever I need to, even in the middle of the night. As someone with POTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome), I can now spend all day lying in bed without embarrassment or interruption, and sleep as early as I need to, with no noise from housemates keeping me awake.  

Perhaps most importantly, as an autistic woman with sensory processing disorder and the need for long periods of alone-time, my home is now my sanctuary, where I get to choose when and how I socialise. 

As an autistic woman with multiple chronic illnesses, living alone has made a world of difference to my mental health and quality of life. But I know I’m one of the few lucky ones. I know many chronically ill and disabled people my age are still struggling to pay rent, still suffering in share-houses, and still commuting extreme distances to the detriment of their health.

Despite our frustration, desperation and despair, this is a problem we can’t do anything about. We urgently need all levels of federal government to intervene and make sure every disabled and chronically ill Australian has access to safe, suitable, and affordable housing.