Please Help Rachel to Give Her and Her Son a Forever Home

A few months ago life got really hard, we were on the verge of homelessness amongst a vast range of other issues that went wrong. I experienced a mental breakdown, I got really sick, I stopped eating, I stopped parenting and I stopped life as much as I could. I ended up in hospital. I don't talk about this stuff so publicly cause mental health is still attached to so much stigma but I'm talking about it now.

My parents decided the best way they could help my situation, given the housing crisis was an all time high, was to pop a little house on the farm for Jack and I to not be on the streets or crashing on couches or in emergency housing. It meant I wouldn't have to change jacks schools or run the risk of affecting my studies. I'm a single mum on a students benefit, not the landlord's ideal tenant and I've been to viewings with up to 90 other people attending. The competition is real.

We've had the house up and running for all of a few days when we got notice that the council have been notified of an unauthorised building being constructed and have now been out to investigate. Upon investigation, they didn't think it was up to building code because I haven't used safety glass in the bathrooms and my second hand joinery needs to be certified. They've ordered us to get it up to building code standards which will cost thousands. Then apply for a certificate of acceptance which is another 30k. Plus a development contribution.

Every tradesman we used was certified. The house is 100% safe.

I understand we've broken the law but basic human rights entitle us to adequate housing, if the government don't uphold their side of providing that, then where do we stand as people just trying to get by. So there's an issue with the system, the law, society. Question is, is what can we do about it.

The money required to get it up to standards will be 60% of what the actual house cost.

Obviously, this is devastating news to us as a family. My parents have been heavily involved in community work their whole lives all while on a pensioners wage, we've taken in homeless, we've rehabilitated drug addicts, we've provided a respite for people struggling with mental health and now we're being treated like criminals for keeping our tamariki off the street.

If you've got this far, thanks for reading and any support would be so appreciated. We're going to fight it, protest, write in for change, not just for us but for others who are in this situation. If it be housing, fuel prices, unemployment, there needs to be a change and it starts with us.