Wednesday, Oct 29, 2014
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Nicola Wanhalla and Michael da Silva and their six children looking at a homeless future. PHOTO TETSURO MITOMO 281914-TM-103
Family hunts for home BY SUE NEWMAN
SUE.N@THEGUARDIAN.CO.NZ
Homelessness is not just a big city problem, ask Nicola Wanhalla and Michael da Silva. If they can’t find an affordable rental by the end of this week, they and their six children are likely to be out on the street. They’ve been renting the same house for the past 18 months, but now their landlord wants to undertake renovations. He gave his tenants notice, and since then they’ve been on the hunt for a new
home. And when you have six children and very little money, that’s a heart-breaking job, Ms Wanhalla said. Life’s dealt the couple a tough deal over the past few weeks. Not only have they lost their rental property but Michael lost his job after his employer’s company went into liquidation. Getting employment records has been a struggle and that’s meant signing on for a benefit has also been difficult. “When we were given notice on the house, Michael was still working. We started looking
at houses in Christchurch but we couldn’t afford those. Once Michael lost his job we started looking here but we couldn’t find anything either,” she said. With six children aged from 10 to one, they need a four bedroomed home and discovered that anything of that size was out of their price range. They’re now paying $350 a week; changing homes could see them paying between $400 and $500. “After Michael lost his job we had three weeks without any money. Winz gave us a couple
of food grants and he’s now got a benefit, but the job hunt is going the same way as our hunt for a house,” Ms Wanhalla said. He’s chased rural jobs, hoping those would come with accommodation, but most people were looking for single males or females who could share accommodation she said. “We were supposed to be out of here on Friday, so realistically we’ve probably only got a couple more days before we’ll be on the street. We came here as long term tenants, we told them that when we moved in.”
The couple know finding a home with six children is not easy. They’ve both had brushes with the law, but say that was in the past and shouldn’t count against them today. Ms Wanhalla admits her family has also been on the wrong side of the law but said she shouldn’t be held accountable for what her family has done. “We’re in dire need, we’re facing the street and we’ll do anything to get a home, but it just seems to be so hard to come up with the answers,” she said.
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