Myrtle

Myrtle is in her 50s and has bipolar disorder and physical disability. About 15 years ago, after she was diagnosed with a chronic illness, her psychologist helped her apply to the housing department for accommodation.

‘I was finally given a home,’ Myrtle told the Royal Commission. It was in ‘a beautiful magic’ place, but she ‘felt very isolated’.

Myrtle said one of her neighbours had schizophrenia, and one day he attacked her.

‘He ran at me, jumped on top of me and squashed me, ripped my t-shirt up. And I got rushed to hospital and there wasn’t much help there, sent back home. Then I told housing, and I said, “You know, I'm pretty scared.”’

The housing department did nothing, and the violence from her neighbours escalated. A new neighbour arrived, who was just out of prison.

‘He was pretty dangerous ... I was going through lots of violence from the day he moved in,’ Myrtle said.

Once he ‘pulled out a sawn-off shotgun’ on Myrtle’s front lawn.

‘He was firing off anytime he felt like in the neighbourhood … When I said, “I don’t want to know you,” then he jumped on my car and smashed it all up, the windscreen. Every time I replaced it, he’d write them off and stand over me and hurt me and stuff.’

Myrtle got a restraining order on the neighbour but feels that police ‘turned on’ her as a woman with psychosocial disability.

‘My name was blackened. And then I realised … there’s just no help.’

Housing eventually moved Myrtle to the city. A ‘lovely lady’ accompanied her to the new home.

‘I remember having tears in my eyes saying to her, “Is this mine? Is this truly where I get to live the rest of my life?” … The very first day that I moved in, when I put the furniture truck in the driveway, a neighbour came out and said, “Move your truck,” the word b-i-t-c-h, “because I own this driveway.” So, I fell into a heap.’

The situation with this neighbour deteriorated. He constantly abused her for using the driveway, even though it was the only way she could access her property.

Myrtle said that instead of protecting her, the housing department ‘dragged’ her through it.

‘They used that as a strike tactic to strike my lease to try and evict me pretty much straight away.’

One day, they called her into their office because she hadn’t filled in a pet form for her dog in the tenancy agreement. She said that became a pretext for her to be ‘struck out on’ again.

Myrtle’s father died just before Christmas.

‘I had been going through all that trauma, all that domestic violence, and I just felt like no-one cares. And then when I got home from dad’s funeral, there is a notice to vacate stuck on the backdoor and I had to pack up. Six months later I’m evicted … They said it was because they just weren’t renewing the lease. I couldn’t find out why or anything.’

The department issued the eviction notice after the appeal period had lapsed, so Myrtle had no say in the matter. She said the department did not consider her disability when they made her homeless.

With the help of an advocate, Myrtle turned to the ombudsman who found the department was in the wrong.

Myrtle is still on the waitlist for housing despite being classified as a high priority, and currently lives with her mother.

‘My health just deteriorated for all these years of abuse from the housing department. They ripped me to pieces. I’ve missed seven years, I’ve lost everything I owned. I don’t own anything other than what I’m wearing.’