Mum with disabled son told to pitch tent

An Adelaide mother with a severely disabled son has received advice from the public service to “manifest a house” and been given pointers on where to pitch a tent as the woman is forced to leave her rental.

The state’s Acting Housing Minister said he would personally manage the case as the woman and her son felt they were out of options, facing the prospect of homelessness in September.

Katie Fattel’s four-year-old son Cassian needs around-the-clock care, and she said homelessness would be a death sentence.

Ms Fattel told ABC Radio Adelaide that her non-verbal and non-mobile son Cassian suffered a brain injury at 18 months old and now had severe cerebral palsy.

“He’s on the feeding pump for 22 hours a day … his suction machine has actually saved his life on several occasions,” she said.

“He is essentially reliant on others for all aspects of life.”

Ms Fattel is her son’s full-time carer.

“He’s profoundly disabled across every sort of domain and metric,” she said.

The family has been on the public housing waitlist since January, as their two-storey rental home is a significant hindrance for her son.

“We can’t carry Cassian up and down the stairs so he’s no longer able to be bathed … we live in one room essentially, so he’s in the living room and I sleep on the couch next to him,” she said.

Their rental home is water damaged and requires large upgrades to help Cassian be comfortable.

“The goal was always that we were hoping to be allocated a home prior to our lease expiring in September; however, that has not happened and we are becoming increasingly frantic and desperate,” she said.

Ms Fattel said an SA Housing Trust employee advised her to “manifest a house”.

“There were a lot of links that were emailed to me about manifesting a house and using witchcraft … I think it was 17 links in total all about positive manifestations,” she said.

“Then later on I was sent an email with some Google searches for safe places to pitch a tent.

“If this is really all they have to offer, this is how bad the situation is that my son – who is facing a literal death sentence if he has to live on the streets – and we’re being told ‘hey, manifest a home’.”

Acting Housing Minister Tom Koutsantonis said the advice offered from the public servant was appalling.

“I’m horrified, I’m angry and I want to apologise to Katie, I can’t believe she received an email like that,” he said.

“There are procedures in place to deal with people who are in Katie’s situation. She was made priority one, this should have been escalated to the minister’s office.”

The minister vowed to manage Ms Fattel’s case himself.

“I don’t know if I can guarantee her getting a house but we’re certainly going to case manage her better than we have,” he said.

“This is rather urgent and I would like the agency to have a look at exactly who this public servant is that sent these emails … I’ll be managing this from here on and we’ll see how we go.”