In short:
A mother and her four-year-old son who suffers from severe cerebral palsy are facing homelessness.
Katie Fattel – who is on the waiting list for public housing – says she received advice from a SA Housing Trust employee to use “witchcraft” and “manifest a home”.
What’s next?
The Acting Housing Minister says he will personally case manage Ms Fattal, but cannot guarantee that she will secure a home.
An Adelaide mother who has two months to find somewhere to live with her severely disabled son says she was told to “manifest a house” or consider living in a tent by a SA Housing Trust public servant.
Katie Fattel told ABC Radio Adelaide her four-year-old son Cassian acquired a severe brain injury at 18 months old, leaving him with “the most severe” form of cerebral palsy.
She says he is non-verbal and non-mobile, and relies on multiple machines to keep him alive.
“He’s on the feeding pump for 22 hours a day … his suction machine has actually saved his life on several occasions,” Ms Fattel told ABC Radio Adelaide’s Sonya Feldhoff and Jules Schiller.
“He is essentially reliant on others for all aspects of life.
“He’s profoundly disabled across every sort of domain and metric.”
Ms Fattel said she has been on the waiting list for public housing since January, with her two-storey private rental making it increasingly difficult to care for Cassian who requires “24/7 around the clock” supervision.
She said her home required “substantial modifications” which the NDIS could only provide to Housing Trust properties.
“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.
Ms Fattel says she will be forced to leave her private rental in September due to extensive water damage inside the property, and now faces the prospect of homelessness.
“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.
‘Manifest a house’
Ms Fattel said she had “fought really hard” to be elevated to a category one priority in the Housing Trust queue, and was shocked when she received advice from a staff member 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 apologised to Ms Fattel, saying the advice she received 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.”
Mr Koutsantonis said he would “personally case manage” Ms Fattel but could not promise it would result in her finding a home.
“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.”
SA Housing Trust has been contacted for comment.