![Housing affordability: Mental torment adds to the pain Housing affordability: Mental torment adds to the pain](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/z8hBhxAZcc6GAanbqacDHK/441febbd-baad-47a6-93bc-66c54084aebf.jpg/r0_0_1200_677_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
The mental torment that comes from an uncertain housing situation adds to a person's pain.
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"You feel like a second-class citizen," Cathie [not her real name] said about trying to find housing in the Milton/Ulladulla area.
Cathie has no chance of ever being able to afford a home in the town she grew up in.
"I am one of the many in the area looking for somewhere to live. I was born in Milton hospital and grew up here, you could say I am a true local.
"I have a respectable job and I am now priced out of the rental market.
"Change needs to happen. It needs to happen now, not later."
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Cathie and her child appear to be "falling through the cracks" of the system.
"I fall in the cracks because my income is below the 30 percent income requirement now to apply for rentals because of the increase in rent," she explained.
"It makes you feel like a second-class citizen and every Australian deserves somewhere to call home."
She has been on the housing waiting list for nine years.
Sadly she will be waiting for a few more years.