Life changing: The fire at their Graeme St rental property in Mooroopna took 10 minutes to irreversibly change the lives of siblings Suzanne Braakman and Garry Elphick.
Photo by
Nicola Ceccato
For more than 20 years it was Suzanne Braakman who stepped in to help the homeless and displaced, fostering children, who, through no fault of their own, found themselves without a home.
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Little more than seven weeks ago though, in a frantic 10 minutes, her life went from one of relative security to perpetual uncertainty — and homelessness.
“It can change in a minute can’t it? It’s made me realise that things can end very quickly,” she said.
On March 22, Ms Braakman had to be rescued from the rental property she and her brother Garry Elphick shared in Graeme St, Mooroopna.
Breaking point: Suzanne Braakman and her brother Garry Elphick lost their Mooroopna rental home in a fire and 35 applications later, are no closer to finding a home to rent.
Mr Elphick suffered burns to his arm while trying to fight the fire and retrieve property from the house.
He spent days in The Alfred hospital in Melbourne and is still receiving treatment for his injuries.
“He has to wear the compression bandage,” Ms Braakman said.
“That’s what I have bad dreams about. I dream that my skin’s melting off because when he got burnt, it was like his skin was melting off.
“I’ve never struggled mentally. Now I find I have the bad dreams.
“I’m a fidgeter when I never used to be. I forget what I’m saying. I have to talk to somebody at least once a week.”
Since the fire, the siblings have applied for 35 rental properties across Shepparton and Mooroopna and have been unsuccessful in them all.
Their only alternative in the meantime is going from caravan park to caravan park.
The most expensive costing them $640 a week for a cabin.
Although both are on disability pensions, they’re able to afford $400 a week in rent, but that has not been enough to secure a home.
“We’re in this holding pattern, we’re in this holding pattern, and how long does it ... ?’’ she said.
“I know there’s other people who are possibly in similar circumstances.”
Ms Braakman said she and her brother have never had difficulty finding rentals in the past, but the latest experience is close to breaking them both.
The siblings reached a particularly low point soon after the fire when a temporary housing option had fallen through and they faced the prospect of having to stay in a tent.
Ms Braakman had to tell her brother, who at the time was on his way to the The Alfred burns unit in Melbourne for treatment.
“I sat on that road and I’m ringing all these caravan parks and even hotels and everything and it was just before Easter and I sat on the side of the road and just cried and I thought I just want to drive in front of a truck, so I had to talk to somebody,” Ms Braakman said.
They avoided having to stay in the tent with help from the manager of a caravan park, but any more permanent solution has not been forthcoming.
“We’ve been going to rental properties,’’ Ms Braakman.
“We’ve gone for more than 30. We went to one the day before yesterday, $400 a week and there’s 40 people going for that same (house) and we don’t have any leg up as such because we’re in crisis.
