Leslie, a musician, had been living in a van for just under two years before she was able to secure housing through Uniting Housing.
“I play guitar and I’m a singer. Music is in the blood. My father, my sisters — we’ve all got that gift,” she says.
Music was an outlet throughout a difficult upbringing.
“It was a way of expressing emotional pain… a way to self‑soothe,” she explained. “Just picking up a guitar can make you feel better.”
Leslie had been in a shared rental — cold, run‑down, and expensive.
“It was costing us $500 every two months to heat, and we weren’t even using it all the time,” she recalls. When the landlord decided to increase the rent, she knew she couldn’t stay.
Leslie packed some belongings into her van, thinking it would be temporary. “I treated it as a holiday,” she said. But when she came back, the rental crisis had deepened. “I couldn’t find anywhere to live. There was just nothing available.”
Shared accommodation wasn’t an option. She’d already put much of her gear in storage, and the rest simply wouldn’t fit into a single bedroom — especially not her recording setup.
She didn’t have a stable place to play, create, or even rest and life in a van wore her down.
“In Victoria it’s really freezing in winter and really hot in summer,” she said.
Her days became survival-oriented: “In summer I’d sit in the river during the day. At night I’d go to bed early because it was the only comfortable place to rest.”
Leslie reached out for help, at her local access point — but it was some time before she was able to access help.
It wasn’t until a female answered the call one day that the situation changed. “She spoke clearly, and they finally got back to me,” Leslie said. “Once I got in, everything happened really quickly.”
Within days of her appointment, a unit became available at Uniting Housing. “I came and looked at the place and thought — wow.”
A retirement village setting, with affordable housing integrated into it, felt right. “Because of my age, and because it’s peaceful it just made sense.”
For the first time in years, Leslie could set up her recording space properly. “Somewhere stable where you can sit down, figure stuff out, and be creative — it’s an absolute godsend.”
She has big plans: “I’ve been working on meditative music. It’s the kind that helped stabilise my moods and depression. I want to give that same gift back.”
This is a true story about a real person. Some details such as names have been changed to respect the wishes of the person featured. The photo accompanying this story is for illustrative purposes only. It is not a photo of the person featured in this story.
