Homeless family at Albury Showgrounds forced to pack up their tent

The trio, originally from Wangaratta, have lived at the showgrounds since last Friday; they found themselves homeless in September when the house they were renting in Brisbane was no longer available.

They won't see the fireworks on Saturday because, along with other campers at the site, they have been asked to pack up by 9am that morning, but they might hear them from the motel they have found to stay in for two nights before they return to the showgrounds when the celebrations are over.

Danielle Dixon, 39, her partner Josh Morrison, 41, and their son, Jakob, 18, said they had been "bounced around" for months unable to settle because "there's just no housing available for low income people".

"In Brisbane the situation was that bad up there we couldn't even find a site to pitch a tent," Ms Dixon said. "Everywhere we went it was tent city - but no space for us, so we hired a car and came back down here.

"We had a plan, we were supposed to move into a place a friend in Yarrawonga had tried to help with but the house was just unliveable, it was covered in inches of mould everywhere.

"We've been living in borrowed tents since then but my beautiful friend spent $600, she put it on her credit card, to give us this and this is what we've been living in."

When the Yarrawonga house didn't work out, the family went to Wangaratta, Corowa then to Albury, all the time living in borrowed tents.

"This is our life and there's dirt all over it, we're barely eating, we can't cook because we have nothing to cook on so we live on takeaways which is not ideal and very expensive," Ms Dixon said.

"I've now got Beyond Housing telling me if I can find anywhere they'll help to pay for it, but there's nowhere - there's just no way out of this."

Ms Dixon said Beyond Housing had helped the family with two nights of accommodation in an Albury motel until Monday when they plan to move back to the showgrounds and re-pitch their tent.

The family live with their dog, Zak, and cat, Ziggy, which makes it even more difficult to find accommodation.

"We've got two nights at the motel and then we'll be back here - when you have pets it limits where you can stay of course," Ms Dixon said.

"We've had Zak and Ziggy for 10 years, we can't just give them up, they're our family. Zak has an ear infection but we just can't afford a vet."

Both Ms Dixon and Mr Morrison have medical issues.

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"We both have bone conditions - Danielle has advanced osteoperosis and I have ankylosing spondylitis," Mr Morrison said.

"I means neither of us can work, Jakob's just turned 18, I get a carer's allowance for Danielle, but it's very difficult to do anything when you don't have a home base of some sort."

Acting chief executive officer of Beyond Housing Andrew Chittenden said: "The supply of social housing is critical to resolve this ongoing problem, especially at times like this."

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