Hi, my name is Vanessa and I’m fundraising to help my family find a place to live and replace what’s lost and damaged after becoming homeless due to a house fire on 15/11/2025. The house was deemed uninhabitable and our lease was terminated on these grounds only.

We need help so I’m hoping to appeal to the wider community and anyone really to help us. We don’t normally ask for help and this is incredibly hard to do but we have nowhere else to turn as we seem to have exhausted all other avenues of help. The description is lengthy but I need to explain the situation we now find ourselves in.

Our situation is now dire. The very real possibility of living in the car in summer in Western Sydney for the foreseeable future with 2 adults, 2 cats and a large Labrador, is terrifying and unsustainable and our mental health is a mess as well. We are barely coping.

I share a house with my mum Diane who is on the aged pension and I have Long Covid. I am unable to work due to this as I’m so unwell physically, as well as dealing with anxiety and a major depressive disorder. This situation has exacerbated everything I’m already dealing with and I’m past the brink of what I can cope with, we both are. We’re shocked and devastated to find ourselves homeless at this stage in our lives and you never think it will happen to you but it has and we don’t really know what to do now.

We rented a great house in Riverstone NSW which unfortunately caught fire starting in the kitchen on Saturday 15/11/2025.

We managed to get out with our dog Gus but our two black cats Pookie and Tonks hid and I couldn’t find them in all the smoke. Fortunately NSW Fire and Rescue Riverstone and Schofields came quickly and managed to find them and they were revived by paramedics with oxygen.

Unfortunately the fire reignited in the roof about 13 hours later.

Because we hadn’t been able to find anywhere to stay that night, we had camped out in the car on the driveway and so luckily we were there when it sparked again in the roof and we called the Fire brigade again.

However putting it out again caused further water and smoke damage to the house and contents.

We are now homeless and have been staying temporarily in a cabin in a caravan park but it’s taking every cent we have to stay there and we have almost nothing left to live on for food, petrol, the mobile phone bill so we can keep calling charities and look online for somewhere to live. We may not be able to extend here past 22/12/2025.

We have approached Housing NSW, various local charities and other groups for help. However, we are not eligible for any social housing. While charities and other groups like our local North West Community Services, our local pet store World4Pets Vineyard and Mission Australia have been terrific and have helped with some food and goods for the animals for free, they can’t really help any further with crisis or temporary housing as it all funnels through Housing NSW and they’ve said multiple times they can’t assist us further.

We are pretty much on our own now in terms of finding ongoing accommodation. We can still get some help with food, but most charities are closed over Christmas and New Year.

On top of this we have been in an ongoing battle with our Real Estate agents who have been actively blocking us illegally for a month, from accessing the house and our belongings. We have finally been able to access the house in the past few days and have until January 8th 2026 to empty the house and garage or they will dispose of the remainder of our things.

So between what is water damaged and now mouldy thanks to the delay from the agent, fire, soot and smoke damage, there isn’t a lot left to salvage. We have to get rid of anything like lounges, cushions, pillows, soft furnishings, beds, mattresses, some clothes, curtains, kitchen items, possibly fridge and freezer due to rotting food we were blocked from cleaning out, pantry staples, other melted appliances etc, as the heat and smoke causes the plastics in these items to release dangerous chemicals and can’t be saved according to Fire and Rescue NSW. We may be able to save some things if we can wash them. We were not insured because frankly we couldn’t afford it.

So I’m hoping to raise money to be able to cover bond and moving costs, a storage unit, replacing basic furniture and money for temporary accommodation if we can’t find a house to rent soon.

This close to Christmas it’s hard to find an affordable home that meets our needs with the pets and even a removalist to help us move whatever we can recover.

Please consider helping, we would be so grateful. Please feel free to ask any questions if you’d like to before donating.