Three vulnerable Noongar-Yamatji sisters have been left without a guardian or a place to live after a private real estate company evicted them from their property in Perth last week.
The girls were left in a vacancy limbo when their father and sole guardian, Aubrey Roe, passed away a week after his first Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine in October last year.
Aubrey Roe lived with a heart condition and other serious health issues.
Alicia, the eldest of the Roe sisters, has stepped up to parent her younger sisters Tyler and Adamma.
She said unexpectedly taking responsibility for her sisters has left her fearful and exhausted.
“It’s been extremely hard especially with my father passing away... I don’t think I was ready to become a parent sort of figure,” said the 21-year-old.
“There is just no words to explain how scared I am for my younger sisters and myself.
"My younger sister has a heart condition and COVID is in the streets."
Alicia's sister Adamma Roe suffers from a rare heart condition called truncus arteriosus, a birth defect of the heart.
The 17-year-old has had two open-heart surgeries and requires heavy medication to manage her condition.
Adamma is completing her final year of high school at Lynwood Senior High school and said she is determined to finish it, despite the obstacles her family now face.
“It’s very important to me and my family, I just want to make them proud and graduate," she said.
“But I feel that it has been hard to get through the housing situation."
The manager of Victoria Park Youth Accommodation, Charlie Brown, said he was working with the girls to provide a solution, but was unable to provide accommodation due to a lack of communication with the family.
“We put the onus on the potential clients or tenants to keep in touch with us," he told NITV News.
"We had no direct engagement initiated by these people and had some interference from a family member and quite unusual aggressive advocacy from someone."
Rosemary Roe, the girls' aunt, contacted the organisation.
She said her strident advocacy for her nieces should not have cost them a place to stay.
“This is not fair at all. These children don’t know this political system that we live in," she said.
"If you don’t have an Elder that speaks up for them... then we know there is going to be problems.”
The sisters' aunty, Rosemary Roe, advocated for their place in accommodation. Her passionate intervention was cited as a reason they lost their place. Source: Supplied
Mr Brown said more than 550 people had been turned away by Victoria Park Youth Accommodation services over the past twelve months, and that the accommodation initially slated for the Roe sisters had been reassigned.
“The house is now ready and another needy family who have complied with all of our requirements will be moving in early next week."
Adamma, the youngest of the three sisters, said they had been relying on the home from Victoria Park Youth Accommodation.
“I feel like that’s very unfair and inconsiderate of them. We were really happy to have a place to move into that we were told was secure and long term.
“They have just taken that away from us without notice or warning," she said.
Queensland advocate organisation ‘Sisters Inside” have come to the rescue and offered temporary relief for the girls, offering a month's worth of accommodation and storage for their things.
Meanwhile Perth's sizeable homeless community continues to fear the spread of COVID-19.
The WA Department of Health said there has been 53,952 active cases and 56 deaths in the state so far.
