Thanks for welcoming me to the Steemit community @amariespeaks. I just followed you, upvoted and read this post which is very hard to hear, of you and your family struggling against an unfair system. It sounds like you have put every effort into staying resilient against the odds. They say we are all only one or two missed pay cheques away from homelessness yet we tend to overlook the plight of others when things are going well for us.

Here in Australia mortgage interest rates are about 3x higher than the UK and it has been a struggle to adapt. When we first arrived we rented for 4 years and for the first time went through that process of being deemed 'suitable' tenants. We were staying in an apartment/hotel at the time and one of the ladies there gave me the advice to include a 'picture perfect' cover letter to get the house we were going for, like doing our own PR, it seemed ridiculous, but it worked.

My husband is a teacher and had just got his first 3 month contract (it's really rare to get permanent teaching jobs here, making your whole situation seem more precarious, especially to landlords) and we viewed the property straight from his work, to rub in the fact that he was a 'responsible teacher' and we weren't going to trash their lovely property! We also had to borrow the deposit as having just emigrated we had so much to pay out for, literally starting again, buying things like cutlery and plates, (our stuff took 6 weeks to arrive) electrical equipment (different plugs here!), we felt like newly weds just starting out! 7 years on we have our own home but the mortgage is a struggle and I'm thinking of doing airbnb to make ends meet. I've been really inspired by the Tiny Homes revolution in the States, it's great to see people freeing themselves from the crippling lifelong debt of a mortgage. When we retire my husband and I are thinking of how we will be able to afford to live. Tiny homes, houseboats and treehouses are all looking very attractive to us!