From housing insecurity to Tiny House advocate — Rochelle Ryan is redefining what “home” means.
I spoke to Rochelle Ryan about how the sale of the unit she was renting, and lack of available houses led to living in a 10m2 Tiny House.
Rochelle: Currently, I live in two tiny houses (placed side by side) on wheels with my two small dogs. I was formerly the volunteer president of the Australian Tiny House Association, which is a not-for-profit organization advocating for the legal recognition of a new hybrid house typology.
The average one bedroom apartment in Brisbane is $550 per week. Which means you have to be earning at least $102,960 per year to rent. And it will only get worse leading up to and during the Olympics… It's going to be a long 6 years.
Katische: How did you end up in a tiny house?
Rochelle: In 2022, I realized at the beginning of the year that we didn’t have enough rental properties in the state of Queensland where I live. I never expected not to be able to find another rental because I’d worked full time since I was 16. I’m what they call a blue chip renter.
Rochelle: I found on Gumtree, a prototype tiny house and bought it, gutted it and renovated it, and my daughter and I had to move into it in July, 2022. We had to live in 10 square meters.
Katische: I don’t know how you did that especially given she was in her final year of high school! That must have been stressful. How did you manage?
Rochelle: We literally lived in a room the size of a car park for six months together. We literally had no other choice. We had our own bathroom and we were able to cook inside our 10 square meters. It was just difficult when it was just the two of us needing to use the same space. We had to like, play Tetris while she moved here, I moved there.
While my daughter was at school I could sit at my secretary's desk and do my work. A lot of times we had to sit on our bed simply because while one person was getting ready, another person just had to stay out of the way.
Katische: And how did you find the joy in the stress?
Rochelle: I’ve just learned to go with the flow and you’ve just got to make the most of it. My counsellor would always just say to me, you just have to make the next decision. Don’t get too ahead and always just try and find joy.
Rochelle’s daughter has grown up and moved out now, and she has bought an additional tiny which is parked next to her original tiny house, so that she has more room for work and craft.
Rochelle is advocating for governments to allow one tiny house on wheels per rate paying house, allowing safe and affordable homes for those who wish to downsize or who are forced out of the rental market.
Rochelle: Some of us are so lucky that we realize that life is about luck. And it's about the lessons and you want to spend the second half of your life, regardless of where your income comes from, learning life's lessons. And if you can, give back to the society that gave you such a good, lucky start.
You can find Rochelle Ryan at:
https://whydiss.com/
https://www.youtube.com/user/Whydiss/videos
https://www.facebook.com/whydiss/
Author: Katische Dionne Haberfield