Mabel Stephens can't believe she's had to leave her family in Australia for a more affordable life in South America.
The 65-year-old Gold Coast grandmother, who has lived in Australia for more than three decades, said the cost-of-living crisis and an incredibly tight rental market forced her to leave the country.
"The whole world is upside down," Ms Stephens says, speaking to the ABC from her new home in Chile.
She moved back to the country of her birth in 2021 — the country she migrated to Australia from in 1978 — and doesn't know if she'll be able to return.
"It's something that is unbelievable," she said.
"You know, I've lived long enough — probably not long, long, but long enough — to see [that] these changes are so incredible.
"And it's not just here because you think some South American [countries], OK, they are not stable countries politically, but then you think with Australia — how did we get here?"
She said she faced homelessness in Australia and living with friends in Valdivia, a small city in southern Chile, was her best option.
Searching for accommodation was making her sick
Ms Stephens said she left Australia before she had to contemplate living in her car.
She had been sharing a one-bedroom apartment with her youngest son, Simon, on the Gold Coast with some help through the Rental Affordability Scheme.
"It is really tough to get something," Ms Stephens said, adding she counted herself lucky to have been able to have anywhere to live.
That's because the Gold Coast remains one of the toughest rental markets in the country.
Just before Ms Stephens left the city, vacancy rates hovered just above zero, with 0.6 per cent of properties available to rent.
The rental market has barely eased since then, with vacancy rates currently sitting at 0.7 per cent, according to Real Estate Institute of Queensland.
Across Australian capital cities vacancy rates remain below 2 per cent.
"My son was going to live in his car but I left before that happened," she said.
Ms Stephens said she decided to leave when her son moved in with his partner.
"I couldn't stop his life," she said.
She said she could have toughed it out in Australia, but the process of finding accommodation was making her sick.
And, at her stage in life, she was not interested in joining a share house.
"I couldn't take it anymore. I was getting sick. Ill, very ill. And I lost a lot of weight. I was being taken to emergency all the time because of the stress," she said.
"I wasn't going to live sharing with other people, like young people, in a share house or an apartment. I couldn't do that."
Finding a job felt 'impossible'
Ms Stephens trained in bookkeeping when she arrived in Perth in the 1970s.
It's a career she's held ever since, including with Gold Coast theme parks, medical facilities and aged care businesses.
However, from about 2018, roughly the time she turned 60, she began to find it harder to get work.
She said she felt that the younger hiring managers thought she was too old.
"It was impossible because of my age. When they interview me, when I say, 'Oh well, I'm 64', people look at you," she said.
Her three sons Claudio, Joaquín, and Simon found it hard to understand why no one would hire her.
"That's what my sons couldn't believe. My three boys, they say, 'You have all these qualifications'," she said.
"I can cut grass, I can clean, I managed a building where I had to do everything in that building. And then couldn't get a job. They couldn't believe it."
She retrained as a disability care worker in 2018 and, despite the high demand for disability workers, had no success.
"It's not that I didn't try. I tried hard because I'm the person that like to work and be active in getting my own money," Ms Stephens said.
Difficult to get a pension
Housing affordability aside, the move back to Chile has made it harder for Ms Stephens to qualify for a pension.
She should qualify for the aged pension when she turns 67 in two years.
However, she now can't qualify for the pension because she has not lived in Australia for two consecutive years.
It's something that has made her goal of eventually moving back to Australia more difficult.
"How would you live with the unemployment benefit, renting?" the Australian permanent resident said.
"How I could support myself in Australia for two years? I cannot live with my sons, as they have to live their own lives. I will have to live on benefits and be a burden for the government anyway."
She still hopes to return to the country she considers home.
"I hold hopes to return to Australia one day soon, to be around my sons and grandsons, my family, where home is. Australia is my country," Ms Stephens said.
"I will move back any time if the right circumstances came up."
She hopes sharing her story will help people in a similar situation.
Older workers still valuable
Ms Stephen's eldest son, Claudio Lance, said he and his brothers were able to support their mother, but understood that she didn't want to feel like she was a burden.
"Unless you have a certain type of profession, it's that kind of city I guess, the Gold Coast," Mr Lance said.
"In my case, I'm a nurse, I've got secure work."
He said being unable to find work had worn his mother down.
"It became so unsustainable for her. Myself and my other brother were trying to help her out," he said.
"She was kind of embarrassed too, to be asking for help.
"So she thought it would be best if she moved back to Chile where she had better prospects. It's much cheaper to live there and the standard of living isn't too bad.
"She has her extended family there too."
However, it's her three sons and two grandchildren, all still in Australia, who Ms Stephens misses the most.
