When Victorian pensioner Gail secured housing, it was the ‘best day’ of her life. Then she was ordered to vacate

Gail and Laura Innes have been renting since their public housing tower was demolished, but the private landlord now wants to sell. Photograph: Ellen Smith/The Guardian

There have been moments of joy during the tough period that Gail and Laura Innes have been public tenants living in a private home leased for them by the Victorian government. The mother and daughter ended up in the somewhat unusual position, known as headleasing, after their Port Melbourne public housing estate was demolished to make way for a replacement in 2022.

Headleasing involves the government paying market rent to a private owner and then on-leasing that property to public tenants, who pay their usual subsidised rent. In the case of the Innes’s home in Albert Park, the difference is $4,000 a month.