Former child actor and Young Talent Time star Debra Byrne said she is facing homelessness as Australia’s housing crisis continues to worsen.
In an emotional plea on social media, the singer, 66, said she could be without a roof over her head after she was delivered an eviction notice as her landlord has decided to sell the home.
Not only could she be without a home, but her two young grandchildren, Oliver and Aaron, who live with her, are also in danger.
The grandmother has raised her daughter’s children since birth and worked for several years in the entertainment industry before being granted a carer’s allowance.
Her daughter Lauren is intellectually impaired and wasn’t able to consistently look after her children, so Debra was given full custody of the two boys.
Former child actor and Young Talent Time star Debra Byrne (pictured) said she is facing homelessness as Australia’s housing crisis continues to worsen
Debra said it’s harder for her to be now granted a rental house in an overstretched market, as she is a full-time carer and a pensioner looking after young children.
‘So for some years I have been on the carer pension,’ she wrote in an emotional Facebook post.
‘How dare the rental industry snub pensioners. How dare they see us as incompetent of paying our rent.’
In an emotional plea on social media, the singer, 66, said she could be without a roof over her head after she was delivered an eviction notice as her landlord is selling (Debra pictured on Young Talent Time as a teenager)
Not only could she be without a home, but her two young grandchildren, Oliver and Aaron, also live with her and are in danger
‘I have managed very well. I am organised, I shop at savers, I have an excellent tenancy record I keep a home loved.
‘I love to garden have often left a rental in a better state than when we arrived.’
She continued: ‘I have PTSD I take medication. I care for two beautiful people with special needs.
‘Just a few minutes ago a person from our local post office knocked on our door for me to sign one of my CDS.
‘The irony, I’m desperately seeking security safety for my family.’
Debra’s fans have been rallying around the star to help her secure a new home.
In a fan group, one person wrote: ‘Please help Debra find a suitable home for her, her daughter and grandson in Melbourne’s northern suburbs.’
Many fans were shocked that a well-known person such as Debra would be in that position, with one person commented: ‘Sorry to hear this about Debbie and her family, but I would’ve thought the star that she is she would have enough money to buy a place of her own.’
Debra Byrne (left) with her Young Talent Time co-stars in 1971 including Johnny Young (third from left)
Debra was one of the original cast members of Young Talent Time and starred on the show for four years.
After the show, Debra appeared in the Australian productions of such high-profile shows as Cats, Les Miserables and Sunset Boulevard.
She had revealed her struggles with heroin and cocaine in her 2006 memoir Not Quite Ripe, while a sex tape featuring Debra and a former partner was leaked to the media in the late 1980s.
More recently, Debra made the claim on Facebook in 2014 that she was raped while filming the Young Talent Time short film Caravan Holiday in 1972.
Byrne posted a plea for witnesses to alleged abuse she suffered on set to come forward on Facebook, but has since deleted the post
‘After a day’s filming we were swimming in a pool. I don’t recall where the pool was but while I was in the pool [name withheld] swam up to me and digitally raped me,’ she wrote in the post, which has since been deleted.
Byrne issued a scathing response to Tina Arena after YTT Unmasked aired last year, after she talked about the stars being ‘protected’.
‘[Being protected] has nothing to do with luck,’ she wrote on social media, according to The Daily Telegraph in September last year.
‘It takes mindfulness, organisation, vigilance, intelligence, awareness and an understanding that wherever children gather there is likely to be an abuser. For me there were many.’
Byrne (pictured) issued a scathing response to Tina Arena after YTT Unmasked aired last year, after she talked about the stars being ‘protected’
