Young Australian delivers a harsh message to his critics while pleading for donations after struggling to find a job
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A Sydney man has issued a plea for donations as he struggles to find a job and faces thousands of dollars in rent arrears.
Dennis Newsome launched a GoFundMe page this week where he explained he had lost his employment and his rent had increased by $300.
‘I don’t like using my platform to ask for money, but I’m at a crossroads here where I have no money and I’m unable to pay my rent,’ he said.
‘And I want to be able to leave my apartment so I can move into affordable housing for my income because it’s looking like the housing market isn’t going to drop my rental prices any time soon.’
Mr Newsome said he was actively searching for work but had not had any success since recently losing both of his income sources – his job as an axe coach at the axe-throwing venue Kiss My Axe in December and another as a self-employed drag queen and host in January.
‘For those of you that say oh just go get a job Dennis – I’ve applied for 300 over the past three weeks.
‘That’s 100 jobs per week and I still have not gotten a single response from any employer – or I have gotten a response and it’s a rejection and they do not explain why they’re rejecting me.
Dennis Newsome fights to stay in Sydney as rising rent and joblessness threaten to push him into homelessness
After losing his job at a Sydney axe-throwing venue and as a drag queen, Dennis Newsome (pictured right alongside a friend) asks for donations to cover his growing expenses.
‘I do not even get to the interview stage. Literally on the verge of homelessness.’
Mr Newsome said he also has a popular TikTok account with millions of views but the platform ‘doesn’t pay their creators even though they run advertisements on our videos’.
‘They pump it out to millions of people and you see those ads as you’re scrolling through, but I don’t get a single cent of it.’
He added that his parents live in another state and he did not want to move because ‘all my friends and life is here in NSW’.
This month his landlord raised the rent for his one-bedroom Waterloo apartment from $580 to $725 per week. Despite these setbacks he was ‘determined to try to stay’ in Sydney.
On Tuesday the GoFundMe had raised $300.
He said that the donated funds would be used to cover his $2,000 in rental arrears, a $1,500 bond for a new apartment, and moving costs exceeding $1,500.
