Le Hoa Tseng likes to sit in her wheelchair on the front porch of her unit in Sydney's inner west and chat with her neighbours as they come and go.
"Like a security guard," she says.
But lately, there are fewer and fewer familiar faces at her Concord West apartment complex.
Many of the old tenants have moved out and some of the new ones stay for just a few months.
Soon it will be Ms Tseng's turn to leave. After three years she is being forced to move out.
In mid-January, her real estate agent called one of her daughters on a Saturday to check her mother was moving out the following Monday.
It was the first Ms Tseng or her family had heard about the eviction, as the agent had failed to pass on the landlord's order of a no-grounds eviction made in October.
"[I felt] very sad and worried — where do I go now?" Ms Tseng said.
With rental prices skyrocketing and vacancies at record lows in Sydney, the prospect of searching for a new home with an accessible bathroom is a daunting one.
Ms Tseng's daughter Lin Tseng said when her younger sister told her about the real estate agent's phone call she felt "immediate stress".
"We'd always known that places with accessible bathrooms that would meet mum's needs would be few and far between," she said.
'Catastrophic life decision'
The Physical Disability Council of NSW is among groups calling for an end to no-grounds evictions in the lead up to the March state election.
Policy and government relations manager Hayley Stone said the rules should take into account the potentially enormous impacts of a landlord's approach.
"For them, what might be a financial decision is a really catastrophic life situation for their tenants," Ms Stone said.
The council is also calling for a change to the Residential Tenancy Act to prevent landlords refusing requests for modifications without good reason.
Labor has promised to tighten the rules on no-grounds evictions, only allowing them on "reasonable grounds" — to be defined following further consultation.
For now, Ms Tseng remains in her Concord West unit.
Her daughter Lin said she was "banking on the landlord's compassion" and hoping the eviction would not be forced on her mother before she found a new place to live.
No priority for those in need
Ms Tseng uses a wheelchair due to a spinal cord injury, caused by a spinal dural arteriovenous fistula. Surgeries stopped the condition progressing, but her balance and strength remain poor.
Her daughters are helping her search for another place that meets her physical needs.
But Lin Tseng said looking at what was available was "disheartening".
While Ms Tseng receives some funding through the National Disability Insurance Scheme, she does not qualify for Specialised Disability Accommodation.
Being in this "grey space" means she must find a property in the private rental market that is accessible.
Alternatively, she can find a property that doesn't meet her needs and request modifications.
"It's all about the bathroom for mum [and] what is a safe environment for mum to live in, in terms of showering and doing her daily activities," Lin said.
But accessible properties are hard to find and landlords are not required to give priority to those who may need them most.
Lin said it was frustrating to see places with accessible features not being "used for the purpose they were built".
Push for accessible features in new homes
Physical Disability Council of NSW said the shortage of accessible homes had been heightened by the rental crisis.
The council is urging the New South Wales government to reconsider its decision to not adopt proposed accessible design requirements for new properties, including features such as walk-in showers and wider corridors.
All states and territories, except for New South Wales and Western Australia, agreed to bring in the National Construction Code (NCC) minimum accessibility standards by October this year.
Under the NCC minimum standards, new homes must incorporate a number of accessibility features, including step-free entries and easy-access bathrooms.
"Every year 47,000 new homes are built in New South Wales. If those homes were built to be accessible, that would add 47,000 new apartments and homes suitable for people who are otherwise neglected" Ms Stone said.
With estimates that one in five people in NSW have a disability, with about half of those people renting, Ms Stone says a significant sector of the market is being denied a safe home to live in.
Labor is yet to make a decision about whether to commit to the new accessibility standards if they win the state election in March.
Labor's Housing spokeswoman Courtney Houssos said the party had met with disability and ageing advocacy groups and "heard their concerns" about the challenges people with disability, and older people, faced in finding accessible housing.
Ms Houssos said many of the problems in the rental market stemmed from the lack of supply.
She said if Labor was elected in March, increasing availability of rental properties would be a key task for the new rental commissioner promised by the party, intended to be an advocate and voice for renters.
The state government was contacted for comment.
