Gabby* moved to Tiree nine months ago to take up the offer of a better job and after "falling in love" with the island while on holiday.
There is nothing she doesn't like about living on Scotland's "Sunshine Island", which is the most westerly of the Inner Hebrides.
She grew up overseas in an area that has lots of beaches and moving to Tiree was like coming home, she says.
Her young daughter is "flourishing" but they are facing a battle to stay here.
They have until October to find somewhere to live because the elderly owner of the property they have been letting wants to return home.
A high proportion of the properties on Tiree are second homes (some estimates suggest it could be as high as 70%) and 47% are said to be 'low occupancy'.
"When I found out I got the job in July last year I started searching and my mother, who lives overseas, joined a Facebook group and managed to find me short-term accommodation from October to January," she said.
"We got that extended to March and then we were in the predicament of where we were going to go.
"The council basically awarded me zero points and said I had made myself homeless because I was going somewhere to get a better job.
"They actually said to me 'We would have preferred you to be unemployed because we would have been able to house you then'.
"I fully get it but I have a young child so in a sense awarding me zero points is ridiculous," she added.
"I've come to Tiree to give us a better future and a better living standard and they just weren't interested.
"The one house they offered me was a one-bedroom flat in Oban."
She was helped by employees at her new job to find a rental property and they moved in in February but their relief was short-lived.
"I heard a month later that they would prefer to sell the house," she said.
"It's an elderly person who wants to come back to Tiree so we now have until October to find somewhere."
She said the number of second homes on the islands is "off the scale".
"The people with second homes really don't care," she said. "Those with second homes can afford to pay more council tax.
"The parliament need to put a bigger tax in or something.
"In winter it's very obvious when there is a second home. You can drive around and spot them because it's all closed up and the lawn hasn't been mown and there is a boat parked outside.
"We do need tourism to keep the economy going but we don't need 75% of second home owners."
READ MORE:
Half the properties on island with 'high housing demand' now second homes
'Little heed' paid to cost of 'green' housing says Highland builder
Scotland's Housing Emergency – find all articles in series
The uncertainty means the family can't settle and buying is out of the question she says.
"There is a two-bedroom house going for £275,000 - it's Edinburgh prices," she said.
Tiree Housing Trust is helping second homeowners to move holiday homes long-term let so she hopes this might open up an opportunity for her.
She said: "I would rather live in a tent on the beach than leave."
*Name has been changed on request".
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