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Housing

seraphina20

Hi,

I'm new to posting on this board but wondering if there is anyone out there who might be able to give some advice. I apologise in advance for what might be a very long post.

I am an unpaid carer and live with my partner and my two Son's (aged 6 and the eldest is nearly 21 years old). I live in a two bedroom maisonette on the top floor. I have lived in this property for 16 years now and when I moved in I was a single parent and just had the one child. My ex partner was abusive and due to being taken to court for custody of my son, I had no choice but to take the first property that was given to me or lose my child. I am unable to work and we have no family to look after my children. The issue we have though is with housing. I understand that there is a massive waiting list but my Son's cannot share a room due to their disabilities and my Son is now 6 and is sleeping in the same room as me and my partner (he has his own bed but not his own space). We applied for the housing list with the current housing association 6 years ago and keep getting shut down. We can't use things such as homeswapper etc because the home we live in is in quite a bad state of disrepair and even though the housing association knows the issues they have done very little about it. This has had a massive impact on my health as I can't sleep because I have depression and have been put on medication, my partner suffers from sleep apnea and the whole thing is just a mess.

We have tried reaching out to an advocacy service in the area and they just say put your place on homeswapper (again who wants to live in a damp ridden flat that has made me have long term respiratory issues, let alone the physical state of the property) and there just isn't enough housing.

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Comments

Kimi87

Have you spoken to your local council Environmental Health department about the damp and other issues that your landlord hasn't addressed?

If the property was in a better state you may find homeswapper etc a more viable option.

Rosie_Scope

Hi @seraphina20, sorry to hear your housing is so run down and how much of an impact it's having on you and your family.

For repairs to your current place, as Kimi mentioned, it would be worth getting in touch with the Environmental Health department if you haven't already contacted them.

You might also like to look into whether the housing ombudsman could help if your housing association hasn't listened to your requests or complaints:

Free for Residents | Social housing | Housing Ombudsman Service

Local councillors or your MP may be able to help support your case or put pressure on the council to make repairs.

Find your local councillors - GOV.UK

Hope you can find a way forward soon.

seraphina20

Thank You for your responses. I haven't been in contact with Environmental Health because I never realised that they could help in these kind of situations. I will definitely take a look in to that, to be honest I am at the situation where anything is worth a go.