Terrible housing situation

CharlieA

Hello, please can you offer some help on my housing situation. I am seriously and chronically unwell. I am waiting to be housed. However, the Council will not accept that I have and need a two bedroom because I have a full-time carer overnight. I have submitted assessments, consultant letters. Pip awards. Carer statements. I have been and am being put through hell. Which has made my health and mental health so severe. Attempts on my life and self-harm. My conditions are in flare-ups and no matter what more I give they ignore every aspect of my life with having a stroke, disablement and multiple and chronic illnesses. I am being subjected to awful treatment and the whole department are ignoring my medical and factual needs. Please, can you or Scope help me?

I have contacted Sam and a few times,  as Housing is her chose and specialist field, but I have not had response. I can't live and continue to be treated like this much longer. Please can you or someone help me. 

Kindest Regards
Charlie 

Pippa_Alumni

Hi @CharlieA, thank you for sharing this- I'm so sorry to hear about your situation. It sounds as though it's been a long and draining process for you so far, and I'm truly sorry to hear it's had a detrimental impact on your health too. 

You are a member of our community and we appreciate you. If you are having thoughts of suicide, it is important that you discuss them with someone who is qualified to help. Please call the Samaritans on 116 123 (free) or email them at [email protected] If you feel that you may be an immediate danger to yourself, please call 999 or go to your local hospital right away.

Here on the community, unfortunately none of us are housing specialists, myself and @Sam_Scope included, and so we cannot offer specialist advice or practical assistance. What we can do however is share your message with the community, where our other members will be able to offer their input and hopefully offer their own suggestions to move this forwards.

I'm also going to have a look into this myself and see if I can find any organisations who may be able to help you more directly.

I really hope today is as kind as possible to you- take care, and please do keep us updated.

Pippa_Alumni

Hi again @CharlieA, I've just been looking into some relevant organisations who may be able to help more directly. Some of them you might have come across already, but thought I'd share just in case:

- The charity Shelter England have a helpline for people feeling overwhelmed by their housing situation. Find out more and contact them here.
- Shelter also have a page explaining how to challenge Council Housing decisions, which may be relevant for your situation.
- I'm not sure where you're based, but your Local Authority may also have contact details for local organisations who can support you.
- Perhaps your GP could provide further evidence as to why you need a full-time carer and your second bedroom?
- If none of the above are suitable, it might be worth contacting the Scope helpline team at 0808 800 3333 to see if there's anything else they could recommend.

Hope this helps- best of luck!

debbieg

Try your MP even the newspapers can be a valuable tool.  Your local government officials may help as well.have you tried housing associations in your area? Sorry I don't have an answer for you

CharlieA

Thank you so much Pippa and Debbie, I have been working with Shelter. They concentrated on just getting me put anywhere and have no experience with persons whom are ill and or disabled and have carers. It is almost like an umbrella or one shoe fits all. 

I will try and get more evidence, my consultants outrank my GP just because I have 10 of them under 5 hospitals that I have to be treated under. So they know the full in and out if that makes sense. I issued these and more to the Council and they are still ignoring the medical documentation. I can not understand why I am faced with such hostility and disregard. I would like to call Scope. My word does not hold concern or weight. I was accused of "misleading" the council for "gain". I can not describe what this has done to me and affected me so greatly that while battling with having incurable illnesses, a stroke that was caused by a epidural that should not have been conducted on me and now having permanent nerve damage. Having to do indescribable and degrading self-procedures just to go to the bathroom. That someone would be accused of fabricating the traumatising details of how I now have to live with having no real sense of life. 

My MP has ignored me for two years. I have called and sent hundreds of Emails. Just to be ignored because I dont seem to matter. 

Thank you for trying for me.

Charlie x 

Ripples

@CharlieA The demands on social housing are severe for various reasons  I won't touch on here. This is especially true in London and the South East  and large urban areas where rents in the private sector are high. Although current legislation will allow you to have an extra room, it is up to your housing provider how they interpret the law and apply it.
You are on a transfer list with your current provider who are only putting you as needing a one bedroom? Although needing a room for an overnight carer is a valid reason for having an extra bedroom it is up to your council if they will offer you a larger property.  The only other advice I can offer is what you have presumably heard before, if you were to exchange your property with another tenant who has two bedrooms you might find your council or another provider will allow that. Other than that you have been offered some good advice  in the thread that might open other avenues for you . I wish you luck

Topkitten

From what I have found out myself about housing entitlement is that they will only take into account immediate family requirements where bedrooms are concerned. In addition, apart from single bedroom accommodation, multiple bedroom accommodation for disabled people is very rare instead of just being difficult to find. Unfortunately this is one of their "hard" rules as there are a large number of people that have requested similar accommodation and not all really out of necessity. If you remember all the fuss about the "bedroom tax" then you may understand why this is such a strong issue with most councils. There are still many people living in properties with technically unused bedrooms that they are still trying to get people out of.

On a more positive note I would suggest you get some sort of sofa-bed to allow you to get around the problem rather than insisting on an extra bedroom at least for the time being. By all means continue to push for it but get into somewhere for now and thus alleviate some of the pressures on you.

TK