Is it possible for someone with mental health problems and no income to rent?

[Elsie2022]

I have a friend with severe mental health illness who has been living at hotels/the homes of friends & family as well as sleeping rough on 2 occasions. This is because she has no income (was made redundant from her part time job), is divorced (previously co-owned a 4 bed house with her ex in London); but the marriage broke down and the ex gave her £100k for a 'deposit' for a house;however due to her manic spending/mental health problems, this seemed to have whittled down to £50k in premium bonds though I am not sure about the exact amounts).
She was evicted from her boyfriend's home where she was staying (no tenancy agreement but she was paying rent), boyfriend and ex DH are different people. She has been staying in a mixture of hotels and the homes of friends since she was evicted.

She hopes to privately rent but given her lack of income and inability to get benefits (due to the £50k), is this even viable? Would a landlord even take her without a guarantor (understandably given her past spending habits, her family are wary of being a guarantor for her). She can't go on staying in hotels and she doesn't want to stay with her father (I think her father finds her quite abusive actually so it's probably not the best idea). Her friends are quite weary of playing host as they have their own lives too? She also hoards (has 2 storage units full of stuff and this is paid for by the ex).

What would anyone suggest? She refuses to go for private medical treatment (which her family are agreeable with paying for provided she takes it seriously).. Her friends and family are of the position that she should be allowed to make bad decisions provided she isn't compromising her safety as helping her too much would be enabling her (we have tried helping her by giving her a place to stay/paying for Ubers/ meals but it gets wearing after a while plus she also gets worse) However I feel that she is reaching a tipping point as her funds diminish. Plus she is losing her stuff all the time so cannot function on even a basic level. But yet can't be sectioned as she doesn't meet the criteria.

No idea as not familiar with renting now, but can she offer to pay 6 months/a years rent up front? (if they even allow that)

@WeAllHaveWings I haven't rented since I was a student but at that time I paid 3 months deposit up front. A friend pointed out that it's more fundamental, if she presents as manic, no one would rent to her which might be why she hasn't found anywhere..if you think about it, if you rent to a hoarder, you are looking at tens of thousands of pounds of damage (perhaps even more due to the inflationary pressures on builders and materials).

She probably needs the input of the mental health team and social services who will be able to assist with housing as her housing situation will not be helping her mental health issues.

im guessing currently she gets no benefits either so a landlord would see her as being very risky to take on- no stable income of any sort and mental health problems would cause great concern

She could get PIP...it is not means tested. Hard to claim though and takes time. Could speak to her mental health team about some kind of supported living perhaps?

Retired landlord here. I can only see a landlord renting to her with a guarantor and might possibly ask for 6 or 12 months rent up front. This is risky as should the landlord default on any mortgage on the property it could be repossessed and the tenant evicted. Landlords can only request 5 weeks rent as a deposit so any landlord asking for more is acting outside the law. ( This is in England, could be different in Scotland, Wales, N Ireland)
Contacting some of the mental health charities might help. The only other option I can think of is some sort of sheltered accommodation, independent living but a warden on site, sometimes support workers but whether this is a reasonable expectation I don’t know.

She definitely needs a mental health social worker. Also I wonder how much money she really has left - I would be surprised if she really has £50k in premium bonds. It may be that she is eligible for financial support she is not receiving.

@OurChristmasMiracle I think you can't claim benefits unless you have less than 12k in savings..might not be too long before she is in that position. She is losing her ID and important documents all the time so am not sure how she will be able to claim benefits as I am sure the system doesn't make it easy (though I have no experience in this).

I agree with supported accomodation as an ideal solution and her friends were researching options but she refuses to seek help.

@TheYearOfSmallThings how to get a mental health social worker? Yes I have no idea about her finances, it's all hearsay.

@TheYearOfSmallThings a normal person would not have spent that much money in such a short time, her ex gave her quite a bit of money, but she was going quite manic with the spending. She bought two iPhones in the space of 2 days cos she lost the first.. so that was £3k gone. Plus new laptop and hotels and £1000 jackets...

Honestly as harsh as this sounds as she’s not of sane mind someone may need to get power of attorney to make these decisions in regards to her finances.

if she’s not engaging to keep herself safe I would speak with her doctor or a mental health team

You can be a millionaire and claim PIP...it doesn't matter about savings. Bit the thing which would really help with a PIP claim would be support from the mental health team. Which sounds like it would depend on how willing she would be to engage with them.

Does she have a diagnosis? CPN?

@OurChristmasMiracle we wrote a long letter to her GP plus engaged with her mental health team but it didn't result in anything being done. She didn't fit the criteria to be sectioned and POA being taken from her. On the face of it, she is chatty and charismatic and on many days, appears sane. But we know she is unwell.

@OurChristmasMiracle diagnosed with depression and given anti depressants. Not sure how much it helps.

For £50k she could buy a flat or even a house in some parts of the country, then she wouldn’t have to worry about landlords and could then claim ESA.

Could she possibly just rent a room somewhere? If her money gets below a certain amount she could claim benefits. might be worth trying for PIP as well.

This is true. just google 'houses 50k Scotland' quite a few come up!

@Imherenowandthen it's true. Her family and network are all in London though and as she has issues even functioning on a basic level, I am not sure moving away from all of them is the best idea.

@Orangesandlemons77 she hoards. I am not sure how many people would want a flat mate who hoards and according to hearsay, she also hoarded stuff in rooms that were not hers when in a flat share. Also claimed people were abusing her.

Sounds like more than depression to me. The manic episodes, the abusive behaviour are not hallmarks of depression, may be more like bipolar or a personality disorder...

OP maybe it may be a case of hitting rock bottom, being declared homeless and being housed somewhere. Sorry if that sounds harsh, it may be a way of her getting / engaging with some support..

@Orangesandlemons77 she wasn't declared homeless really. It was a difficult situation where she was living with her ex boyfriend, he changed the locks on her, she called the police but couldn't get help as eviction is a civil matter.. she got multiple offers of accomodation but refused them, tried to sleep rough. She has kinda been sofa surfing around but refuses to take any suggestions on board. It does feel like she can't think logically most of the time..I can't say what it is but I think she needs serious help but she had a deathly fear of being sectioned so was running away from everyone (who had their head screwed on) for a while.

She does have a lot of friends and people who love her but I think everyone has a breaking point and at some point, people are going to stop helping her and she may also run out of money. We tried to get her to get some support by bribing her to go to an expensive mental health facility popular with celebs (we would have crowdfunded it and would have had enough money for the first few weeks) as she likes anything expensive, but she seems to have lost interest in that previously, she promised to go to an assessment and a friend offered to drive her..