Hi hoping for some advice or someone who has been in a similar situation that can reach out as I’m at a loss with it all!
long story short we have found ourselves homeless. Family of 5 (3 children). Due to health issues we quickly went from a 2 income household to relying solely on UC so when LL handed us with eviction notice (no fault of our own - selling due to their personal circumstance) we really struggled to secure another property, we kept getting ‘we’ve decided to go with another application on this occasion’ or ‘you need a guarantor’. When it became clear we weren’t getting far in the private sector we turned to our local council who told us to stay put for as long as possible, very kindly our LL agreed to extend our notice by a few months the council told them if they did so they wouldn’t need to call in the bailiffs as we would get housed before new date. Sadly that wasn’t the case and we didn’t get housed and we have now been evicted. Council offered us a b&b on eviction day - this really worried me as my husband is recovering from recent hospital stay and my son has autism so concerned how he’d be in that environment so luckily I managed to arrange for us to stay with a friend for 2 weeks with council saying they are sure we’d have an offer within that time, 2 weeks comes and goes and still no offer so I go back to the council and say we will need some temp housing they offer us a 2 bed flat on the top of a tower block, grateful it’s not a hotel but my son will not even enter a lift as he is petrified of them! So I speak to council and they basically say in so many words take this or we have no obligation to house you temporarily I think they think I’m being difficult but I’m really not trying to be. So I’ve accepted the temp flat as no choice and will have to cross the bridge of getting my son inside when it comes to it as we won’t be moving in until next week. Today we get a call for a permanent home!! Finally!! So relieved it’s finally happening but it doesn’t come without some obstacles, it won’t be ready for a couple of months so will live in temp until then. The property is nowhere near current schools, happy to change 2 of children’s schools but for above reasons not able to move my son it will cause havoc with him, it’s around a 2 hour bus journey in the morning and again in the afternoon and will have the travel costs to cover whilst we are struggling as it is, it’s really worrying me. And lastly the property is a council buyback so the rent is actually higher than what we were paying in our private rent, they said buybacks are higher rent due to council recuperating their money, which I get but I’m now concerned with a higher rent and travel costs we’ve not had before how will it work? I’m really grateful for being offered a property as I know people wait years but I’m just very overwhelmed and stressed with what the future holds.