Homeless in a travelodge - any tips???

[Mooovingonout]

Anyone have any advice?

Currently staying in a travelodge as my landlord sold the house and we couldn't find anywhere else to rent.

Any tips to make this whole ordeal better???

The hotel floor we're on stinks of weed. Constant doors opening at night and running in halls. Kids are asleep and oblivious thankfully

We have an electric lunchbox. It's not a cooker but it reheats food with no noise or smell.
It takes about an hour to heat things but would at least allow you to warm up big soup or beans and sausages, ready made macaroni cheese (or anything else your family make and you take back).

They are small and just look like a lunchbox when not plugged in and only take a small charge so not sure how they'd know!

www.amazon.co.uk/homeasy-Removable-Food-Grade-Stainless-Container/dp/B07YY55PKZ/ref=mp_s_a_1_4?crid=289RNMTHRIBMZ&keywords=electric+lunch+box&qid=1671696031&sprefix=electric+lun%2Caps%2C481&sr=8-4

As the council.are paying for your accommodation, then surely the money you'd usually have to pay as rent will be surplus? So you could afford to eat out to get a warm meal for your tea at least?

Hard as it is the best long term option will be to save this money. The goal here is to get out of temporary accommodation as soon as possible, and savings in the bank for deposit and first months rent will be of more benefit to the kids than restaurant meals, however hard it is.

Have you let schools know. They may also be able to access or signpost to things for the DCs. Given time of year is there a church nearby as well. Anything to get you out of the hotel for a few hours that is welcoming.

Whatever cooking options might work, staying in a hotel and eating out is not fun at all. It gets claustrophobic and restaurant/cafe food ends up not being a treat eventually - I’ve done it for work and want stir crazy eventually and that was without kids and not in stressful circumstances.

The hotel are being so unfair re cooking amenities. Hair straighteners, dryers etc could also be a fire hazard surely? I’m so sorry you are in this position OP, I don’t really have any advice I just hope that things are brighter for you soon x

OP, I have no specific advice but wanted to say I am so sorry you have found yourself in this situation. Please do accept the offer of hot meals from external agencies. I hope things get better for you, very quickly 💐

packs of flavoured ramen noodles cook well without a microwave, using just boiling water, put them in a plastic bowl/tub with a lid. Add boiling water and flavour sachet and cover, turn the noodles after about 3 mins and leave for another 2/3 and they should cook through if you keep them covered so that the water doesn’t cook down too quickly. At a push, could you boil an egg in its shell inside the kettle?

Sorry you are having to go through this, and I hope that the council manage to rehouse you soon.

If you contact your local food bank they should be able to provide food suitable for use in hotels where people only have access to a kettle. We have food specifically for that purpose.

I'm sorry. The housing situation here is horrible. This government should be ashamed of itself.

Just to say that it's unlawful for families to be in hotels/ B and B longer than 6 weeks. Councils ignore this but it's absolutely in black and white in the law.

The only problem is to move you to somewhere temporary and self contained may take you further away (despite the kids schools unless they are in completely crucial year eg Exam years).

But it's worth bearing in mind if it goes on too long.

Relevant part on shelter website here https://england.shelter.org.uk/housingadvice/homelessness/emergencyhousingfromthecouncil/typesofemergencyhousing

Shelter are the only people I trust for housing advice

Can you request to move at least to a different travel lodge? I stayed in one in the London ‘outskirts’ shortly before lockdown and there were clearly quite a few mums in there with their children and other homeless people. It didn’t feel unsafe and it wasn’t noisy, however.

One thing I noticed is that as my meeting was late I was there just before the end of breakfast and the staff deliberately brought out a new load of sausages. So I hope you are getting as much from breakfast as possible.

I hope you get sorted soon, I found it quite shocking/ upsetting that children were living there.

So sorry you’re having to be in this situation @Mooovingonout .
Not sure how the council budget for emergency housing but would it worth looking at Airbnb’s that the council could fund instead of a travel lodge?

At this time of year especially, many Airbnb’s will readily take long term rentals and it works out cheaper per night the more nights you stay.

I hope you get better support from the council and you’re able to move out of the travel lodge soon.

Hang on in there. The hotel should go quieter for a few days over Christmas so you may get a brief reprieve.

On day this will be a memory.

What about a soupmaker? They are basically big kettles with in built blender. A bag of prepped veg and a stock cube and you've got a hot meal.

So sorry you are going through this.

OP needs specific pans for those hobs, ones with an induction compatible base, which she might not have.

Sorry you're in this situation, op.

Stuffed/fresh pasta with boiled water poured on and left a minute or two is fine to eat. Better than pot noodles. Add a bit of sauce from a jar.

Bag of mulled wine spice on the radiator might be a cheap way to counter the weed smell and make it feel christmassy.

For all the cooking suggestions the hotel can tell the OP to leave if they find anything in the room.

Kettle only recipes are useful.

If you are worried about putting your head above the parapet re complaining about the weed and noise at your travel lodge on Twitter , maybe you could name it on here or share the name here with some volunteers who have twitter accounts and they can post to twittter on your behalf.

The twitter message only needs to say unacceptable smell of weed and late night noise at the xxxx travel lodge. Doesn't have to specify family name

And I'm really sorry for your situation. It sounds so difficult.

Is there a church nearby? I know that the local c of e one and the Catholic one near me have teamed up to give people a Christmas dinner and entertainment for the afternoon on Christmas day. Maybe one near you does similar things if you don't have anything else planned.

Are you near london or a big city?

I hope your situation changes for you and your family very soon.

i hope you find somewhere else to live very soon OP. We need to build more houses, and use the empty holiday ones!