Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To wonder about emergency acc

46 replies

Lalalala3 · 06/07/2018 23:25

If you were going to be homeless and placed in temp accommodation with a toddler...

Where do they sleep? Will there be enough beds for 3 people to sleep in? If you have to go out all day, what do you do - especially in the winter and raining? If there's no family or friends in the area to visit to go and see etc and you can't stay away from the b&b in case you risk your spot...

If you are not allowed a microwave in room and there's no kitchen - what do you eat? If on benefits etc how do you afford to eat out for at least two meals a day?

Do they have bedding? How would you store milk for toddler/butter for toast in the morning? I don't understand how it's meant to work. Where do all their toys and clothes go...

OP posts:
Original poster
Lalalala3 · 07/07/2018 17:01

Councils prefer this type of accommodation because it counts as self-contained and the council won't be breaching government guidance if they leave families with children in there.

We currently live in self contained studio with 2 mini fridges and a microwave oven, only two hobs. If we did have a kitchen, it would probably not be much different to our current squirrel home. Not home, but...

Here, neither of the councils will provide transport to the accommodation, families have to find their own way there, even if it's 60 miles away
I think we would use public transport as nobody nearby who could drive us, if it was v expensive then we could loan it off family I think.

but I don't know about cots, simply because I've never worked with a family with a child young enough to need one

DD has been in travel cot for ages. She is 2 now. We are just buying bits and pieces for her junior bed, but she hasn't slept in a bed without some form of railing on them. Maybe I can get toddler rail guards in preparation just in case we were evicted before she sleeps ok in a normal single

OP posts:
Original poster
Lalalala3 · 07/07/2018 17:03

Sorry, I know it seems like I'm going to through it right now, but it's just a likely scenario so I'm trying to mentally prepare (I have a serious mental health condition and this exacerbates my worries)

I was given the choice between a studio within the homeless unit or a temp flat do you mind me asking which you took and why?

OP posts:
Original poster
Lalalala3 · 07/07/2018 17:04

also, there was a kitchen.

I misread this as "also, there was a kitten". That would certainly make me feel better

OP posts:
LakieLady · 07/07/2018 17:05

I wouldn't call a couple of nights a week regular or long-term. I often visit family atm for up to a week at a time, but I don't live there and I'm not invited to move-in ifyswim. How can they infer that because family allow weekend overnight visits or whatever that they are willing to house you indefinitely every day of the week etc? confused

Practice here is that you have to be there EVERY NIGHT! And to be there you have to be in by 11pm. The only time they make an exception is Christmas, where they permit 2 nights away, but you have to tell them in advance which 2 they will be.

Bear in mind that the council pays for these places by the night. It would be wrong of them to pay for accommodation for nights when it is not used. If people spend a night away from the hotel/b&b, the b&b tells the council. Unless there are special circumstances (eg, when rail disruption meant a resident could not get back from London by 11pm), the council can deem that they have discharged their legal duty by providing accommodation and that it wasn't used, so they no longer have a legal duty to help.

My council used this approach when a family fled emergency accommodation because they were being harrassed by other residents, and deemed them intentionally homeless. We were going to appeal that decision, but they left the area before we got a chance.

Original poster
Lalalala3 · 07/07/2018 17:12

Practice here is that you have to be there EVERY NIGHT! And to be there you have to be in by 11pm. The only time they make an exception is Christmas

Wow. I wouldn't be able to visit family then as there's no point making the journey to spend a couple hours there and have to come back Sad they'd have to come up and book a hotel to visit us properly. Hobestly that makes me the most sad of all of this

OP posts:
AnchorDownDeepBreath · 07/07/2018 17:14

I was not allowed to spend any nights away from temporary accommodation when I was in it; if I did, they treated it as if it was somewhere I could stay (despite the people I stayed with submitting written evidence that I couldn't stay for longer than a night every now and again).

It's hard but better than being on the streets; so you get by, however unimaginable that it is.

Original poster
Lalalala3 · 07/07/2018 17:16

AnchorDownDeepBreath

I was not allowed to spend any nights away from temporary accommodation when I was in it; if I did, they treated it as if it was somewhere I could stay (despite the people I stayed with submitting written evidence that I couldn't stay for longer than a night every now and again).

That's ridiculous. So they discharge their duty undertake the grounds that you have somewhere to stay... So they put you on the street? Then what do they say when you tell them actually I do not have anywhere to stay so I'm still homeless Confused

OP posts:
Original poster
Lalalala3 · 07/07/2018 17:18

I did stay in a homeless hostel for a few months when I was 17.
You could come and go as you please as long as you signed out, any time even 4am in the morning, no questions. You could stay with other people overnight as long as it wasn't above a certain number per week.

This will be so different in that respect

OP posts:
Notevilstepmother · 07/07/2018 17:19

I think if you are worried then you should consider going back to social services and ask for their support with housing.

teenagetantrums · 07/07/2018 17:19

I lived in temporary council accommodation many year ago. Me and my baby. Shared kitchen and bathroom just kettle in my room. I had to sign in everyday and if l was away for a nght had to provide reasons why. Was grim.

Original poster
Lalalala3 · 07/07/2018 17:30

should consider going back to social services and ask for their support with housing. I have a fear of SS ever since I was a kid. Having them involved was worst time of my life for stress and worry. They would be on my side?

OP posts:
GKite · 07/07/2018 20:19

Hi OP
I was in two different temp accommodation, one was just a room with a TV and small fridge. Kitchen and bathroom was shared.
The other was larger, had bathroom and small kitchen space which included a cooker and fridge freezer.
Both times was given my own key and only staff had access to a spare, but I chose not to leave valuables laying around and covered them up etc

GKite · 07/07/2018 20:22

Also was not allowed to stay with family over night, even when I was taken into hospital (37 weeks pregnant, contractions had started) I needed someone from the hospital to phone the on site manager to confirm I was actually in hospital.
My mum was in temp accommodation when I was younger, she had a room that had small bathroom, kettle. No kitchen area and nowhere else in the b&b for cooking, so she just took in her own microwave

LakieLady · 07/07/2018 20:24

That's ridiculous. So they discharge their duty undertake the grounds that you have somewhere to stay... So they put you on the street? Then what do they say when you tell them actually I do not have anywhere to stay so I'm still homeless

They deem you intentionally homeless, which means they don't have a duty to help you.

Cismyass · 07/07/2018 20:35

You don't have to sign in and out OP. I was in a B&B and slept in my car (anxiety and v ill at the time. No one noticed.

RunMummyRun68 · 07/07/2018 20:35

Why can't you use the deposit from place you are currently in?

AnchorDownDeepBreath · 07/07/2018 21:40

So they put you on the street? Then what do they say when you tell them actually I do not have anywhere to stay so I'm still homeless -

They wouldn't care. They'd say that you were now intentionally homeless, and that means they have no legal duty to house you.

It is horrid. It's to stop people taking the pee; claiming to be homeless and then spending every night in a different house and never actually being in the emergency/temp accommodation. From their point of view, if you're not there one night, someone else could be.

Being homeless has changed my perspectives on housing a bit, I can't seem to shake it. I'd avoid it at all costs if it's even remotely possible to do so - it's horrendous.

Approaching SS for help might be an idea, as a PP said.

Original poster
Lalalala3 · 07/07/2018 21:41

They wouldn't care. They'd say that you were now intentionally homeless, and that means they have no legal duty to house you.

Then what happens to your kids?

OP posts:
Original poster
Lalalala3 · 07/07/2018 21:42

Why can't you use the deposit from place you are currently in?

Because it's already been claimed for a period when my HB was suspended, for the old property. I didn't pay a deposit on this one, landlord needed me gone for the building work, this is another property of his.

OP posts:
RunMummyRun68 · 07/07/2018 21:58

So you've got some time yet?

Which one of you works?

Niclew123 · 08/03/2025 09:18

Hi we are currently in emergwncy accomodation a hotel we are a family of 5 myself my partner my disabled 22 year old 17 year old and 9 year old our room is designed for 3 beds the council initially gave my 22 year old his own room but are now putting bunk beds in our room to accommodate my 22 year old in th3 same room it's seriously eff3cting his mental health is this legal? Any advise appreciated x

New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Swipe left for the next trending thread