Homeless with 2 children

[Sammy923]

Hi All,

I am a single mum with 2 children ages 2 and 4.

Long story short I have been living with my parents in their house together with my 3 siblings. It was very overcrowded and yesterday my mum asked me to leave.

I contacted the council back in April as I could see this was going to come and was told I could sign up to the rent guarantee scheme and to find private rented and they would pay for rent of upto £1100. I found nothing for this amount but I still contacted 2 bed properties over this amount and none in 2 months have said they accept housing benefit.

I called my housing officer yesterday and told her about the situation. She called my mum and confirmed that she asked me to leave. My housing officer then asked me to call all family and friends to ask if I could stay as I hadn't been doing a good job of finding privately rented (I have been calling new properties nearly everyday). I tried to ask my family if I could stay and all said they had no space. I then spoke with my housing officer numerous times yesterday and she kept saying the council couldn't help me and I needed to go back and speak to my mum.

It got to 2pm so I decided to pack and bag and take my children to the council office to explain. When I got there a lady told me they couldn't do anything and that it was upto my housing officer to make a decision. Until 4:30pm (bearing in mind office closed at 5pm) my housing officer kept telling me to go back home and she wasn't able to help me. Then when it got close to closing time she said there was emergency accommodation available of out the town and that I would be better off at home. I told her I would accept anything and going back home wasn't an option. After 5 minutes she miraculously found something in my town although it had a shared bathroom I was grateful. Today she has moved me out of town because she said kids need their own bathroom.

My 4 year old won't be able to go to nursery from here. I feel like such a bad mother for putting my kids through this and it's only the second day and I feel so stressed and exhausted!!!!!!

I have asked my housing officer when I could move to a more permanent solution and she said I could be in emergency accommodation for months to come and my only option is the rent guarantee scheme.

I am band 4 and have been bidding for council properties but coming as 180. Now that I'm homeless, should I be in a higher band?

I suffer with sciatica and have very bad flare up. When this happens my family at e a big help with children so it's important I'm close to them so I don't know what I'm going to do now in a different town.

Has anyone else been through this? Is there anything else I should be doing?

And whilst advanced searching of posters is supposedly bad form, it’s also bad form to post disingenuously. Your posts back in April of this year mention you and your (working) husband and children looking to relocate, not being single and having no contact for years with the father - so it would appear that my earlier allusion to women with children claiming to have been kicked out by relatives and children’s father absent because they think it will give them priority for council housing, when there’s actually a partner waiting in the wings to suddenly “get back together” once the housing has been obtained might be correct in your case, as well. The housing officer seems to have got the measure of the situation.

There are areas in SE England where two bed flats can be found under £1100. It may not be round the corner from your family, but free hours at nursery will help you with childcare. It doesn’t seem too much to ask to relocate, huge amounts of peoole including those working in professional jobs are prices out of places like Reading.

Hmm interesting.