I’m a single parent with two toddlers. My daughter is non verbal and has Autism. My son has a rare disability caused by a genetic disorder which presents itself as an intellectual disability. Even though life is really full on, I just about manage to work two days a week. My annual salary is a measly 10K.
I’ve managed to save 4K for a deposit on a place and first months rent but it’s impossible to actually find a place! There’s so many properties on the market but all I keep getting told is, ‘The Landlord doesn’t accept those that get Housing Benefit/UC,’ ‘The Landlord doesn’t want children in their property.’ My favourite one is ‘so you have a guarantor that earns 61K and has 11K in savings? Well they need to earn 78K annually.’
Apparently, UC is not viewed as income so Landlords and EA’s don’t actually give a shit that my rent is paid in full as long as it isn’t more than £1940 a month. I’ve reached out to Landlords on OpenRent and I’ve tried EA’s. I’ve viewed 4 properties but none of them were suitable for my son who has accessibility needs.
I currently private rent and I was housed here by the council when I was homeless. I have gotten in touch with them but they’ve said that the only way they’ll help me is if the Landlord evicts me. I’ll get placed in temporary accommodation and will have to go through the whole process again. I DO NOT want to ever go back into temporary accommodation, especially now that I have two children and my son has quite a few home visits for various appointments. There’s also no guarantee how long we’ll be there (last time I was there for 12 months) so I rather avoid that whole situation.
My question is, what the hell do others do in this situation?! Do I just keep on looking praying that one of the Landlords or EA will accept our situation? This is all so stressful and I’ve only been looking for two weeks!