contact the papers?

[catherine1977]

im hoping other sn parents may be able to help as i am at a lost now

at present we live in a 2up 2down plus attic room house
attic room what is not a legal bedroom due to building regs but is used as a bedroom for 2 oldest boys aged 16 and 15 yrs
largest bedroom used by my girls aged 13 and 10
smallest bedroom used by my disabled son aged 14 he has a safespace installed in his room
front living room myself and 2yr old son
leaving us 1 small living area and very tiny kitchen
very small yard what is split level
3 steps to front door

we have engagced with our local housing needs officer and other agencies for over a year to be rehoused

the OT states my disabled has to have a ground floor bedroom and wetroom,he is in nappies day/night and uses a wheelchair

to spare this post becoming a book i wont go into the details of my sons disablitiy but he does have 24hr care by me and can not be left at anypoint on his own....he has 2 to 1 in school and at respite care

my youngest son aged 2 is on 36 lots of meds a day to problems from be born early and has ongoing issues with his health

we have had meetings with social serices MP"s housing charties etc....but are still in the same home we were in 4years ago

we are now at a point where i believe my disabled sons needs could be meet alot better out of the home and have to come to a heart breaking decsion that if we are still not rehoused in the coming months he will have to be placed in care as it is my eyes just short of abuse failing his needs he should not have to miss out on lif and his basic needs due to poor housing

a friend suggested ringing a well known newspaper to see if they could run a story to high light the failings of our local area to house us after so long but i am unsure if this would help us or have a huge black mark put on our name so to speak

Sometimes our local tv station run stories like this. I would be wary of newspapers because they tend to distort stories for their own ends.
Take it your MP was no use then.

not really he wrote to the housing officer etc they have said in the past oh we have a house that maybe ok but then its always not they dont have the housing stock tbh but refuse to do any more to help

Hi Starlight, we are in a similar situation (not quite as bad as yours), i'm sharing the living room with my dd2 (ASD), dd2 basiclly lives in the sitting room as the kitchen is open plan (she has set fire to the kitchen twice), she is kept in the sitting room with a gate (she can almost get over it). Anyway it took us 6 months and 3 apeals to get to the top of the housing list, we are top of the list with 2 councils. We have been waiting 18 months for a house to come up and nothing . We are waiting to hear today if we have got a property that became availible last week (i doubt we will get it).

If i was you i would contact the newspaper, a few people in my area have done this and have been housed. I don't think it would put a black mark against your name. Your DS has a rite to his own room and its wrong that you have to fight for this.

Get social services involved if you can.

Keep fighting (i know we shouldn't have to fight), keep phoning and keep writting.

Fingers crossed for you xx

I wouldn't go to a national paper, as the spin that would be put on it would be horrible - look what they always do with anyone who has a lot of children and doesn't own their own home.

A local paper is less likely to do so though.

I agree givemevodka but even in local papers the way they pose for the pictures can be used to the family's disavantage.

we ve a social worker for 14yr old n 2 yr old due health reasons.......we took this house on 4 yrs ago rather go into a homeless unit as at the time they didnt ve 1 with wheelchair access so my 14yr old would of had to go into care untill we were housed and i wasnt having that at the time

we have so many ppl supporting our bid to be housed and my 14yr is missing out on so much as well as the stress on the other kids

as he is 14 now i have a feeling they will keep us waiting untill he is 18 and be forced into a young persons home for the disabled.....3/4 ppl live together with the support of carers.....this happened to another local family