Hi,
I need some advice on how to go about my situation. I would really appreciate if someone could share their advice and knowledge with me.
I’m a single mum of 2 girls (one is 2 years and the other is 4months). For the past 20 years I’ve been living at my family home with parents, brother and sister. It’s a 3 bedroom Housing association flat and my parents are tenants.
As the years have passed by we have outgrown the house especially me with my two daughters. In total we are 8people, it’s become really tight.
I have contacted many agencies as I wanted to rent privately but I’ve been rejected many times as their clients don’t want someone who’s currently on benefits. I can’t start working just yet as my youngest daughter is only 4months.
Living with my parents has become extremely difficult and over crowded so I received an eviction note from my father which lead me to informing my local authority that I’m in threat of becoming homeless. On the eviction note I had 2 months time and was originally meant to leave by 25.07.2019 but my case worker called my dad and asked if my stay can be increased to 31.072019 - my dad agreed to extending my stay. My case worker said this should give me time to find somewhere private (even though I’ve been searching a lot beforehand) and it should give him time to find me a 2bedroom flat or in worst case scenario I would go into emergency shared accommodation.
So today the 31st I went to my local authority and they found me a shared accommodation local. When I arrived their it wasn’t what I was expecting, it was really run down and their were two sets of steep stairs. The kitchen was on ground floor and my room was on the first floor. My local authority said they don’t take it into consideration that I’m with two kids about the kitchen being downstairs. When I arrived their, their was two doors. The main door and the second door were both unlocked and fully open. The house was located on a main road with lots of passers by. The caretaker arrived to give me my rooms keys and I told him both front doors were opened and explained my concerns as I have two young children and find that unsafe. He told me that he has an idea of who leaves the door opened and has warned her many times about not leaving the door opened but she ignores it and says she doesn’t do it. So I disagreed about staying there as I really did feel unsafe especially that it’s happened on many occasions and no changes were made.
My local authority said if I turn down their emergency homes they won’t help me. I feel like they haven’t taken my circumstances into consideration. I haven’t been picky but that was completely wrong - as a parent I couldn’t stay there , even the caretaker agreed and said I should go to my council again.
What rights do I have and can I take any legal acts on this?
I would really appreciate your help, this has been very stressful for me.
Many thanks