Rats everywhere and a sex offender in the bathroom - a homeless mum's journey through a broken system
Perched on the edge of a single bed in a cold and grubby box room, Kim could hear the rats as they nibbled away at her clothes.
When the Manchester Evening News first spoke to Kim and her sons, aged three and five, they had spent a night in a hotel in Harpurhey before being offered a room at Fallowfield Lodge in south Manchester - one of many B&Bs used by the council as a last resort. 'You could hear the rats every night' Two single beds and no cooking facilities was what Kim discovered when she was given the key to her room at Fallowfield Lodge. Her two sons were forced to share a bed and the family relied on takeaways - something they could scarcely afford.
People are continuing to be placed there, however. Another resident we spoke to, who claimed she'd been moved there after fleeing an abusive relationship, said she had to call police out to the hotel a number of times. She also described a similar rat infestation as Kim at the facility. Kim was given a room at the hotel - which has an exclusive contract with Manchester City Council - on August 11. She claims she was told she'd be rehomed within six weeks, but, more than ten weeks later, she was still living in hotels.
When we last reported on conditions in the TA sector in Manchester, the number of people presenting as homeless each quarter was 1,700. But, in the three years since, that number has nearly doubled - 3,000 in March 2022. And, when the section 21 'no fault' eviction ban brought in to support tenants during covid was lifted last year - a surge in evictions followed.
We were told of one recent bidding war for a rental flat which was initially placed on the market at £950 a month, but eventually went for £1,350. But the latest statistics show a worrying increase in the use of B&B style TA for families with children nationally, and nearly a 40pc increase in the number of families staying beyond the legal limit of six weeks, Manchester-based organisation Justlife found.
She claims her social worker told her that neither of these settings were appropriate for a family, especially for her youngest son, who is autistic and said to be deteriorating drastically. She has since finally been offered a temporary house, but it's still miles away from her son's school and friends and family. "Finding a private rent is near impossible," she said.
Yvonne says in extreme cases, the charity has even had to support people to get heating and hot water turned back on at these facilities because they've been left "freezing." In the last few months, organisations like Barnabus say they are seeing many referrals from people who have never had to use homeless services before - perhaps an ominous sign of what's to come.
Yvonne says that with many private landlords now demanding up to six months upfront, it's taking their service users months to find accommodation that isn't - as she puts it - "awful." "Lots of the landlords we work with are very good but we see some tenants try to find places on their own and they are absolutely disgusting," she says.
Justlife are in talks with Manchester Council to find a solution to the temporary accommodation crisis. Ruth Cox says they must find a way to cut reliance on private hotels and B&Bs, which are currently costing the taxpayer around £40 per night, per person. Three new prevention hubs are being created in Harpurhey, Gorton and Moss Side, with the first in Moss Side opening in October. The others are set to open in the new year.
Now, people who are given a full duty homeless decision can choose where to live - whether that be with family or friends, or in the private rented sector, without losing their eligibility to social housing. "We are in the process of transforming our homelessness services to increase the emphasis on prevention – so that people get help before they reach crisis point – and to provide better options than temporary accommodation."At the moment almost two thirds of people are already homeless when they present to the Council, by which time options are severely restricted.
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