A woman and her family face being evicted from her childhood home by Bristol City Council after both her parents died within three years of each other. Katie Whiteman lives in the council property in Knowle where she grew up, but now with a big family of her own, she says she’s facing homelessness a year after her mum died.
The 35-year-old has been told by council housing chiefs that she has to leave her home, but she is fighting for the right to stay and secured a last-minute reprieve at Bristol Civil Court earlier this month. Katie and her family always lived in council houses in South Bristol, and moved to the one in Springleaze, Knowle, when she was 14 back in 2002. Her father died in 2019, and soon after her mum was diagnosed with cancer.
After her dad died, she returned to live at the family home permanently with her young family, to care for her mum, who sadly passed away last March. Katie now lives in the home with her husband Mark and their blended family of up to five children, who live there all or part of the week.
