A struggling mum has told how her family has been left in a draughty temporary flat for four years.
Desperate Toni Estevez was forced into homelessness after splitting from the ex and was left with no choice but to move into a refuge with her kids.
The trauma of the upheaval was made all the worse as her eldest child, who was 18 at the time, was considered too old for the refuge so the family were separated.
READ MORE - Haunting mannequin of a mum and pram has been freaking out drivers for 10 years
Birmingham Live reports how Toni said she had to leave the refuge after being told their liability didn’t cover her children with Travelodge.
With just six bin bags of belongings between them, the local council in Birmingham initially put them up in a Travelodge in May 2017.
They were moved into 'unsuitable' temporary accommodation ten days later - and have been waiting ever since for their permanent home.
“That first Christmas I told my children we’d not be here next Christmas just to give them a little bit of hope,” said Toni, 38, whose younger children are Rene, 13, Amari, nine, Kayden, seven, and Lilly, three.
“We’ve now spent four Christmases here. Little Kayden wrote a letter to Santa at school to say he was going to be extra good and could Santa please give us a home?
“I saw it and realised I’d got to stop vowing to my kids that we will move into a home because they are starting to think it’s something they are doing. Kayden grabbed me and hugged me really tight the other day and said, ‘Mummy if I promise to be really good will we move?’
“Rene draws pictures of homes with gardens and trees, it breaks my heart.”
Rene and Kayden have asthma and Toni has had to rush to A&E 18 times after one of them has been left struggling to breathe. She puts this largely down to the mould and damp they are having to live with in their draughty first-floor flat.
The family were separated over Christmas 2021 as Rene ended up in intensive care due to his condition. Toni said she was lucky her mum was able to come and look after the other children.
Rene also has scoliosis and hypermobility, which makes it really difficult for him to walk up and down the stairs to their flat. He suffers falls and struggles to get out and about. Both Rene and Amari have autism.
“I feel like we’ve been left and forgotten about,” said Toni, who used to work in recruitment until she was made redundant and then took a job as a van driver. She is now a full time mum to her children.
“This journey has been an emotional rollercoaster. We just want somewhere we can call home.
"When you’re homeless you don’t even get spoken to like you’re human. Because you’re in temporary accommodation people make assumptions about you. It doesn’t make me feel great, I’m not homeless through any choice of my own.
"I put on a brave face for the kids, but we can’t live a life in a temporary flat forever. Temporary accommodation doesn’t feel very temporary when it’s been that long."
Toni is now being supported by Shelter to try to help her find a safer and more secure home for her family.
Six in 10 homeless people living in temporary accommodation are women, according to new research by Shelter.
The charity’s new report, Fobbed Off, says the number of homeless women living in temporary accommodation in England has almost doubled in the past decade from 40,030 in 2011 to 75,410 today – a rise of 88 percent.
For free and expert advice on homelessness and temporary accommodation, visit Shelter's website here. You can also make a donation here
“There’s mould and mildew in the flat, I’m constantly cleaning," said Toni. "The walls are wet to touch and you can feel a breeze coming into the sitting room windows. It took us six months to get the shower fixed as bits of concrete kept dropping in every time you washed.
“I have been bidding on properties since 2017 but for some reason I was put down as needing a five bedroom property, I’ve been fighting this for two years saying that I qualify for a four bedroom property. This has finally been changed now so I’m hoping there might be some more options available to me now.”
The temporary flat does have a garden but Toni says it is so overgrown that the trees and weeds tower over her head and her children cannot get into it.
She has been unable to get any help with clearing it and has been given a quote of £300 to £400 for professional clearing, something which she is unable to afford.
“I’m fortunate to be on Universal Credit so I'm careful to allocate enough money each week to spend on our food and bills," said Toni.
“It’s challenging but I have to make it work. I have to shop often as we only have a very small fridge so I can’t store more than enough for around three meals at a time.
“I would love the kids to be able to use the garden but it’s just not possible. It gets very hot in here in the summer. I just have to rely on the children being able to run around during their playtime at school.
“I take them to parks and for picnics as much as I can but it’s hard.
“When we first moved in, the housing officer said you won’t be here very long and I’ve held onto that but it’s been so long now, it’s heartbreaking.
"The children have friends at school who all have houses with gardens and it breaks my heart to go to friend’s parties and see my children so excited to have space to run around in a garden.
"We would so love to have a garden we could use.”
What Birmingham City Council says
A Birmingham City Council spokesperson said: "We are sorry for the distress caused to our tenant by the damp and mould in their flat. A contractor will visit the property to survey the problem and treat it.
"We are experiencing a national housing crisis and as Britain’s largest local authority this has resulted in very long waiting list as demand for our homes far exceeds supply, particularly for larger properties.
"The tenants housing officer will be in contact with them to discuss their housing options in line with the Councils allocation policy including renting in the private sector which is currently the quickest way to find a larger property."
Homeless women - the stats
Shelter commissioned new YouGov polling which shows the dramatic impact of affordability issues for women facing homelessness:
- Of those with housing costs, women are 36 percent more likely than men to be in arrears or constantly struggling to afford these costs – this equates to 4.7 million women
- Lone mothers face the most acute affordability issues with almost 1 in 3 in arrears or constantly struggling to keep a roof over their heads – this equates to 321,000 lone mothers
- 69 percent of women who rent privately worry they wouldn’t be able to afford anywhere decent to live if their relationship broke down – this equates to 2.7 million women
Shelter then 34 women and one non-binary person living in Birmingham, Bristol and Sheffield who were either homeless or living in poor housing at the time. Key findings revealed:
- Domestic abuse is the third most common cause of homelessness. A third of interviewees had experienced domestic abuse, which often triggered their housing problems
- Lone mothers are hit hardest - 1 in 38 lone mothers are homeless in England right now. Interviewees said they faced additional barriers to accessing support, with some disclosing that they did not seek help for fear their children could be removed from them
- Rising private rents and a lack of affordable social homes are a major issue. Almost three quarters of interviewees were struggling to afford their housing costs. Several said their housing benefit didn’t cover the rent, others had to borrow money from family or friends
- Women are more likely to claim housing benefit and be harmed by welfare squeezes. Two fifths reported housing benefit problems, including discriminatory behaviour from landlords, and welfare restrictions like the Benefit Cap meaning they could not afford a suitable home
- A common barrier was being treated poorly by professionals. Two thirds said professionals made them feel like a burden or re-victimised them, one woman described feeling “fobbed off”. Over half said they didn't know where to get help or how to navigate a maze of services
Polly Neate, Chief Executive of Shelter, said: “Women are bearing the brunt of our escalating housing crisis, and they are being failed at every turn. No mother should have to choose between buying food or paying her rent. No woman should have to stay with her abuser or face the streets.
“The hike in living costs and cuts to Universal Credit mean it’s only going to get tougher for thousands of women barely hanging on to their homes. It’s appalling that women are being fobbed off by professionals who are supposed to help them, and it’s no wonder they feel scared and alone.
“If we’re going to turn back the tide on women’s homelessness, we need to listen to women and better understand their needs. For the women who feel like there’s nowhere to turn, Shelter is here. Our emergency helpline is open 365 days a year so no one has to face homelessness alone.”
To donate to Shelter’s urgent winter appeal click here. Just £10 could answer a call to Shelter’s national emergency helpline, enabling a trained adviser to give expert advice and support to help women and families keep or find a home.
