A disabled man says he's been left 'trapped' in his social housing flat for three years with no access to the toilet or kitchen. Despite being number one on the list for a move, John* has not been able to find suitable accommodation in Bristol after three years.
And because he's on the housing waiting list he can't get any adaptations in his current one-bedroom flat, which is not suitable for a wheelchair user. Within days of moving into a ground-floor flat managed by Places for People, John became aware that the property was riddled with problems. The 50-year-old, who was diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis - a long-term condition in which the spine and other areas of the body become inflamed - in 1998, was using a trolley to walk when he moved into the property in February 2018.
His condition has since deteriorated and he is now using a wheelchair and lost use of his right hand. He believes that the anxiety and depression he has suffered from being trapped in a flat in which he cannot exit unaided or use the kitchen and bathroom has exacerbated his pre-existing condition. Due to the lack of ventilation, John suffered from heat exhaustion during the heatwaves 2021 and 2022.
READ MORE: Bristol tenant 'depressed' after 10 years of mould and decay in flat
He said that if it wasn’t for his friend who helped him get a domestic air conditioning unit, he would already be dead. Places for People informed him that they don’t do air conditioning and have been a source of constant frustration when trying to get anything done.
John said: “I can’t access the bathroom or the kitchen, I can’t access the front door- it’s too heavy and there isn’t a ramp. There’s no way for me to independently get in and out of this place.
“The housing association knows about this. What was the bedroom is now my commode room, microwave room and fridge room. I sleep either in my wheelchair or the bed I had to buy myself for £5,000 because Occupational Health won't provide it.”
Within days of moving to the flat he was informed by a police officer that it wasn’t safe and was constantly woken up at night by chaos on his doorstep caused by what he said was a “crack house” in the flat above. Within eight months of living in the property he was back on the housing waiting list after the city council's Occupation Health team finally visited his flat to inform him of what he already knew; the bathroom would need to be completely stripped, the kitchen taken out and the doors widened and replaced.
The extensive adaptations needed would cost thousands if John were to enjoy a basic standard of living in the flat. He believed that he would be better off going back on the list, unaware at the time that he would be stuck in the flat that was causing his physical and mental health to deteriorate for years to come. After more than three years on the list, John describes his experience of logging on to Homechoice akin to “a sick comedy”.
John said: “I get up every day absolutely knackered, I don’t feel like I have any agency. Everything that I have tried has at best resulted in well meaning words, at worst, outright hostility. I’ve begged in tears and nothing has been done about it.
“It’s like a sick comedy. I log on to Homechoice and have a laugh about how many places that aren’t there. If a place does come up, I’ll bid and hope I can handle the pressure of a move.
“The idea of moving to a place that is far away from my friends is terrifying because the difference between me and dead is a fall. No one person is my caseworker, so no one person is aware of this but between Occupational Health, Homechoice and my GP, the information’s there about the decline of my health and the decline in services.”
A rapid decline in health in the last two years
In 1998 John was diagnosed with the hereditary condition ankylosing spondylitis, which causes back pain and stiffness, an inflammation of joints, arthritis and extreme tiredness. The symptoms develop gradually and for John his health has gradually got worse over the course of more than 20 years since his diagnosis.
In the summer of 2019 John felt his knee completely seize up. He had torn a ligament in his right knee and was no longer able to walk with the support of a trolley. He was informed by the doctor that he would need a wheelchair assessment but that it would ‘take time’.
He waited five months for a wheelchair. In the meantime he was told he could buy one privately. He already had a care plan in place but with different carers coming each day, sometimes turning up several hours late not only added to his misery but he says stripped him of any dignity he had left.
To add insult to injury, the secondhand wheelchair he bought online for £500 gave him a pressure sore that resulted in his tailbone sticking through his skin. He had received no consultation and was unaware of what cushions to buy for the wheelchair, which was too big.
When he finally had his consultation in September 2019 he had to wait until November, for the wrong wheelchair to be delivered. It wasn’t until January 2020 that he had a suitable wheelchair but by that point he had become severely ill and was coughing up “terrible stuff”.
It took him a year to recover from what ended up being pneumonia in his right lung and a very serious infection in his left lung. By January 2021 he found himself sinking into a deep depression. In a relatively short space of time he had gone from being semi-independent to being stuck in a cycle of never ending trauma for which he could see no escape.
John said: “ February 2020 came, March as well, by which time people I know are starting to get quite worried because I’m running out of energy and appearing to get very unwell. I’m feeling extremely scared and alone but unable to deal with the consequences of going into hospital because the pandemic has properly started by then and I’m in such a bad place because of my mental and physical health.
“My GP is saying that they want to keep me out of hospital but have really run out of antibiotics we can try now. One day something in me said, ‘you are dying’, I called the doctor and she sent an ambulance.
“I got out of hospital completely shattered and while I was in hospital, I’d had an injury while I was being lifted into a scanner which had created another serious open wound in my spine. That had to be treated by district nurses for five months after I got out of hospital. I was sinking into a pretty deep depression about my lot here, looking on Homechoice and never finding anything.”
The flat was never suitable in the first place
Before 2018, John was living in private rented accommodation but it had stairs and because unsuitable. John says he was told by Occupational Health once his needs were assessed as severe that he would need to go on the housing register to find housing that was suitable. He was led to believe that someone from OH would visit the property on his behalf before he moved in but when he found the flat, this turned out not to be the case.
John said: “I didn’t get this flat properly looked at. It was very hard to organise for someone to come and assess it. When I made a bid on the place and it was accepted I immediately phoned OH and said, ‘I found a place, can you come and look at it?’”
“The place was completely unfurnished, no carpets, nothing and I knew that. But moving in February to a place that hasn’t been lived in for three months, the last tenant died and the place was like a tomb.
“The first night I was trying to sleep and all I could hear was this huge bang. I could hear the buzzers from the other flats going, quite often people just ringing my bell because they were just trying to get access because of the criminality going on. There was a constant flow of people.
“I’ve had to install sound proofing just so the door slamming didn'tt sound like someone kicking this front door.” On moving into the flat he was told he needed a new boiler but the person who installed boilers was on long term sick leave. It was not until he came out of hospital in August 2020, after the unsafe boiler had blown his entire electricity circuit that a new one was installed.
John said: “I woke up in the morning with no power, fully reclined in my bed with no means of getting out of bed at 7am with no electricity. I phoned my friend who lives five minutes up the road and he came ASAP and lifted me out of my bed into my wheelchair, otherwise I’d be phoning the fire brigade and ambulance. I need to be close to people in case of an emergency. Already the impact of this place on my mental health has been terrible and on my physical health, they’re inherently linked.”
The response from council and Places for People
An accessibility assessment was carried out by Bristol City Council after John moved into the flat and some adaptions were identified. The council said there has been contact with Places for People in regards to the adaptions, some of which would need to be carried out by the landlord.
Due to the tenant being unhappy with the suitability of the property and the anti-social behaviour from neighbours, the adaptions were put on hold. As part of Disabled Facilities Grant conditions there has to be an intention to remain in the dwelling for at least five years. Council officers are scheduling an access assessment for the tenant who has been on band 1 since 2019 but has not bid on any properties during this period.
A spokesperson from the council said: “For residents with the greatest housing need, we will work with them to find a suitable property and if appropriate make a direct offer. Each case is considered on its unique merits and where adaptations are required we’ll investigate the property to make the appropriate recommendations.
“Where the property in question is owned by a third party they have responsibility to ensure accessibility and any adaptations that need to be carried out. Where these works are not delivered we will raise these issues with them so the needs of the tenants can be met.”
A spokesperson from Places for People said, “The safety and wellbeing of customers is our priority and we do all we can to support them. This includes working with multiple agencies to address any anti-social behaviour issues and ensuring properties at this mixed-use tenure development meet the needs of our customers, including ensuring wheelchair access for disabled residents. We are working with our customer to assess their needs and are keeping them regularly updated.”
*John is not his real name
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