A family of nine have been forced to stay in a budget Cardiff hotel which they say “stinks of cannabis” and is in a shocking state of repair. The Wright family from Llanishen said they were in disbelief when, after being evicted from their home of nearly seven years in the spring, they ended up in the Holiday Inn at Tongwynlais at the Coryton roundabout.
The hotel is now effectively in the hands of the local authority and is closed to the public, as is the case with hundreds of other budget hotels being used as emergency accommodation to ease the nation's huge housing crisis. More than 50 rooms are full in the hotel, most of which are being lived in by families who have been evicted from privately rented homes by landlords looking to sell up. The families can no longer afford to rent privately and the council doesn't have enough houses to accommodate them properly.
Natasha Wright, who is pregnant with her eighth child, is living there with her husband Greg and their seven children. They were evicted following eight months of uncertainty on March 20. They are sharing four double beds across two rooms at the hotel with two shower rooms. One of their children is currently doing her GCSEs while putting up with living conditions at the hotel which the family describes as “horrendous”.
