A struggling family have been left sleeping on the floor of a cramped, run down hotel room where the children are 'bitten by bed bugs' and nails stick out of broken bed.
Sarah and Mohammed, who have three young children, revealed the shocking state of their 'nightmare' temporary accommodation after they were forced to leave their rented home.
The couple have had to hang up towels as makeshift curtains and wash their dirty dishes in the bath - with their toddler left sleeping on pillows as a mattress in a travel cot, Birmingham Live reports.
Pictures taken inside the cramped room show bunk beds squeezed in beside another bed with exposed broken slats and a mattress on the floor.
The couple, whose kids are aged one, seven and 12, were made homeless when the landlord of their private rented home in Hodge Hill told them he needed the property back.
They were already 'left with nothing' when paying the £800 rent per month, even though £650 was subsided by Birmingham City Council.
But now as rents have risen to around £900, the mum said, their only option is to live in the temporary accommodation. The family were moved into The Birmingham Hotel, in Sparkbrook, by Birmingham city council on Wednesday, May 18.
The authority has since apologised for the 'distress' and vowed to look at other options to accommodate the family. Sharing video from inside the hotel, the mum said: "It's totally wrong. I can't even breathe in here.
"Since last week I am homeless with my three kids and partner. Last week we had our landlord come into the private rented house as the two month notice had expired, he asked us for the keys.
"The council put us into a hotel. The first day when we came here the bed was broken, there were no curtains and no lighting in the room."
The couple had to then send their kids to Walsall, where extended family live, to stay for the night while arrangements were made for a travel cot. The room was still 'pitch black' when the couple returned and the large bathroom light remains broken.
A cot had been crammed into the room but had no mattress. The mum, who suffers from panic attacks and anxiety, has had to place three pillows down for her youngest child.
Her kids, she said, are going to school itchy due to the bed bug bites and the double bed has "fallen apart and has nails hanging off it", the mum added. Her children have been struggling to sleep as they are now all in one room alongside the one-year-old who wakes often in the night.
They have been unable to go to school as a result, the mum claims. With no cooking facilities either, the family have been surviving off sandwiches, cereal, noodles and meals in the microwave and toaster she brought from her former home.
The family has been given food bank vouchers from the school to help provide for the family. But the mum feared with half term - and her kids missing school meals - they, as parents, may have to sacrifice some meals so the children can eat.
She claims neighbours also living in temporary accommodation have been in the hotel for as long as four months waiting to move.
"I've tried to ring the council up. Every time I ring emergency contact they say 'somebody will call you back', but they never do." Despite multiple calls to the authority, she says the council did not get back to her.
The mum even spent an entire day at the Birmingham city council Options Centre in Newtown, but claims she had no luck there either. After BirminghamLive approached the council, a spokesman for the authority said they had replaced the bed and a pest control officer had visited.
A statement read: "We are sorry for the distress caused to this family. We have replaced the bed and a pest control officer has carried out an inspection of the room.
"The room has been treated and we will continue to monitor it so standards are maintained. We are working with the tenant to address the other issues in the article and looking at options for accommodating her family."
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