A mum-of-four has opened up about how she was forced to live on the streets, as the council have branded her 'too vulnerable for a hostel'.
Sophie, 27, and her partner, Anthony, have been living on the cold and brutal streets of Torquay, Devon, for the past 18 months.
Tragically, the 27-year-old mother has been forced to put one of her children up for adoption due to her living conditions, report Devon Live.
Her other three, she says, live with her parents and Anthony's father as the couple cannot look after them - having themselves spent only three nights indoors for the past year and a half.
This is because the pair have made enough money to pay for a hotel room, Sophie says.
And what little money she has, she uses to make sure that she is able to provide for her children, using her monthly child support payments which she sends to them, despite having nothing herself.
In spite of being out on the streets for so long, the mother says that her local council, Torbay Council, have given her little support.
Sophie says: “Apparently I’m too vulnerable for to be put in a hostel, but not too vulnerable for the streets. I’m autistic so I don't meet their standards to be put in a hostel so they don’t put me there because I’m too vulnerable.
“They’ve taken all the drug addicts in but the vulnerable, we’re still left here.”
She added: “I’m autistic, he’s [Anthony] my full-time carer surely we should have been top of the list, but they don't seem to care about us.”
Sophie and Anthony became homeless because they were evicted from their home in a sell off of properties in the area.
Following this, they went to live with Anthony’s mother. Tragically, she died suddenly of a heart attack, meaning the couple had nowhere to stay.
And while they have been put on a list to move into a flat they recently viewed, it seems unlikely they will move in as they are seventh on the list.
Opening up about the hardships they face on the pavements, Sophie says: "There’s nowhere that even does hot meals anymore for free on an everyday basis. The church does a hot meal on a Wednesday and Friday.
"Other than that we don’t get no hot food unless we’ve made enough money to."
Torbay Council has a Severe Weather Emergency Protocol (SWEP) which means, once activated, additional accommodation is put in place to prevent harm and death to rough sleepers due to severe weather conditions.
SWEP was activated last Tuesday and the council has said it will continue until at least this Friday – which is the longest it has run consecutively.
Meanwhile, the council also secured a £1.9million project, which will be spread over a three-year period, to spend on helping homeless people into housing from a successful bid to the Rough Sleeping Initiative.
They will use the money to lease homes to put homeless people up in and also fund staff to work directly with homeless people as well as creating new posts.
However, those classed as vulnerable homeless people, like Sophie, fall through the cracks of this protocol.
She spoke about SWEP being activated in the past but not working for the pair, saying: “Even when they activated it back in February, remember when we had all them storms?
“We were set up in Debenhams doorway before it was shut. I ended up with somebody’s bin in the side of my head that night where the storm had blown it across the street.”
The council will be spending the money from the grant on specialist teams and officers to work directly with rough sleepers.
This will include a new Mental Health Nurse role will also be created and funded until the end of March 2024.
Councillor Swithin Long, Cabinet Member for Economic Regeneration, Tourism and Housing, said: “Torbay is in a housing crisis with not enough homes to go around for everyone. We want to ensure everyone in Torbay has a roof over their heads, whatever their circumstances.
“This is effectively emergency funding from the Government when what we need is long-term funding for more affordable housing in Torbay rather than sticking plasters in a crisis.”
