A mum says she has had to rush her children to hospital 18 times in four years because of her temporary home’s mouldy and damp conditions.
Toni moved into a refuge with her children when a previous relationship broke down before being moved into a flat.
Despite being told they would ‘soon’ be moved into a house, the 38-year-old and her four children are still waiting, reports Birmingham Live.
Two of her kids have asthma and Toni has had to rush to A&E 18 times after one of them was 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.
Toni said: "There’s mould and mildew in the flat, I’m constantly cleaning.
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“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.
“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.”
When the family first moved in Toni promised her children they would have a new house by the next Christmas -four years ago.
She added: “That first Christmas I told my children we’d not be here next Christmas just to give them a little bit of hope - we’ve now spent four Christmases here.
“[My son] wrote a letter to Santa at school to say he was going to be extra good and could Santa please give us a home?
“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 feel like we’ve been left and forgotten about.”
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 council’s allocation policy including renting in the private sector which is currently the quickest way to find a larger property."
