A Bristol mum with a nine-year-old son has been told she’s only entitled to a one-bedroom flat, after she presented herself as homeless to Bristol City Council.
Jane* (who did not want to give her real) name recently found herself homeless for the second time after a relationship breakdown and has been frantically looking for a home in Bristol’s private rental sector.
Jane, who was aware it would be months before her Home Choice application was approved, approached the private renting team at Bristol City Council for support. She told Bristol Live that the council employee assisting her offered her a deposit and six months rent up front but said that she was only entitled to a housing benefit allowance for a one bedroom property – which is £899.99 a month in Bristol.
Desperate to find a place for herself and her son, Jane searched for a one-bedroom flat in Bristol and found several properties with living rooms she could use as a bedroom. But as soon as the landlord or letting agent discovered that she wished to move in with her nine-year-old son, she said she was refused on the grounds that it was unsuitable for them.
Jane, who is a Bristol City Council employee herself, is currently living with her son in a hotel where she does not even have access to a microwave to heat her food. The hotel charges £10 every morning for breakfasts and she is forced to live off takeaway food and sandwiches – which is quickly becoming unaffordable.
After realising that it was unlikely she would be accepted for a privately rented one bedroom property, she contacted housing charity Shelter for advice. She said she was told by the team at Shelter that there had not been any change in housing rules and that she is entitled to a two bedroom property and the housing benefit to cover it.
Jane said: “I was in temporary accommodation for over four years and now I am homeless again and having to start from square one. I’ve been trying to rent privately and a worker from the council’s private renting team told me that the council have just changed the rules and I was only entitled to a one bedroom flat until my son turns 16 which I find highly inappropriate and ridiculous.
“I had to then switch gears and start looking for one bedroom flats. Every landlord has declined me. They find it unsuitable for a single mother to share a bedroom with a nine-year-old boy or they don’t want me turning the lounge into a bedroom.
“I’ve been declined flat, after flat, after flat and ideally, I don’t want a one bedroom flat because my son is nine but I was prepared to try and make that work because I’m just desperate. He is a nine-year-old, he needs his own space, I need my own space, landlords are not renting a one bedroom to me so I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place.
“Shelter said it was called gatekeeping and said I am entitled to a two bedroom house. They said that the woman who told me I wasn’t entitled to a two bedroom property is either confused or doesn’t know what she’s talking about because there hasn’t been any change in the rules.”
Jane, who first became homeless after escaping from domestic violence six years ago, said after several years previously in temporary accommodation, she does not want to go back. She said that if the council would offer her a two bedroom allowance of 1,095 a month it may not cover the full rent but she believes she could just about manage to cover the shortfall.
Bristol City Council has been approached for a comment.