A family with four children are facing eviction from their emergency accommodation. And they have lost housing support from Bristol City Council after refusing to accept a flat in Bedminster.
Under council rules, because they turned the flat down, they had made themselves ‘intentionally homeless’ and were therefore no longer eligible for housing. They appeared in court in September but lost the case.
The mum Zara (not her real name) is a Kurdish-Iraqi refugee who suffers from panic attacks and anxiety as a result of the traumatic events that led the family to flee their country.
She said when she visited the Bedminster property she felt unsafe and it triggered a panic attack. The family says they were not told the consequences of refusing the offer.
Zara and her family had been living in emergency housing since January 2024 and were signed up to Home Choice, a partnership of the city council and housing associations. Two days after they moved into their fourth flat in five months, they were told to view a flat in Bedminster. Zara said she was unaware at the time that it had been offered as permanent accommodation and did not know that they would lose all council support for housing if they refused it.
Zara, whose mum died days before the May viewing, said: “It was very small and the flat smelled of cigarette smoke. There was a shared laundry room and I felt scared of the people who were living in the other flats. It triggered a panic attack.
“I didn’t think it was a suitable place for the children because I think people were doing drugs there. We didn’t know how to appeal the decision and were not able to speak in court and were offered no official interpreters.”
Although the court papers said the family must leave their emergency accommodation on October 22, they negotiated an extension. But their future is now uncertain as their housing provision is in the hands of social services and they are no longer eligible for social housing.
The family, who waited two years for their asylum case to be accepted, are still unable to settle down after almost a year of moving from place to place. The older children are currently studying for GCSEs but do not know if they will return to a hotel in December or have to relocate to a new city after making friends and settling into schools in Bristol over the past 10 months.
Bristol City Council has been approached for a comment.