27 year old April lives in Croydon with her partner Tom, who is a landscape gardener, and children Callum (6), Connie (3) and Freddie (1)
My family of 5 live in a small flat with one and a half bedrooms. My son Callum sleeps in the small bedroom, but the two younger children share a bedroom with us.
Even bunk beds don’t fit in the small bedroom because the roof slopes. We had to cut the bed down to fit along the wall.
I have to climb over Tom to get into or out of bed, and creep around not to wake the children. I can’t turn the light on to get ready for bed because the children are in there. If we have friends over we have to be really quiet because the bedrooms are so close to the living area.
We have damp in the bathroom. There is also quite a bit in the living area but I clean it constantly so it doesn’t smell damp in there. The bathroom floor is black under the floor and leaks through to the flat underneath and I worry that one day it will just give way when the children are on it.
The electrics aren’t right either – we have a plug socket right next to a radiator, which is a fire hazard if the radiator leaked.
It’s not great here at all, and we’re paying £850 a month for it.
I’ve asked the council for help but they won’t put us on the housing list. I keep ringing them. I last spoke someone about 2 months ago after a woman came around and measured the bedroom.
The council only class each of the children as half a person. My case worker looked at the measurements and said that the small bedroom was ok for half a person , so that’s Callum, and the main bedroom was ok for one and a half – so that’s me and Connie. So we’re overcrowded by one and a half persons.
Read on here >> http://shelteruk.tumblr.com/post/142624849025/my-children-my-family-deserve-better-than-what