Darren Smith and his partner Louise Pettett, of Storrington Close, Hangleton, have been trying to force through a move with Brighton and Hove City Council and fear they may have to move to another part of the city.
The couple are sleeping on a sofa bed in the living room with their one-year-old baby in a cot next to them, while four children aged from four to 11 share a bedroom and the eldest has her own room.That's at least one 'problem' you appear to have brought on yourselves...
Mr Smith, a lorry driver who works six days a week, said: “You can’t do normal family things because there is no space, and none of us get any privacy.
“It is unlivable. The mould means the young kids are always ill, but we can’t leave the windows open because they sleep under them and it would be too cold for them during the day and night.”Give them extra blankets. Job done!
Mr Smith, 42, also suffers from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and he said the mould has made his breathing problems worse.So he's a sick lorry driver? Wow! Just as well his partner is healthy, th...
Ah.
Miss Pettett has lived in the flat for 15 years and has fallen out of love with her family home. The 38-year-old suffers with depression and claustrophobia, and feels she needs to stay in Hangleton.So, one low-paid job between the two of them. That's just the sort of couple who should be breeding like rabbits!
In response to what the family told The Argus, a council spokeswoman said: “The council has very few four and five bedroom properties which rarely become available.
“Tenants need to be as flexible as possible to maximise their chances.
“If the situation is so overcrowded, or conditions so bad that the family are effectively homeless, then they are offered help in finding alternative private rented accommodation. This gives families more choice over the area they live in. Unfortunately not all households want this type of assistance.”No. Indeed not. They want the rest of us to pay.
"No. Indeed not. They want the rest of us to pay."
ReplyDeleteJuliaM I do not think you thought that statement through. What ever accommodation they take ultimately we will pay for it. I suspect they cannot go private as no landlords in their right mind would take them.
The council want really flexible tenants. Flexible enough to pay a people smuggler to stick them in a leaking boat and take them within a couple of hundred feet from another boat, this one rented by a charity, which will take them to Italy or Greece, where they will further display their flexibility by travelling through several 'safe' countries until they reach Calais. They will have retained enough flexibility to hide inside a lorry while the driver is being threatened by other flexible people, sneak out of the lorry once it's in the UK, and tell the local council they are homeless and need a 5 bedrooms house, which they get. Job done.
ReplyDeletePenseivat
(apologies in advance for the longer than etiquette allows comment, Joolz).
ReplyDeleteI should be brimming with sympathy. I've been there; small flat, 3 kids (one crippled), an insane wife, working 324 hours a month to earn enough to pay the private Landlord-from-Hell his pound of flesh. I should be gushing sympathy but I'm not!
The problem, the real problem, this family faces isn't the mould, isn't the 'catholic' family size, isn't the low income, isn't the wife's illness and it certainly isn't that the kids all have smart phones and the parents smoke (as suggested in the article's comments). The problem is the Husband....at least I would lay good money that his attitude is the problem. Might sound somewhat preserve to suggest that a man who has already proved his manhood 6 times over and works like an N-word needs to 'man up' but, as said, I'll wager he has fallen into the trap of 'anything for a quiet life' or 'anything to keep the missus 'stabile''.
He has to remember that he is the 'husband' not just the 'partner' (and he is the 'husband' by having had kids with her, whatever the registry office might say). Being a husband (look up the term 'husbandry' sometime, Mr Smith) sometimes means doing what is right for your family, for your kids, even if it means aggro with her Indoors. Sometimes you do have to make decisions and lead.
I would start by threatening the council with hellfire and writs until they sorted the mould (he may have already- so apologies if I have misunderstood). The mould needs to be sorted today. At the very least the council should be providing him with industrial strength dehumidifiers in every room. No idea what the law is now but I'm sure he has a good case...tenants have far more rights than before. Then he needs to get his wife the treatment and therapy she needs to allow her to move for the sake of her kids. She has to be 'flexible' to have any hope of finding better accommodation. If he doesn't I guaran-fucking-tee that within the foreseeable future her condition will get worse not better. If she develops a psychosis then they really will be up shit creek. Of course kids shouldn't have to change school but ask any former 'army brat' here...who not only changed schools but countries of residence; it can have advantages.
The one thing he should be wasting time doing is indulging the British national past time of whinging to the press about something only he can sort out. You see, even if the council rehoused them tomorrow into a luxury 5 bed with offroad parking in the area within spitting distance of the school, within a year or so they would find themselves in a different but similar shitty situation because he is the problem. The grass is always greener until you start trampling all over it. You don't just take your tea chests with you but all the root causes of your past misery.
Our rental property had mould... We cleaned it off and brought a small (and cheap) dehumidifier... Problem solved.
ReplyDeleteI am sure that the mould will travel with this family, drying washing on the radiators, and never opening the windows...
"What ever accommodation they take ultimately we will pay for it."
ReplyDeleteYes, that's exactly my point!
"The council want really flexible tenants."
Sadly, spot on. And I see no sign of anyone taking this seriously enough to want to stop it.
"...apologies in advance for the longer than etiquette allows comment, Joolz..."
There's no word count here. Fill yer boots!
"The problem is the Husband....at least I would lay good money that his attitude is the problem."
Absolutely spot on.
"I am sure that the mould will travel with this family..."
And not just the mould either.