Homelessness case study: ‘The hostel was not a good place for the kids’

CLAIRE Daniels knows how difficult life can be when a family becomes homeless and is forced to move into temporary accommodation.

Claire, 38, who has a ten-year-old daughter and eight-year-old son, spent nine months in stop-gap homes.

The family had suffered abuse from neighbours and problems escalated in June 2011 when her children’s father was stabbed outside their home.

Claire, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, said: “The police told us your house is no longer safe for you to be there, you’ve got ten minutes to grab what you need and we will register you as homeless.”

They were taken to Glasgow City Council and then moved into temporary accommodation.

Claire said: “It was a hostel with self-contained flats for families. There were drunk people and drug addicts there. It was not a good place for the kids.

“We were there until late October, early November, and then we were told there was another [temporary] flat available.

“I was really worried because I had to sort out my children’s school as well, and needed to know where we would be living long term.”

However, there were more problems with the new flat.

“It was not a good flat,” she said. “Everyone knew it was a homeless flat.

“It was quite smelly. One of the beds had a plastic coating over the mattress, which was ripped with stuffing coming out.

“I slept on the sofa, with my daughter beside me, and my son slept in another room with his dad in two single beds. One day a wardrobe fell apart on top of my son.

“I was constantly putting money into [running] a storage heater [for warmth], everything was a struggle. It was really not nice.

“People kept coming to my door looking for the previous people who had lived there before us.

“They refused to believe that they did not live there anymore.”

They finally moved into a long term home in March last year.

They could have moved in February, but the family were hit with a bereavement and put off the move until after the funeral.

“Housing [services] paid for a removal van for us; I think they realised we’d been there an awfully long time,” she said.

“It was a difficult time. They were not good places to bring up children.”