Real life stories

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These Shelter clients wouldn't be waiting still be waiting for a permanent home if there were more affordable homes for rent in Scotland. Read their stories.

Claire

Following the breakdown of her relationship with her partner, Claire, 31, took up a tenancy with a housing association in November 2008.

Once she had signed the tenancy agreement, she discovered severe dampness and wet, mouldy walls. Claire, who has two children aged 4 and 2, felt unable to live there, and gave up the property because her son has chest problems which the dampness could seriously affect.

Claire and her children lived between her mum's and her dad's houses and reported the problems with the property to the housing association. However, these were not addressed and housing association said they had no where else to put them. Claire had continued to pay rent on the property despite not living there.

In April 2009, Claire was left with nowhere to go as her dad was away and her relationship with her mum had broken down. Claire was forced to go to the council and make a homeless application. The council could not accept Claire as being homeless because she already had the housing association tenancy – despite it being uninhabitable.

Claire and her family were forced to move to a homeless hostel. Claire had to give up her job as the situation had become too much and she could not manage to attend all her housing appointments on top of working.

The stress of all of this has taken its toll on Claire and has been very difficult for her children too, who have been moved from pillar to post and feel very unsettled.

Claire said: 'Being without somewhere to call home has been a nightmare. I know through harsh experience now that bad housing wrecks lives. I just want somewhere for me and my children to be able to call home.'

Claire and her family are still stuck in temporary accommodation at the moment. Shelter has been working with Claire and the agencies involved to reach a solution and to help Claire and her children find a permanent home.

Sharon

Sharon has been living in poor quality temporary accommodation for nearly four years because a lack of decent family-sized housing means there is nowhere for her to be housed permanently.

Forced to relocate to Scotland for her own safety, under the protection of the police, Sharon was hopeful she and her family could make a new life for themselves.

Now, with her and her nine children forced to live in an overcrowded 4-bedroom because there's no alternative housing for them, she says she has given up hope of ever getting a permanent house.

This is despite Sharon having been on the waiting lists of several housing associations for nearly four years.

She said, 'We were told when we moved in here it would be a maximum of six months which didn't seem so bad at the time, but obviously now that we have been here for three and a half years – it just all does get on top of you.'

Sharon is really worried now, having recently been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and a condition that affects her lungs and breathing. She says she cannot live in the temporary housing much longer.

She said: 'It's 30 stairs to the front door of the house and it's getting harder every time I have to do it. I'm not sure how much longer I can live here, or what the future holds. I'm pretty desperate now.'