Charity launches powerful demonstration in Birmingham train station amid city's housing crisis
Young families in Birmingham are being forced to live in dirty, cockroach-infested hotel rooms while as many as five people – including toddlers – are all sharing just one bed.
The city's housing crisis is spiralling out of control with around 4,400 people currently stuck in sub-standard temporary accommodation.
There are also fears the desperate housing situation could worsen following October’s announcement surrounding a proposed £7 million cut to Birmingham City Council’s housing services budget.
More cuts are to be announced this week given the council’s bleak financial standing where the local authority must find £300m in savings to cope with its mounting debt, which stands at around £1bn.
In Birmingham, close to 20,000 are on the city council’s housing register waiting for one of its 61,000 council properties to become available.
Earlier this year, activists called for urgent talks on housing failures in Birmingham, warning thousands of families are ‘going to bed tonight not knowing if their home is safe’.
The call for action came after the city council was issued with regulatory notices after admitting one in three of the properties it rented out to tenants did not meet basic decent homes standards – the minimum expected of social housing.
It also has more social homes with a Category One safety hazard – the most dangerous – than anywhere else in the country.
This week, homeless charity Shelter is shining a light on people across the city who have been denied the right to a safe home. A collection of 10 front doors have been installed at Birmingham New Street Station to raise awareness of the city’s housing emergency.
The ‘no place like home’ demonstration depicts the stories of those who have struggled to find a place to live right here in Birmingham.
Single mum-of-three Maryam lost her home and was placed in temporary accommodation. The family all had to share a room infested with cockroaches at a bed-and-breakfast.
Due to the shocking state of the living situation, Maryam was diagnosed with depression and anxiety. Living in the accommodation was also having a negative impact on the behaviour of her son, who was being assessed for autism and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
Thankfully, the Shelter team in Birmingham continues to support the vulnerable mum and her children to find a new, more suitable place to live.
Another mother, Aria, became homeless with her sons after fleeing domestic abuse – which remains one of the most common causes of homelessness in Birmingham. She too is being supported.
Elsewhere, parents Adam and Jeanne had been homeless and living in temporary accommodation for eight months. The accommodation consisted of a one-bedroom hotel room, which the couple had to share with their three young children.
There were no cooking or washing facilities accessible to the family so they had to rely on expensive takeaways and laundries, which put more financial pressure on them.
Again, Shelter assisted the family and advised they should be eligible for long-term affordable housing, as well as financial compensation for the length of time they were stuck in temporary accommodation.
With the team’s support, Adam and his family have secured a new, permanent social home to move into, as well as compensation for the distress and toll the situation has had on the family’s finances.
Another case study is that of Dervla who, alongside her three sons – aged 15, 12, and one – fled domestic abuse. The council placed them in temporary accommodation in a bed-and-breakfast where they had to share a room.
Dervla’s 15-year-old son had a bed to himself and Dervla and her two younger sons shared a double bed. As well as being overcrowded, the temporary accommodation was a two-hour journey from the boys’ schools.
The situation was causing lots of problems for Dervla’s oldest son, who was trying to revise for his GCSEs. The lack of space to complete homework and the long journeys to school were impacting his grades.
Dervla contacted Shelter’s Birmingham team, who were able to advise her on how to apply for more suitable accommodation.
The family have now been moved to a more spacious place, which is closer to the boys’ school.
Ali and Amira had six children when they became homeless. They were placed in a cramped bed-and-breakfast as temporary accommodation, sharing two rooms between all eight of them.
The family had to share cooking facilities with many other homeless families who had nowhere else to go. Their daughter was bullied by other children placed in the accommodation, which impacted her mental health.
The family met with the team at Shelter’s Birmingham hub, who helped the family eventually find a new place to live after appeals to the local council.
Chris found himself homeless after being dumped out of his privately-rented home through no fault of his own.
Chris – who had served in the armed forces and suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, poor mental health and anxiety – was renting a property in Birmingham when his landlord served him a section 21 ‘no fault eviction’ notice.
Section 21 enables private landlords to evict tenants without any breach of rental clauses. This leads to renters feeling insecure and at real risk of losing their home through no fault of their own.
The number of private renters evicted by bailiffs as a result of section 21 proceedings is at its highest level in seven years. Thankfully, Shelter was on hand to help find Chris a new, affordable property to rent.
Speaking at the launch of the ‘no place like home’ initiative at Birmingham's New Street Station, Doug Stewart, strategic lead at Shelter UK, said: “We have 68,000 families that are homeless in England and it’s a huge issue here in Birmingham.
"It’s fundamentally one of the biggest problems we have in this city. It’s something in which people find it very hard to find alternative accommodation and they find themselves in temporary accommodation that is often unsuitable for years.
"It’s unbelievable really the state of the housing system within Birmingham and the experiences people have to go through, with an example being cockroaches which is an issue which is rising in Birmingham. It is really bad."
For more information about Shelter, visit the charity's website.
Report by Ashley Preece
