Milford Mercury | Local News, Sport & Entertainment

Housing delay 'pushed woman to brink of suicide'

From the Milford Mercury, first published Friday 20th Jun 2003.

`DISCRIMINATION' and a housing transfer delay of more than two years has driven a sick Milford woman to contemplate suicide.

The woman, who does not wish to be named, claims the county council's housing department have discriminated against her and blatantly breached their housing policy by not transferring her to a suitable property.

The woman lives in a one bedroom flat on the Mount estate with her grandson. She suffers from a debilitating form of arthritis and will soon be permanently confined to a wheelchair. She needs to move out of her flat because it has no disabled facilities or access, so she was put on the housing transfer list two-and-a-half years ago.

She said: "I applied to be put on the housing transfer list in January 2001 because the flat is not suitable for my wheelchair. I need a property which will allow me to get support from family members as I will need full time care in the future. I want somewhere better than the floor for my mother and daughters to sleep when they are looking after me and I want somewhere other than the settee for my grandson to sleep.

"I was told I would be in a wheelchair by the summer which unfortunately has come true. I cannot use my sticks at times because of my hands and if I need to get up during the night I have to shuffle along the floor on my bottom because of the pain of walking.

"There is also a lot of anti-social behaviour in the flats and I do not want my teenage grandchildren to endure all the abuse. Things have got so bad I have even contemplated suicide."

Robin Benson of Shelter Cymru said: "The housing list is massive and is getting bigger but it is highly unusual to wait this long without any suitable offers being made.

"I formally wrote to the housing department on January 15 explaining her medical condition was extremely serious and the anti-social behaviour was markedly worse. She was frightened to come out of her property and was reduced to being a prisoner in her own home, but I never had a response."

A council spokesman said: "The tenant in question is on the council's housing transfer list. The tenant has been awarded points to reflect medical problems.

"When a suitable property becomes available the tenant will be considered for re-housing."

However, the tenant and Robin are not satisfied and are taking their complaint to the Ombudsman, the council's watchdog. Robin said: "This is a very serious complaint that the council are discriminating against her and are in breach of their own allocation policy. It is very serious to go to the ombudsman."

They insist the housing policy has been breached because they know of eight properties which would have been suitable but were allocated to tenants with less serious housing need.

Robin added: "We have identified many properties which were suitable, one of which was only twenty yards from the flat on the Mount.

"None of the properties were offered to her and have been allocated to people without the correct family size and needs. In one case a single person was given a three bedroom house.

"This proves the policy has been breached because they have ignored her needs and unfairly allocated houses to people with less serious housing need."

Even if she is eventually rehoused, the tenant is defiant that she will pursue her complaint.

"Even if I am transferred I will follow this through because this is not a vindictive or personal complaint. I want to make sure other people do not receive this kind of treatment. I will not back down and the council will not shut me up."

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