Becoming homeless

 It is often said that all of us are only three things going wrong away from becoming homeless.

I found this to be true.

My mother was dying in the hospice. I was a single mum. I had returned to working full time after 13 weeks from giving birth to pay the bills.

The first half  of my money went on childcare. A reminder was to pay rent and food and nappies and all the bills.

It was the coldest winter in 30 years when mum went into the hospice. Everything froze.

My pipes at home froze. I was at the hospital with my terminally ill mother.

While I was there the pipes burst and my house was flooded. This rendered me without a home.

I rented a house and continued to work, and pay the nursery and visit mum in the hospice. Mum died and my landlord evicted me. Landlords have a right to evict tenants with one months notice, not due to any fault., just if they choose to, for example to sell the house.

This rendered me homeless. Mum had died in debt, including negative equity, so she had no property to sell so where she had lived was of course repossessed by the bank. My mother’s funeral cost me £5000. 

So I was statutorily homeless with a one year old, a £5000 bill to pay for a funeral, and postnatal depression.

So, Three things - burst pipes, my mother dying in debt and the cost of a funeral, the cost of childcare taking half my money, postnatal depression and the landlord serving notice of eviction.

This is how ordinary people end up on the streets. people with jobs, education, people who have been paying their rent, paying their mortgage. Paying the nursery fees people who  have always paid their taxes, their national insurance.