Our life and how we ended in up in a Homeless Shelter

Before I start, I think it is important to let you know how my family and I ended where we are today. So to begin with I will need to take you back to the beginning of what we thought would be a lovely year, January 2007.

January 2007 started wonderfully with the birth of my second child, a baby boy, Casey, weighing 6lbs 11oz. He was completing our family. Shortly after his birth I developed Post-Natal Depression but we were determined to go on with all the plans we had made.

We had so many hopes and dreams and we started by putting our home up for sale and finding a place to rent in a lovely village on the borders of Essex/Hertfordshire in Sawbridgeworth. We were unsure what we were going to do, but we had mapped out two plans. One was to start a new life in Sawbridgeworth and build our own home and the other was emigrating to Australia and start a new and exciting life with our small children. But on the 22nd August 2007 everything changed. We had sold our house and I had started to recover from my post-natal depression. The morning of 22nd, August 2007 I had decided to take the children to a play centre near Sawbridgeworth and hurried around getting everything ready. I had also being cooking that morning, but had removed the pan from the stove ready to leave.

Before leaving I transferred all Casey changing things into another bag and left the changing bag on the side in the kitchen. Ushering my daughter out of the house I gave no thought to if I had turned the hob off!


Four hours later, with two tired children a sleep in the car I returned home. From outside the house everything looked fine, but on opening the door and stepping inside, the house with engulfed in smoke. I quickly left and phoned the Fire Department. Whilst waiting I informed my husband who came home immediately from work together with my parents.

We had nothing! We had spoken to our insurance company who had given us permission to buy clothes and a couple of days later we met with the Loss Adjuster. At this stage we were living at my parents.

The Loss Adjuster signed everything off and arranged for Chemdry to come in and clear the house out. Nearly all our belongings had been written off, thankfully a lot of things were boxed away and could be saved, together with belongings in the loft.

One week later we moved into our rental property in Sawbridgeworth with nothing but a portable television and blow up beds, but things were going to be fine!!!

Sadly, events had caused my depression to return.

Everything went smoothly and Chemdry carried out all the necessary work on the house and all our personal belongings were replaced.

From the fire the only area which we could not claim for was a small business I ran from home. I had recently cancelled my insurance due to moving, so there was nothing I could do. We had recently purchased items for an exhibition I was going to the following week so we lost the lot!

Once we had access to our home again we started to move things back in slowly over a period as the sale of the house had not gone through. One Sunday during October 2007, my daughter and I went round the house to drop things off and collect the post. We were in a hurry and whilst I was waiting outside my daughter rushed upstairs to the toilet.

She came back down and we left returning home to Sawbridgeworth. The following day we were out shopping when we received a phone call from our Estate Agent informing us that the Post Office had contacted them and water was cascading out of our windows of home and they were going round there immediately to turn the mains off.

Obviously. We just left everything and rush to the house, on arriving we meet with the Estate Agent and on entering the house found that the plug was in the bathroom sink, so our daughter had washed her hands and left the plug in and the water running. The house was in completely ruined and the ceiling has started to collapse.

All we could do was collapse in tears through the shock. Again my dad came home from work to take the children whilst we spoke with our Insurers. They were very helpful and arrange for Chemdry to come round again, in the meantime we started the painstaking job of clearing out our home again and removing the carpets. But this process could not be started for 24 hours and Chemdry could not come for 72 hours.

When the carpets were removed all the water between the floors and the carpets started to seep through the ceiling causing the ceilings to collapse altogether.

The following weeks were hectic helping Chemdry with the drying out of the house and most of the internal walls downstairs had to be stripped down to the rafters and the hall down to the breezeblocks. The work was gruelling but the Insurance Company were investigating the damage and the items lost, which was to a value £20,000 in personal effects we had to get on with the work due to the house sale and we tried to keep costs at a minimum.

An retired work colleague, myself and my husband worked day in day out to get the house ready for the builders under the advisement of Chemdry with electricity being fed in from neighbouring houses as the only electric in the house was to run the generators to dry the house out, but we were not being defeated, were going to get through this nightmare.

Sadly, just before Christmas we were informed by our Insurance Company they would not pay out, due to the proximity of the two incidents and we were left with a very large bill to pay and no way to pay for it.

All over Christmas and the New Year we just sat in pieces not knowing what to do, or, more like trying to ignore the inevitable , Bankruptcy! We had replaced a number of the items we lost in the flood and were still waiting to hear about the contents payout.

The sale of the house went through smoothly in the end, at a reduced price which allowed us to pay off the debt from the business and our credit cards for the replacement of the lost items, but we were still left with the bill for the work on the house which we just could not afford.

At the time of this all happening I was off of work due to my post-natal depression, in no state to return still, I agreed to take ill-health redundancy which helped us pay our rent for a short period, but in the end we had to declare ourselves bankrupt in April 2008. People said it would be a weight off our shoulders, but things just got worst, with no income from me and my husband working shifts it was not in my interest to find work as it cost so much in childcare costs we would not have much left.

In the end my parents helped us pay our rent to the end of our contract and we rented a property back in Waltham Abbey. We still could not afford our rent, but with my parents and family close by and their help with the rent it took some pressure off us. But the inevitable was just around the corner!

During this time we were advise that the Insurance Company would not pay out for the contents lost, but we had accepted this already!

Sadly, at the end of our October we lost my father in law to Bowel Cancer, which was unexpected and we thought things just could not get worst, but again, we were wrong!

Christmas and the New Year come and went almost unnoticed and my husband’s overtime completely disappeared and things just got tougher. As a printer, overtime is relied on to bring in a good wage and as this had disappeared we decided that we could not rely on my parents to pay our rent anymore, it was not fair.

At this time we were advised to contact the Council and a meeting was arranged. The first avenue looked at was the Council helping us with a deposit on a new place, as the place we were renting the owner was moving back in. They calculated how much help we were entitled to from the Council, which was not much, as my husband was classed “as a high earner”, with no overtime he earns £24,000 per annum!

So after looking at the cost of the average rental, even a 2/3 bed apartment we still could not reach to cover all the bills etc. We would not mind but all bills were only household bills and a small bit for clothes, it did not include going out once in a while!

The next thing we had to do with apply for a special request for help with the downfall in our expenses for January, this done and dusted we thought at least that will help us out for February, but we then were informed that the Discrepancy Payments would take months to come through! Doesn’t figure, how is it meant to help you with a shortfall in payments you have at that time, but you won’t hear from months!!!!

In the end we were given a Homeless appointment, after they agreed due to the bankruptcy etc we could not go down the normal route of being evicted, so they started to investigate our claim and in the meantime we would be placed in Norway House, North Weald at the end of February.

So now, 7 weeks on we are in Norway House living in a small two bed chalet with shared kitchen and toilet. The facilities are clean and thankfully as we are in the chalet we have a proper oven. If we had decided to take a room in the main house we would have 2 rings to share with another family and no oven.

Norway House, was given to the UK by Norway during the war and was then past to Epping Forest Council to house homeless people and families.

The people are lovely here and they all have a sad story to tell, some worst than others, but we are all looking for the same outcome, a home!

Our children have a room each and my husband and I sleep on the floor on our mattress as there is no room for our bed. We have very little TV courage and the computer works very slow, so we have very little to do here, the children play outside with the other children and they have a playground and an indoor play area.

The home was award lottery money some year’s back which allows them to run a mother and toddler morning twice a week in-house.

You have to sign in, twice a day due to previous tenants booking in and then going to stay with family or in a hotel and using the homeless route as a way to get a Council House. The children have to stay with you nearly all the time, so cannot say at their grandparents at the weekends, because they could ask you to leave if the children are not seen on the premises as it shows you have somewhere else to go. The Council will do anything not help you.

No one is allowed on the site who is not a resident after 10.30pm and the rules are strict and if you do anything wrong you have 2 warnings and you are out!

The Council have just written to us to inform us that they agree we are homeless and we now have 3 months before we can bid on a Council House. When you start bidding you can bid on 2 properties, twice a month for two months and if you are not awarded a property during this period you are allocated one by the Council, you have no choice, which could be anywhere in the Epping Forest. We have been informed by other residents when we are in, what is called Band 1 in 3 months time we are not given priority we are competing with people who have been on the Council list for years. Even though they are currently renting privately they have the same rights as us, who are homeless! To top it off, you don’t even get to see the property prior to moving in!

So all in, we are looking at approximately 7 months minimum in Norway House, which is like a prison sentence. You are living in each other’s pockets, you need permission to go on holiday or to stay away overnight and there is nothing to do!

We hope to save some money whilst in here, but it is not easy. You still have to pay rent, which I expect nothing less, you are not entitled to any help from the Council as the government state you can afford to leave on £230 a week. Not sure how they come to that conclusion as the average rent in the South East is £250 a week with no bills!!!! But they are sitting in their ivory towers earning more than that an hour, so what would they know!

Life is tough and not a day goes by, without tears and a reflection on what we have lost or what our life would be like if I had not left the gas hob on that day or had checked the water that morning, but there is no turning back the clocks, at least all my family are safe and we have survived this together.

We would still love to emigrate to Australia, but with my husband turning 35 in June we will lost 5 points which takes us to 115 points which is below the 120 points required, but we could still go through the State Sponsorship avenue if we can get some money behind us.

Last week my dear friend who helped us round the house came round with a website about working from home and they had researched a number of websites and concluded only 2 of the sites researched were reputable. He then ordered the course for one of the work from home systems, which is an in depth online marketing course by Profit Lance. The course is very resourceful, it does not offer great riches immediately it teaches you what you need to do, to be successful as an online marketer. You are given a number of preloaded websites to get you started (sadly in my case I am unable to get started due to the lack of money to do the pay per click with these sites), but I have started a BLOG!!! as advised. Never looked at Blogs or Myspace before and never had an interest, but I have nothing to lose have I! There are many other ideas as well, together with some great e-books included. The cost is $77 and is great value. Thank you Dave.

If you are a mother at home with small children or just wish to get out of the rat race and would like to generate an income just give it a look, I will put my website at the end of this blog, together with the site for the article written by pro-consumer, they have a great money back guarantee valid for 8 weeks.

This is our final chance to follow our dream, as I sit at my computer and type this Blog I can see my children running around playing with their dad and their smiling faces, I know I have to give it a try for them.

I have lost all faith in this country, it has been a fight just to be entitled to have a roof over our heads and then just one some mistake and you could be thrown out of Norway House with nothing! The council do everything possible to not help you and you are made to feel you are worth nothing, even when it is not your fault!! I know they have had a lot of people who did not need help, but we are not all the same and I would do anything not to have my family in this place, god help me, we have tried everything!

Finally after being with my now husband for 16 years, we cannot get any lower and I don’t think anything else can happen to us. We have been through everything, the loss of my husband’s twin brother, mother and father, an accident that nearly killed my father, the loss of both my grandparents shortly after my daughter was born, the loss of our home, personal belongings, bankruptcy and finally being made homeless. All I can say is, the only way is up!!

So the idea of this blog was to let you know my family's story, to get across my websites (I differently do not beg) and to start a daily diary of our life here (may not always be exciting) up until we leave. So that will start tomorrow.