A homeless mum who has been waiting for a council home for over six years faces years more languishing in temporary accommodation because a South London council pushed her to the back of the queue after she split up with her husband.
Lambeth Council told Patricia Roman that her application for council housing would be dated February 2023, after she requested help from the local authority following her family's eviction by a landlord in late 2022. But the mother-of-three was left puzzled by the start date on her housing account, as her family had originally made an application for council housing with Lambeth over five years earlier, in September 2017.
She soon realised the council hadn't backdated the family's housing account to 2017 because the original application was made in her ex-husband's name. Her solicitor has since twice asked the council to change the date on her housing account to 2017, but it has so far failed to reply to the requests. As the council gives priority to families who have been on the housing waiting list longer, Ms Roman and her three kids now face years more in temporary accommodation due to losing their waiting time.
Speaking this week (February 27), Ms Roman, 41, said, "I applied in 2017. I think they should respect that. So far, it has been six years of waiting. It would help that I don't have to wait more years for a house, and it would give stability to my family.
"Without any answer, there's just uncertainty. I feel ignored, as if time does not matter. I feel they [the council] are not serious in their work because they have ignored me. Their job is to help people by giving them information, not to ignore them."
Patricia took her case to the high court in a bid to get the council to respond to her request. Lambeth argued it didn't have the freedom to decide to backdate her housing account under its housing policy.
But in February, a high court judge said the council did have 'discretion' to backdate applications according to its Housing Allocation Scheme. The judge ordered Lambeth to make a decision on Ms Roman's request within 28 days. The council's response is due early in March.
Support group Housing Action Southwark and Lambeth (HASL), which has been assisting Ms Roman throughout her battle, branded the council's refusal to backdate her housing application 'cruel'.
People's ability to purchase their council homes should be taken away by our government because social housing stock must stay social housing. We no longer have to put up with Margaret Thatcher's ridiculous digressions because she is no longer among us.
It's also time to end the millions that are being ploughed into asylum seekers, and anyone entering our borders by illegal means should automatically be removed.
Everyone who has eyes can see that it's the refugees and asylum seekers that are being housed.
The housing system isn't a fair system anymore, and it hasn't been so for a very long time.
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