Family could be left homeless due to lack of social housing

Transcript

00:00Meet Mary. She's 93 and needs round-the-clock care. Her granddaughter Nina looks after her

00:08at home in Mainstone. Mary sleeps in this hospital bed in the living room and her three

00:16great-grandchildren live here too. But now the family's got to move. The landlord's selling

00:22up and Nina is desperately searching for social housing, big enough for five people.

00:28But so far she says there's nothing. Well it's either my nan living in a hospital bed on the

00:37streets with me and the kids. So really desperate, like ridiculously desperate. I've never, I hate

00:45relying on people. You know I've always gone out and worked and done what I need to do to survive in

00:50life. The cost of a four or five bed rental has skyrocketed beyond what Nina can afford. She can

00:58only work around 10 to 15 hours a week. Caring for her nan takes up most of the day.

01:05Mainstone Borough Council says she's top priority on their housing list but right now they have no

01:11homes available to her. And obviously you care for your nan so it's not just as simple as moving is

01:18it? So council have advised me not to leave, not to move out of this place. If I do everything that

01:26I'm sort of fighting towards will be voided and they won't help me and they said that my landlord

01:31then has to take me to court and then the judge has to then give a final date. After that final date

01:39if they still haven't found me somewhere then they have to take me back to court and issue bay leaves

01:45to come and move me. And it's a very very expensive way of doing it. It's very counterproductive and just

01:51ends up with people costing a lot more because they're having to lean more heavily on on temporary

01:56accommodation, on the NHS, on health services. So really we need something that is going to

02:04come in and actually start finding some solutions to this. Council figures show that in the five years

02:10leading to 2023 the number of households on Maidstone's housing register rose by 42 percent.

02:17Charities blame soaring rents. According to the Office for National Statistics, private rental

02:23prices jumped nine percent last year. In a statement the council told us they're working with the family

02:29to stop them becoming homeless. They say they're offering support with temporary accommodation and

02:35advice on private rental markets and they're encouraging Nina to stay in contact. Nina could put her nan

02:42into a care home that would give her the time to work more. But she says the best place for Mary

02:49is at home surrounded by love and her grandchildren. Gabriel Morris in Maidstone.