Home repossession has forced some families in to taking extreme measures to find shelter, it has been reported.
A couple have been forced to live in a garden shed after their home was repossessed, the Daily Mail reports.
Philip and Debbie Galloway, who have six children, found themselves unable to keep up with mortgage repayments on their three-bedroomed home and lost their property in June as a result.
With the children staying with relatives, the Hartlepool couple have now moved in to the shed - because, they claim, it is preferable to living in temporary council accommodation.
They are currently staying rent-free, as the allotment site in which the shed is situated is owned by Mr Galloway's father.
Mrs Galloway, 31, who originally fell behind on the repayments when she changed jobs recently, said that the private-rented council homes they saw had a host of problems, including holes in the kitchen floor, no running water and shoddy tiling. "The allotment is cleaner than half the houses they have sent us to," she told the newspaper.
However, these claims were rejected by a spokesman for Hartlepool council. "Mrs Galloway has been offered at least ten private sector properties but none has proved acceptable to her," he said. "We feel there is little else that we can do."
Meanwhile, another credit crunch-hit couple, who have been forced to live in their car after missing mortgage repayments and having their home repossessed, have also talked to the newspaper.
Sheffield residents Richard Webster and Laura Whitney, along with their two children, have been living in the five-door saloon for the past two weeks. Ms Whitney, 28, said that the family has no choice - as the council has declared them "intentionally homeless" and therefore ineligible for housing, and because their bad credit rating precludes them from renting privately.
Source
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Comments (3)
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Nikkinido
4th Aug 2008 22:34
Welcome to our world. This what some of council properties are like, You do the work necessary to bring it to your standards - live in a shed if you think it's better - more fool you. It will be so wrong if the ploy to get this on the news just so they get what they want actually works. Go private - that's what I had to do years ago! It cost more but you pay for what you get - not by stamping your feet on national TV - would not degrade myself. Understand difficulties with payments - been there done that but object to using the press as means to getting what you want above other people in the same position.
C. Madison
5th Aug 2008 23:38
The housing crisis is everywhere. How many families will be touched by it. Thousands of thousands everywhere there are lenders who will not work with us. In America we are seeing many families being displaced. This crisis has effected all avenues of our lives. We need to force these lenders to work with the families. We need to take to task the lenders and their greed. How do they sleep at night? Many of us, can't.
We need a moratorium on foreclosures.
sandyvalencour
6th Aug 2008 17:27
Sorry she feels so above things. We lived in a car for months as children and have nothing but good memories. We didn't realize we were homeless due to our parents. I was homeless with 2 kids when my husband ran off, but we made it even with a very low pay job and my kids never even knew how bad it was. You must protect your children and not let them realize how bad it is, keep things fun and by all means laugh laugh laugh. We had no one to help us, wouldn't let my dad as he was on SS and worse off than us. Come on, people have had it worse than these people and survived. That is the name of the game SURVIVAL
