Housing waiting list: 'My kids shouldn't have to live like this'

Tina Cowles has been on a waiting list for suitable housing for almost four years

A woman is having to share a bedroom with her children, one of whom has a rare form of cancer, after years on a waiting list for suitable housing.

Tina Cowles has been on a waiting list for a home in Broadway, Worcestershire, for almost four years.

Her one-bedroom flat has a raft of maintenance issues and her situation became more urgent when her two-year-old daughter was diagnosed with cancer.

Housing association Rooftop said repairs were "a priority".

"I feel like I've got nowhere else to turn," Ms Cowles said. "I'm stuck in this situation I can't get out of, it's hard.

"As a mum, you want to provide for your kids - they shouldn't have to live like this."

The family sleeps with "barely an inch" between them due to lack of space

She moved into the flat 15 years ago and said at the time it was fine because she was on her own.

Now with her two daughters, aged two and seven months, there is "not an inch" between the beds in the room they have to share.

The bathroom window is jammed open, leaving the flat cold. Ms Cowles says her baby daughter wakes up in the night not because she is hungry but because of the temperature.

Ms Cowles lost her job during the Covid pandemic and said her physical and mental health had deteriorated due to the conditions at home.

"I've tried everything I physically can," she said, adding she routinely contacted Rooftop and Wychavon District Council. "Unfortunately, nothing seems to happen."

Ms Cowles said she faced difficulty getting a new home despite the council being aware of her family's serious health needs

Ms Cowles' daughter Amelia will shortly need to begin chemotherapy for a rare form of cancer with which she was diagnosed earlier this year. Despite knowing this, Ms Cowles said, the council told her she was not the highest priority for a suitable home.

She has applied for eight homes in total, but if the family has been offered accommodation, it has so far been out of the area or far above what she can afford.

The council told the BBC Ms Cowles had now been moved to its highest priority banding.

"We acknowledge the customer is in overcrowded accommodation and have reviewed her case, including new information we have only recently received about the serious medical condition of the customer's daughter," Jen Taylor, from the authority, said.

A spokesperson for Rooftop said Broadway had "a very limited turnover of social rent homes" and routine repairs were taking "longer than we would like" due to the pandemic and Brexit.

They added Rooftop would be addressing the leaking toilet and issues with a hot water tap on Tuesday.