A WOMAN has told of the multitude of safety concerns she has at the temporary accommodation she and her family have been placed in in Rhyl.

The woman, who asked not to be named, left her former property in Prestatyn last September with her husband and children following a “no fault eviction”.

Following this, Denbighshire County Council (DCC) moved the family into a new home in Rhyl later that month, but the woman feels the property is unsuitable for her husband given his disabilities.

Despite being in the highest band for DCC’s Single Access Route To Housing (SARTH) service, the woman has pleaded for more help from the local authority in rehousing her and her family.

The stress that living in their current Rhyl property, she added, has caused both her and her children’s mental health to deteriorate.

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She said: “I’ve been working with the homelessness prevention team (at DCC) since just before COVID, but I’ve never heard anything from the lady who picked up our case. I fell off the radar and nobody picked me up.

“My husband is disabled and uses a wheelchair sometimes, and is on medication, so they decided we couldn’t go into the Westminster Hotel (emergency accommodation on East Parade, Rhyl).

“We then got offered the property we’re in now, which is a three-storey house. When I came to have a look at it, we were told they knew nothing about my husband being a wheelchair user.

“My daughter is on the autistic spectrum and has sensory issues to noise, which they knew nothing about, either.

“I was told if I didn’t accept this, there’d be nothing else. The council told me six months maximum (i.e. until March 2023), then we should be housed somewhere suitable, but (we have so far heard) nothing at all.”

Her husband, meanwhile, feels unable to stay in the house at times given his dependency on a wheelchair.

As such, when he does not feel capable of walking upstairs, he is having to say at a holiday lodge owned by the woman’s parents.

This, she said, has led to them feeling as though they have been “split up”.

She added: “At the moment, I’m waiting for an occupational therapist to come and review my husband’s needs. The only bathroom we have is on the first floor.

“There are, I think, 79 stairs in the house, and if you’re a wheelchair user, you’re not going to get up those 79 stairs.

“Even if I put a bedroom downstairs, I’ve still got to get him upstairs to use the bathroom.

“I have a wheelchair access vehicle, but there are permits on this road, so I can’t be guaranteed a place outside my house to be able to put the ramp down to get the wheelchair in and out when needed.

“When my husband is able to get up the stairs, he stays with me here. When he’s not, he’s been staying at the holiday lodge my parents recently bought, so we’ve been split up.”

The woman also shared other safety concerns at the home, such as the prevalence of rats and mice, the spate of drugs-related incidents, and the numerous sightings of dead bodies.

She added: “Since moving here, we’ve had rats and mice. My autistic daughter opened the cereal cupboard and a mouse jumped out at her.

“My granddaughter came downstairs to find a dead mouse on the mat. The following week, we had a mouse floating upside down in my dog’s water bowl.

“We’ve had a drugs den nearby, and in the street we live in, we’ve seen four dead bodies be removed.

“The house nearby used to be a brothel, so I’ve had people try to get into my house by mistake.

“I’d never had blood pressure problems before, but am now suffering with high blood pressure.”

The woman added that the house is, to her, “not a home”, but a place where neither she nor her children feel safe.

She urged DCC to assist them in being moved elsewhere as soon as possible.

She said: “I come home and just sit inside a box, and don’t look out of the window, then pick up the children from school and come home. If I don’t have to be here, I won’t be. The kids and I don’t feel safe in it. It’s not a home.

“I just want somewhere where my children and I feel safe.

“I know anybody can get mice, but when I’m forking out to pay for poison because it’s taking so long for somebody to come and fix it, I shouldn’t be doing that.

“There’s no help whatsoever, other than when I scream and shout. Even then, I don’t get much.”

Last July, DCC leader, Cllr Jason McLellan, said he intends to reinvest council funds into building affordable homes and purchasing new council houses.

These plans surfaced after a council report revealed roughly 180 households in the county are placed in temporary accommodation annually.

The report also found that one family of three lived in a cellar, and that a large number of those presenting as homeless are single people aged 35 or younger, and large families.

Despite this, the council said it has secured tenancies for 99 households in social housing in the last 18 months.

The report showed the number of people living on the street in Denbighshire was in single figures.

In response to the woman’s comments, a DCC spokesperson said: “The council acknowledges that there are waiting times for family accommodation, which is an issue that also impacts many other councils nationally.

“Our teams will always try their best to hurry along any processes as quickly as possible to support family welfare and will continue to work with this family to provide a satisfactory resolution.”

James Davies, MP for Vale of Clwyd, added: “This lady's situation is particularly complex.

"I have reached out to her to offer further support in exploring all her housing options and in working closely with DCC and other providers.”