Jennifer's story. Surviving lockdown in temporary accommodation.

When I was 23, I went to New York, and had two children over there, but in 1996 I came back with my children who went to school here. I started to do accountancy and got a job working for the police as a facilities administrator. I then worked in accountancy and payroll for 15 years in London. 
 
My youngest daughter moved back to the US 2009 and went into the military where she is a sergeant now. I decided to move back to be with her, and by September 2014, I was living in the US and I was training to be a medical assistant because my accountancy qualifications were not recognised there. That’s when they found cancer in my colon. Luckily, I had it removed and because I was working I could have it paid for by insurance, but then afterwards I had my first heart attack. I was in hospital for 4 weeks but then I had another heart attack in April 2017 and after that I couldn’t get insurance anymore, as I hadn’t been working.  
 
Friends and family helped out as much as they could as I was not fit to work, but then I also got osteo- arthritis and needed a hip replacement. I had no money and couldn’t rely on my friends forever, so I decided I had to come back to the UK for medical reasons, to try and get help here. When I got to Heathrow, I was told to go back to the borough that I left from, but Brent Council said they could do nothing for me. They said I had to show that I was habitually resident for the past 3 months before I was allowed any benefits. I spent the first night waiting at McDonalds for an outreach team that never arrived. Then a lady who worked there came over and when I told her what happened she ended up putting me up for the weekend.  
 
In the end I found a night shelter in a church hall. There were 10 people staying there but all the others were getting benefits, and I was still living off friends and family who were sending me money. I called the Citizens Advice Bureau who said I should be eligible for Universal Credit and they gave me a letter to give the council, but they were very rude and said I didn’t satisfy them that I haven’t come back just for medical reasons. 
 
I was first put in contact with Crisis Brent though the night shelter, and when the shelter closed in March 2019, Crisis began to support me. They paid for me to stay in a bed n breakfast and got a lawyer involved. Brent Council finally accepted I was a British Citizen with serious medical needs and therefore the council has a duty of care so they offered me temporary accommodation, but it was 52 stairs up to my room, which I wouldn’t be able to take because of my health conditions. Then I was offered a place in High Wycombe which I couldn’t take because I couldn’t have made it to my hospital appointments.  
 
Crisis then put me up in a Travel Lodge, and then a Hostel for 5 weeks, and then another hotel for another 5 weeks. Eventually I was referred to SHIPS (Single Homeless Intervention and Prevention scheme) who placed me in a privately rented room in shared house. I was then sent to see a succession of inappropriate temporary accommodation options in shared places. One was even in a converted garage. I have now been placed in Neasden, in the smallest room in a converted house with 6 rooms. I have a single bed which is difficult with my hip and I’m on universal credit which only just covers my monthly rent of £879.80 rent.  
 
I've been trying to cope with this lockdown situation as best I can. With being in a mixed house we have to share a kitchen and the other tenants go in and out and have people coming to see them, even though we are supposed to be self-isolating. I’ve since had my hip replacement on the NHS, and with my other health conditions I’m so worried of contracting the coronavirus, as the other tenants don’t take this situation seriously. I stay in my room which I have no space to walk around to exercise so I’m getting stiff. I should still be going to physio but have had to stop because all my appointments got cancelled due to the shutdown. The planning department has inspected here and said it is not fit for purpose so I am expecting to be moved out but it won’t happen until the lockdown is over now, and I’m still dreading where they might try to put me. I’ve been experiencing panic attacks, sleepless nights and severe depression, feeling hopeless and worried that I might not make it out of this place into somewhere of my own that’s safe for me. 
 
Crisis staff have managed to get me a food bank delivery and find volunteers who were able to do a shop for me. I'm very grateful for their help. I don’t have any family support so it’s very lonely at the moment. If I didn't have Crisis' help, I don't know where I would have been.