Wyre Forest News

Family flees flat fearing for safety

By Charlie Crabtree

8:00am Thursday 29th July 2010

A WYRE Forest mum says she and her partner had to flee their flat for fear of their own safety and are being forced to live in cramped conditions back at her parents’ house.

Kerry Ross, 21, mother of six-month-old Tyler-Jay Evans, is angry with The Community Housing Group (CHG), saying it is not making her a priority for new housing.

The housing group said the family could have taken up an offer of the next available property but wanted to be housed in a specific area.

Miss Ross explained there were now nine people living in her parents’ three-bedroom home in Chaddesley Corbett.

She said her ground floor flat, in Harold Evers Way, Kidderminster, had been burgled on June 19, followed by another attempt on June 20.

She claimed it was “unsafe” for her, her son and partner, Andrew Evans, to return, adding she was told by previous tenants there had been other burglaries there.

Miss Ross said she had since had the flat boarded up and moved to Chaddesley Corbett with her son and partner, where it was “very overcrowded” and “cramped”.

She added that as a result, many of her belongings had to be kept at friends’ and family members’ homes.

She explained CHG had put her back on to the property list so she could bid on properties she would like to live in but Miss Ross said they had banded her as Bronze Plus, which, she said: “I feel is not good enough”.

She claimed she had been “constantly messed around” by CHG, which, saying it had not returned her calls or kept appointments.

She explained: “I am very disappointed in how they have dealt with this incident and that they are still trying to mess me around.

“I have a six-month-old son to be thinking about. I feel that they don’t realise how it all this has affected me, my partner or my son.

“I have been to the doctors and have been put on sleeping tablets, as I cannot sleep and they are still expecting us to pay full rent. It is just a joke how we are being treated.”

A spokeswoman for CHG said: “Mr Evans and Miss Ross have requested specific areas only, rather than taking the next available offer, which may have been a more speedy solution. We will take their request into consideration.”

She added: “I am not aware that messages have not been replied to but we have a duty officer to deal with enquiries during office hours, Monday to Friday, so any further assistance can be provided through this route.”

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