A 64-year-old woman said she is facing homelessness after she was evicted from the North London home she has rented for 25 years, and has been left unable to find another place to live.
Angela Elliot was left shocked after she realised she was priced out of the area she had lived in for 27 years and raised her son in.
Her landlady had informed her that she wanted to build a loft conversion over the property she had rented and sell it up MyLondon reports.
This meant Angela was forced to move, but she discovered she would be unable to afford anywhere else close by.
She was given notice on her two-bed flat and has since found it impossible to find somewhere else to live on the £1,100 rent she was paying.
She said; “I was very shocked, it was a real blow to the gut, it wasn’t expected and also coming so soon after Covid.
“Having to leave somewhere I’d been for so long and brought my son up here, if it had been my choice to leave; no problem but it’s like I’ve been forced now to leave it’s very distressing.”
Angela still works for a construction company and said she is stuck in a “catch-22” situation.
She needs to be able to travel to and from her job in London and is terrified that if she moves too far out she will not only be homeless but jobless too.
She added: “If I move out of London I can’t really do my job then I’m going to be without an income, who's going to employ me at 64?"
Angela does not blame her landlady for the eviction, and said she had been “very fair” over the 25 years of tenancy.
As a long term renter, she moved in in 1996, on a rolling lease her landlady only put the rent up once her 25 years of tenancy was up.
The mum fears she is too close to retirement age to find another job and said the sudden shock had impacted her mental health and being unable to find somewhere to rent left her at her lowest.
She said: “I’ve had mornings when I’ve woken up thinking, I don’t want to be here anymore.”
Angela moved into the area as a single parent with her young son and could not afford to buy a property at the time.
She survived on income support and housing benefit to cover rent, bills and food.
After notice of her eviction she began looking for new places to live but was shocked at the state of London’s property market.
Not only did she find very little on the market but said competition was fierce for what was on offer.
As she is still working, she is not eligible for housing association support and homeless charities told her to speak to her local authority.
She said: “You reach your sixties, realise that you don’t have a (private) pension, don't have savings, or own your own property yet still have a job, in order to do that job you have to live within a reasonable distance.
“What do I do moving forward? I'm 64, if my job ends or I retire or something happens and I can no longer work, where am I going to be, what’s going to happen to me?"
Angela shared her situation on social media and said she has had an amazing response from the local community including support of her local MP Labour’s Catherine West.
