A young couple fear they will be out on the streets after being threatened with eviction when they had a baby earlier this year.
Keda Upton and her partner have lived in a shared house in Falmouth, Cornwall, for over a year but are now terrified they will be made homeless due to a lack of affordable alternatives.
Their landlord allegedly gave them an eviction notice in June to rent their room to a single person because the property is not advertised for families, reports Cornwall Live.
The clock is ticking for the couple with just a fortnight to go until the eviction notice expires at the end of November and, with Cornwall facing a housing crisis, the young family could be homeless by Christmas.
The 20-year-old said: "We currently have nowhere to go as we can’t live with family due to their own housing situations which would lead to overcrowding and our friends can’t have us either but they help us when they can."
She added that Cornwall Council has said it could not guarantee it will find the family somewhere to live, which it is not obliged to do at this stage, and the family may end up in temporary accommodation.
But Keda said they won't even be able to afford that.
She said: "They currently won’t do anything until we are in 56 days of relief which is only until our eviction date. They are constantly forcing us to go private and look elsewhere when it’s completely not an option for us.
"We can’t even get full homeless duty until our eviction and even then they could end up putting us into a hotel that will cost more than we can afford.
"We are with WILD for young parents [charity] but there’s not much they can do really as the council just tell them what they have told me, that they are doing their best and can’t guarantee us a home even though we have been on the Homechoice list since around November, December last year."
Keda has also said that the eviction has had a "huge impact" on her mental health and has made her home life uncomfortable.
She added: "It’s completely turned my life upside down, my mental health has taken a huge impact due to this. I've seen so many I know go through this and I've also seen those who have more options than us being helped more which is really frustrating."
As house prices around Cornwall continue to rise, Keda says that it is almost impossible for a young family on low income to be able to afford to rent privately.
"It’s completely out our price range," she said. "They are asking for four weeks upfront on an £750 to £800 property and that’s not even a deposit and bills. We can’t even afford £500 and then bills right now as I’m on maternity leave until June next year.
"I have lived here since I was 10 and have family in Penryn and my partner has lived here all his life.
"The current housing crisis has impacted us massively, too many houses are empty with nobody in them, people want to downsize but don’t have one-beds to go down to, to open up a two or three-bed for a family and it’s just a domino effect."
