UP to 12 hours in a car - just to ensure continuity of schooling for their children, each day of the week, with no creature comforts or respite when they do get 'home'... this is the reality for two families from Calne since they were placed in temporary accommodation back in November last year.
Take a walk through Calne town centre any weekday, and you will see two couples parked in the old Co-Op car park, waiting for it to be time to collect their children from school.
Cramped living area leaves the children nowhere to play or the family to relax
The two families of 6, have both been placed in two-bedroom properties in Salisbury, serving as temporary accommodation, because there simply aren't any properties big enough to house them any closer to Calne.
In February last year, Kelly Rudol and her husband John were served with a Section 21 Eviction Notice from their landlord to end their tenancy from their home in Calne. It went through the court system and in November, they were given just two days notice to pack up and move into a two-bedroom flat in Salisbury with four sons: Cody, 18, Oscar, 14, Phoenix, 8 and Leo, 6.
The couple share a room with two of the children
Cody has ASD and hypermobility, Oscar has had multiple surgeries on his knees for subluxation of his tibiofibular joint, Phoenix is on the ASD pathway and suffers from anxiety, emotion dysregulation and hypermobility and Leo is on the ADHD pathway with hypomobility, bladder and bowel conditions and transition/anxiety issues. None of these conditions lend themselves well to sitting in a car for over an hour twice a day - Leo has to be given paracetamol before any travel to help with the inevitable pain.
Kelly suffers from mental health problems, migraines, asthma, fibromyalgia and hip osteoarthritis.
The eldest two boys share one of the bedrooms, with Kelly, John and the two younger boys in the other room.
"No-one has their own space to decompress or chill out. When I have a migraine, the boys have to stay in the living room all the time so I can have the bedroom" Kelly told us.
Their weekdays start at 6am, to be in the car for 7am to get Cody and Oscar to Kingsbury Green Academy and Phoenix and Leo to Fynamore School - then, it is a long day sitting in the car waiting for it to be time to collect them. Travelling back to Salisbury again before pick up would not be cost effective and Kelly can never be sure when she might be needed by one of her sons.
"We have been offered transport for the boys to get to school but that would not work for the younger two who struggle to get to school and don't do well with strangers, and it would be pointless for the older two if we were still coming to Calne" Kelly explained.
Most evenings, they get home after 5pm, with a short window of time to have dinner, do homework, and do household chores. Some nights they can return as late as 8.30pm due to club commitments or after-school mentoring - on these nights the boys have their dinner in the back of the car.
Cody is in his final year studying for his A-levels, he sometimes stays with a friend or a family friend when he has coursework or exams because there is no space at home to revise or work.
Facing very much the same situation is Will Morris, his partner and four children. They were placed in a 2-bed house in Salisbury a couple of weeks after the Rudloes.
"My partner has mobility issues, she can no longer wash independently because the shower is broken and she can’t get into the bath.
"We are also currently sleeping in our living room with all our belongings stacked up.
“The council's constant reply to our situation is that they are only obligated to put a roof over our heads - never mind the stress and strain this causes a big family as well as the financial implications for travelling every day.”
Both couples are spending approximately £90 a week on fuel.
In response, Cllr Phil Alford, Cabinet Member for Housing, has told us: “We are unable to comment on individual cases without the consent of the individual, but we appreciate how difficult it can be for families in temporary accommodation.
“We take our legal responsibilities for homeless households very seriously. We have a large temporary accommodation portfolio which means we don’t have to place households out of county or use B&B accommodation, however demand is very high and we are not always able to offer temporary accommodation in the household’s preferred area of choice. For every placement we offer, a suitability and affordability assessment is completed to ensure the temporary accommodation meets the needs of the household.
“We endeavour to move families into suitable settled accommodation in the social or private rented sector as quickly as we can. However, there is likely to be a longer wait for an affordable private or social let with four bedrooms, as private lets of this size tend to be unaffordable and four-bed social homes are limited. For this reason, it may be appropriate for homeless applicants with larger households to temporarily re-register their children at schools local to their temporary accommodation or to re-settle in a different community or location. We will carefully assess suitability of each potential settled home in relation to its location and affordability, but we cannot predict exactly when a household in temporary accommodation will be offered a settled home.”
Calne News has been advised that any household in temporary accommodation has an allocated housing case worker and a tenancy sustainment officer who work with them to offer support and advice to help them manage while in temporary accommodation, as well as with options to move into permanent accommodation.
However, Kelly says this hasn't been her experience. Although she met her tenancy sustainment officer before moving out of her former home, she hasn't had any meetings since - she received an email from her officer asking if they could meet on the 5th February, Kelly accepted and asked for a time and place, she received an automated reply saying the officer was 'currently out of the office', the day passed with no further contact.
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