A Dundee family who share a bedroom between four have blasted the “almost Victorian” conditions of their council house.
John-Paul Jaffrey and Michelle Middleton live in a one-bedroom council flat on Barnes Avenue with their two children, Cole, who is five, and 16-month-old Luke.
They have been on the list for a new council house since moving to the property more than three years ago, and despite their second son being born, and developing lung and breathing problems because of damp conditions inside the overcrowded home, they claim to have moved further down the housing list, rather than up.
Michelle said: “We’re a proper working family. We pay our rent on time, we pay our council tax, and we get nothing.
“We pay rent on the house every month, and we shouldn’t be paying a penny for something in that state.
“It is stressful and that begins to tell on us all, I think. With everyone together, you’re worried the little one will wake up everyone else. Both of us have been affected.
“I get annoyed to think of everyone who has got a house since we have. I’d like to see the people ahead of us on the list, I’d be surprised if they have four in a room.
“To me it’s the system that’s just completely broken. Living conditions like this shouldn’t be happening.”
Michelle says conditions in the flat have only worsened.
She said: “A surveyor said that the house had serious damp, partly caused by having so many people in one room.
“What choice do I have? And I can’t open the windows in the middle of winter and freeze the house.
“Despite my child having problems with asthma and bronchitis we haven’t been given any medical points that could move us up the list and he’s having to stay in this house, which isn’t good for him.”
The family are frustrated by council bungling, not just in being stuck with their one-bedroom flat but also with repairs to the severe damp in the property.
Michelle said: “It feels like we’re going round in circles and everything we try is just a dead end. We put in a claim in December to have some of the damp fixed and still nothing has been done. We’re told the claim is still not looked at.”
John-Paul’s father said: “I’d be surprised if there’s anyone more needing of a house than them.”
The couple say their lives have all been affected by the squalid conditions.
Michelle said: “Personally it’s really hard. Because we get no space, one half of the living room is devoted to baby things, and the other half to Cole’s toys so we have very little space and very little space for ourselves.”
A Dundee City Council spokesperson said: “We are in discussions with the tenant about various housing options.
“Unfortunately there are a limited number of properties becoming available in the areas that she wants to live in.”