In this piece Paul talks about the stress of being forced to move after a long period of uncertainty in which he was faced with the constant threat of eviction.
Last Wednesday I was notified that if I’d move, Westminster Council would keep me in until the end of May. On Thursday I viewed it, on Saturday I moved. It’s caused, chaos & consternation.
Nobody from Westminster had thought about my needs and that failure has led to a severe crash of my MECFS today. Paul Atherton FRSA
This is the bit public sector workers don’t think about when they make decisions. I had to move accommodation on Saturday and the accommodation’s only a 15 minute walk from where it was previously, and I’ve moved from Edgware Road to Bayswater Road, Bayswater Road, just being the road that skirts the edge of Hyde Park. So some would say my situation has improved.
Certainly in the eyes of money, being closer to Hyde Park means the value of the property goes up. But in reality, I’ve gone from one universe to a completely different one, totally and utterly, not remotely similar. And all of this was decided last Thursday. Last Thursday, Westminster City Council said.
‘Your accommodation that you’re in ends on the 30th of April’
Which I knew, so I was getting primed to leave to return back to the streets. But there’s been some complication with the landlord there. Out of the blue Westminster Council say, oh, we’re going to extend it to May now. But to do that, you’re going to have to move to a different accommodation. Saturday, I was moving.
Now on a stress count, moving house is like up there with death of a family member. But when you’re homeless and relying on public sector folk, there’s no time to process, no time to engage, no time to make decisions. None of these things are yours, they’re just imposed on you.’
‘Do this or leave’.
It’s a gun to the head moment.
What do you want to do, live or die?’
And in some instances many many people would look at the accommodation and go.
‘Actually, I would rather risk dying on the streets’.
And this is what’s becoming more and more apparent in research of recent weeks. However, the accommodation was run by the hotel manager who’s been nothing but good to me throughout the entire process. And so I came, took a look and it was fine and moved in on Saturday. We are now on Monday 19th of April and I moved on the 17th of April with two weeks spare to when I was expecting to be evicted again. So, as I said, a different universe.
To start off with the accommodation is different. I had a bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and living room. In my previous accommodation, which was in a building block which came with a porter. I’m now in a Georgian…huge Georgian house, but it’s a studio room. I lost a table so I can no longer sit up right to eat. The bathroom has shrunk dramatically. The shower doesn’t work, there’s no hot water. The electricity here runs off a meter, which I don’t get access…a pay as you go meter, which I don’t get access to. The kitchen is minute. There was mould in the fridge. The curtains don’t work. The heating doesn’t work.
And so psychologically, suddenly, I’m now having to process all these changes, but then I discover that having been used to having Marks and Spencers four minutes away, that the nearest supermarket to here is twenty. Which means that I’ve got shops around the corner, but they’re all Hyde Park price shops around the corner. So instead of getting a twenty pence banana from Marks and Spencers, I’m now going to be paying a pound upwards. It also means the absence of a proper kitchen and the absence of some way to eat means that suddenly I’m having to eat out. So instead of a meal costing me a pound, it’s now costing me five. That is not sustainable for more than a few days. After that. It’s going to be really problematic. I don’t have proper sofas, the television is no longer a smart TV. And this is the problem with all of these things, people go, oh, well, you’ve got a roof over your head, you should be grateful. Well, no, I shouldn’t. That should be the base. That should be what should be happening in society. There should be no. Oh, isn’t it wonderful that we’ve done the right thing? No, no, that’s not. What should be happening is…
‘Okay, what are your needs? You suffer with chronic fatigue syndrome energy levels, something you have to manage every single day. So we want to make sure that either there’s a carer or support systems in place or that you can create those systems for yourself.’
And of course, you’re going to love this, the person who’s in charge of my case told me all about this on Thursday when I had accepted the accommodation on Friday. He then tells me he’s on holiday for a fortnight. My social worker seems to have been on holiday for a month. I have no carers. As I mentioned previously, the receptionist at the other place no longer exists to me, so I haven’t even got the reach out, the potential of a reach out to somebody here.
So I’ve become further isolated. On the upside, having Hyde Park literally three minutes walk from my front door means that getting out through the door first thing is considerably easier. It’s also forced upon me because if I don’t, I’m not going to get a coffee or something to eat, so it’s it’s getting out through that front door. I have daylight coming in through my window. Now, that has changed everything, as I said it would, I have been very, very seriously depressed, not being able to see daylight for hours and hours on end. But of course, now we’re also coming out of lockdown. So the actual process of being trapped indoors in the dark has actually diminished. I can spend more time outside than I have done pretty much for the past year.
But that’s also a thing, I had a year inside in one location, but only three of those months were safe and secure and no sword of Damocles. My benefits still haven’t been paid. And so I’m living off the last remnants of cash just to keep myself from not going completely insane and starving to death spending it on the local cafes here, which if I had the money, I’d have no problem doing anyway. But I don’t have an option. You know, there are no little corner shops. There are just cafes and restaurants and bars and there are no supermarkets.
And this is the problem all the time, people do not see things holistically, it’s just, oh, we’ll get him into some accommodation somewhere. It doesn’t matter where, he’ll be grateful. I’m not grateful. I’m not grateful for having something that I should have had 12 years ago. I’m not grateful that we have a system that’s so insane that there are empty properties lying all around here and people aren’t living in them, but there are people living on the streets and we as a society are OK with that. I am grateful to people who are nice. I am grateful for people who rally around and do the things above and beyond the call, but I’m never grateful for someone just delivering me food at a restaurant. If they deliver me food with a smile, that’s something I’m grateful for. That’s something they’ve they’ve given me above and beyond what they’re being paid to do.
So I’m readjusting, I’ve been here 48 hours, the landlord’s coming over to do.. With the handyman, so hopefully we can get the shower working and find out why the electricity doesn’t work and how the heating works and get the window open and the curtains. So but the table issue’s a huge issue. Sitting upright to eat is a is a crucial thing for managing my my health and my energy levels. If I don’t sit up properly to eat, I get digestive problems and my energy levels dip and you slide into depression very quickly. So that’s a huge, huge problem for me right now. And one i’ve only really just being hit by. And everything is cheap, you know, you open the drawer, the drawer falls out, you lift up a stool, the top of the stool comes away in your hand, you open a cupboard door and the cupboard almost falls on top of you. Never understood people doing that for the sake of a couple of hundred quid more. You know, you get half decent furniture, but people just don’t. It’s all about money.
And while we still live in a society like that, I’m afraid, ladies and gentlemen, things are not going to change. Oh, well, another week, another dollar. Hopefully there’s going to be some positive news this week, but it’s not looking good so far.