Mum's six-year battle to secure council house

A MOTHER has been trying to secure a council home in Gateshead for more than six and a half years - but has not been offered one property.

- By KRISTY DAWSON Reporter

Judith Mackay and her autistic son Callum, 24, are currently living in a private rented house in Blaydon.

The 53-year-old said the three-bedroom house is damp, mouldy and in desperate need of repair. She has been bidding on local authority properties for six years and seven months but has been unsuccessful.

Judith said the situation has left them both feeling down. She said: “I have been waiting over six and a half years now for a council house.

“I have been bidding and they even said I'm doing everything right but I have never been offered a house in all of that time.

“They said it could still be over a year because of the waiting list. There are people that are homeless and need to be housed and I understand that but I still feel six and a half years is a really long time to not be offered a single thing.

“It’s not good living with a rolling contract. We don’t know from one minute to the next if they're going to say get out. It’s very stressful living how we are. I just want security for me and my son. I have got too old for moving around and not knowing.

“The bidding is every week. I’m not sleeping so I have been looking in the middle of the night at houses. You can only bid on a maximum of three. I try to bid on three every week but some weeks there's just nothing.