{"id":23117,"date":"2025-02-14T09:30:45","date_gmt":"2025-02-14T09:30:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/north-shields-woman-cannot-use-own-bath-due-to-housing-crisis\/"},"modified":"2025-02-14T09:30:45","modified_gmt":"2025-02-14T09:30:45","slug":"north-shields-woman-cannot-use-own-bath-due-to-housing-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/north-shields-woman-cannot-use-own-bath-due-to-housing-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"North Shields woman cannot use own bath due to housing crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Helen Richardson<\/span><\/p>\n

Political Reporter, BBC Newcastle<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Karen has been living in a flat that is unsuitable for her restricted mobility<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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A woman with arthritis says demand for housing in the private rental sector is so high she has no option but to live in a flat with a bath she cannot use. <\/p>\n

Karen Bray said she had to downsize from a house to a small flat in North Shields after a no-fault eviction, and had struggled to find a more accessible home she could afford.<\/p>\n

She is urging the government to deal with the rising cost of private rents and a lack of choice for people with mobility issues.<\/p>\n

The government declined to comment on Ms Bray’s case but said its Affordable Homes Programme aimed to create 5,000 affordable and social homes in North Tyneside.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Karen<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Ms Bray has been keeping the cat litter tray in the bath because she cannot physically use it herself <\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Ms Bray said the bath was not big enough.<\/p>\n

“I have to pay to use showers at leisure centres because I can’t use the bath here.” <\/p>\n

She added the flat was affecting her mental health. <\/p>\n

“It’s a bit like a game,” she said. “You have to move one thing to get to another.” <\/p>\n

Ms Bray said her bedroom was like a “glorified passage to the back door”, with her living room being part of her kitchen. <\/p>\n

She said she was grateful she did not have to share a room with her teenager or sleep in the living room, but added: “There’s no doubt that there are more suitable properties out there that are empty.” <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Karen Bray had to downsize from a house to a small flat because of high rents<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Housing charity Shelter said Ms Bray’s case was not unusual.<\/p>\n

North East strategic lead Tracy Guy said: “We’re seeing an 8.9% increase in rents in the last year, coupled with huge waiting lists for social housing.” <\/p>\n

Mrs Guy said people on benefits or low incomes could not get a private rent in Newcastle. <\/p>\n

“It’s just inaccessible, the rents are too high,” she said.<\/p>\n

Shelter hopes the Renters Reform Bill<\/a>, which is currently going through Parliament, will be a “once-in-a-generation opportunity to overhaul the private renting sector”.<\/p>\n

The bill proposes scrapping section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions and introducing more fairness to the system.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Tracy<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Tracy Guy, of housing charity Shelter, said it was “really desperate” for private sector renters<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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A government spokesperson said: “We are urgently using all levers available to build the homes we need so more families can get on the housing ladder. <\/p>\n

“We’re sweeping aside the blockers to get houses built, and paving the way for the next generation of new towns.”<\/p>\n

They added the government was spending an extra \u00a3800m on the existing Affordable Homes Programme to help deliver tens of thousands of new affordable and social homes across the country.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


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Helen Richardson Political Reporter, BBC Newcastle BBC Karen has been living in a flat that is unsuitable for her restricted mobility A woman with arthritis says demand for housing in the private rental sector is so high she has no option but to live in a flat with a bath she cannot use. Karen Bray […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23118,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[2256,267,866,372,293,158,983],"class_list":["post-23117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-england","tag-bath","tag-crisis","tag-due","tag-housing","tag-north","tag-shields","tag-woman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23117"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23117\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23119,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23117\/revisions\/23119"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}