There is a very simple solution to all of this

But sadly South Shropshire Housing Association won't hear of it.

In Clun, where two of my lads have full time paying jobs and no transport is a three bedroomed house, which they are entitled to, sitting empty. It was advertised on Shropshire Homepoint on 8th December 2011 but there were no successful bids.

Across the river, literally a five minute walk away and en route to my lads' jobs is a two bedroomed adapted for the disabled bungalow, which was advertised on Shropshire Homepoint last week. According to the successful bids for the last week, this place too is sitting empty. I am entitled to a two bedroomed bungalow.

If they were to allocate the house to the lads and the bungalow to me, my carers would be within shouting distance almost and they'd be able to be independent but there within minutes if I needed help.

In June, when we filled in the original housing application forms it was with the understanding that my lads would be close by and this was agreed by our housing officer Sue Perry. However, now things have changed.  I am expected to look for a property further a field, so say like what has happened before when I have been able to get out of bed and have called the lads for help, they could very well have a thirty mile journey, which isn't on so God knows what would happen in those circumstances.

Just a brief explanation of my disabilities may help you understand why at fifty one, I'm disabled and do need help. I have Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease, which is a progressive, neuro muscular disease that means basically every muscle in my body is diseased and dying. I also have Osteo arthritis and am waiting for hip replacements. Then there is the Psoriatic Arthritis which affects all my joints and just to finish off I have Spondylitis which is arthritis in the spine. I have difficulty standing and walking and am a wheelchair user. My hands don't work very well and am in constant pain. I'm being treated for depression and just for good measure losing my hearing, which for a musician is devastating. Seriously though these conditions are made worse by stress, cold and damp.

I'm not asking for the world, just a bit of help to make the most of my life.

But as I said, sadly for us South Shropshire Housing Association won't entertain us living in Clun as a supportive family - they would rather I continued sleeping in the shed.

So be it.

Time to take legal advice

Despite everything we did have a lovely Christmas but now it's time to sort this mess out. I've decided that after holidays I'm going to take legal advice because I don't believe South Shropshire Housing Association have behaved legally and lawfully and they have failed in their duty of care towards me.

This is a time table of events with explanations as to why they have acted illegally and unlawfully. Everything I say here can be supported with evidence.

November 2010 - April 2011


19th April 2011 after a referral from the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital made in November 2010, I was visited by Phil Scott who is an Occupational Therapist. He came around to assess the suitability of my home for my needs. His report said 'Ms Horder-Mason has crutches however she finds these really heavy, she also has a walking stick however she uses the furniture to walk indoors. She keeps her crutches in her car in case she needs them when she is outdoors. When food shopping she uses the trolley to her mobilise. If going shopping for a longer period of time she orders a mobility scooter. She climbs the stairs on good days using the hand rails, however on bad days she has assistance from her sons to help her get up and down the stairs. The stairs have two rails on both sides and a grab rail at the bottom, however did state that with her arthritis it is not always easy to grip them. She is able to rise from her chair independently most days, on bad days she has help from her sons. She has a bed lever to assist her to get out of bed. Client has grab rails next to both up/downstairs toilet to assist her to get off.


Hers sons have removed the steps at the front of the property to make the path graded from gate towards house, however the surface is uneven and does not provide a complete level path from front door as there is still two steps in place. 

A report was then sent to Shropshire Council with the following recommendations

1. Speak with senior OT and Housing regarding the best long term solutions option with regards to having a stair lift or adapting the outhouse.
2. Recommend to South Shropshire Housing Association the provision of a ramp and handrails to front path.

June 20th 2011

Sue Perry, Housing Officer for SSHA came to see us and told us that they were not prepared to do the adaptations to the house because of cost and the rural location and that they would find it difficult to re-let the house in the future. She said the best way for the needs of my family and myself to be met would be to move but the problem was they didn't have a property large enough to rehouse us all together and asked how we'd feel about 'splitting up.' She suggested a bungalow for me and properties for my sons and she added 'as we're responsible for removing your sons from their home, it is our responsibility to re-house them.'

'Put that way we didn't really have a choice because if we wanted to stay here they weren't going to make the house safe for me.'

Dan asked 'why can't you just put Mum in a bungalow and let us stay here?'

We were told no, they couldn't do that and that they had to apply for a their own places. She also added that because I was the tenant the boys would have to move out first. 'This concerned me, my sons and the OT because in theory it could mean that I would be left in a house that I was unsafe in.' But anyway we filled in the forms, they were processed and we were all given Priority banding because of the urgency with which I needed to move. Sue did say that in the interim time she would request that the front path be made safe and did put in a request.

July and August went by and yes we checked Shropshire HomePoint weekly but there was nothing suitable so we didn't bid. In the meantime the front path remained dangerous and nothing was done about it. I rang up SSHA repairs department I think early September and was told that they weren't going to repair it but that it was going to be put on a 'schedule of works' which meant it wouldn't be done until the earliest March 2012 and that they would probably replace the steps that had been taken away. I explained that this was ridiculous because I'm a wheelchair user.

Early October I had a visit from an inspector of works from SSHA who took photographs and confirmed how dangerous the path was and that he would put in a price for the work to be carried out a.s.a.p. I said I needed it done before November and he said he'd see what he could do. November came and I phoned again and was told they couldn't do it because of the bad weather setting in. (Incidentally the steps were taken out, with written planning permission from SSHA in November 2010 by my son and his friend. SSHA came and checked that the gradient was correct, which it was and said they would finish the job off as agreed.)

December 5th 2011

Sue Perry came out to see me with two men who looked around the house. One was a surveyor who was checking all the housing stock and one came out to see what adaptations could be done to the house. The reason, as Sue explained, I'd been downgraded to Gold band (unknown to me) and it was felt that the downgrading would delay my move, so for my sake they were coming to see what they could do to make me safe. The general conclusion was, there was nothing that could be done, except put a hand rail up in the hall, which has been done.

She was also concerned that she could find no evidence of planning permission being given regarding the removal of the steps down to the road. Fortunately we'd kept the letter and printed a copy off for her - her comment was 'I haven't seen this, it's not in the file.'

Sorry I did reply 'what a surprise.'

Sue rang me two days later and said that my banding had been raised to Priority but they were still looking to see what could be done. I told her that I had no choice but to move downstairs and that we were going to clear out the shed/outhouse to put a bed in because I was tired of being in danger on the stairs and was seriously frightened of falling.

The week beginning 12th December 2011 Dan cleared out the shed and on 15th December I contacted Jim Hawkins on Radio Shropshire who sent out Genevieve Tudor to interview me and to have a look at my bijou boudoir. Genevieve was horrified at both the size of it, the coldness and dampness and the fact that other than a badly fitting latched door I was open to the elements. It was also snowing at the time and bitterly cold.

Friday 16th December the interview was broadcast on Radio Shropshire and quite rightly SSHA was given the right to reply. I have a transcript of the interview with Ann Sutcliffe Executive Director of Neighbourhood Housing at South Shropshire Housing Groups. In her reply Ms Sutcliffe said

1. This was a complicated case and she couldn't discuss anything that I hadn't said on the radio. She agreed that the property does not meet my long term need and it's not possible to adapt the house
   She said the shower room was on the ground floor but it's not sensible to install a stairlift there - it is hazardous to do that and may well put me in danger. At the end of the day I need to move to a more appropriate property.
2.  I just want to correct one thing she said and that is, we wouldn't rehouse her until we had rehoused her sons we haven't said that.  See June 20th 2011
3. We haven't told them that they can't stay in the house  and in fact it is possible for us to consider signing the tenancy to the three of them as a joint tenancy. See June 20th 2011

20th December 2011 I met at my house with Sue Perry and Nirmal Samrai who is the Housing Officer for Meres and Mosses Housing Association. She wrote to me 21 December 2011 (a transcript of that letter is beneath this post), The letter itself, I felt to be very threatening but the main concern I have with it is when she say 'I explained that we would not assign the tenancy to your sons as your are requesting a transfer to another property and your tenancy follow you. (That's contrary to what Ann Sutcliffe said) If you are re-housed before your sons then we would charge them a daily 'use in occupation charge' whilst we sought possession of the property.

She has also downgraded my sons' banding to Silver which means, well let her say it in her own words 'it is extremely unlikely that your sons will ever reach a sufficiently high level of priority for these homes (that's in Clun where two of them work, they don't have their own transport and there is NO public transport.)

So that means I stand a very good chance of getting rehoused but my sons basically don't have a cat in hell's chance and if I'm rehoused before they are they will be faced with eviction from the home they've lived in for over four years.

They will be evicted because their Mother is disabled!

Forgive me if I'm wrong but aren't there laws about discrimination in this country? 

So I shall be speaking to a solicitor about the failure of South Shropshire Housing Association about their failure in there duty of care towards me and I need to speak about the letter received from Nirmal Samrai regarding the legalities of it - not only the letter but the threats contained in it.

This situation has gone on long enough and in the meantime, until it is resolved - well back to the shed I go.

And if you've got this far - you deserve

A nice cup of tea

Happy New Year

How and why this situation arose

I moved into this house in September 2007 after losing our previous home in Ludlow due to flooding. Two and a half feet of the River Corve came in uninvited.

Our house in the river

At the time the house was described as having a level access shower room and a stair lift fitted. It did have a shower room, the floor was unsuitable and dangerous and they finally rectified this in March 2010. The stair lift didn't work and the rail it was fitted to went half way across the shower room door so that had to be removed. South Shropshire Housing Association did fit a grab rail ten weeks after my then Occupational Therapist requested it. There was also a downstairs toilet but that was out the back and froze every winter so the only other toilet was the one upstairs. To be honest not really suitable for a disabled person. Plus there were six steps upto the front path - I say were that's another story.

In November 2010 I got an infection in my foot which resulted in almost total paralysis and I was carted off to hospital. What happened is I have Psoriatic Arthritis and the medication I take reduces my immune system so my body couldn't fight the infection and caused all sorts of problems.

While I was in hospital I was accessed by the Physiotherapy department who said I had to get off the stairs and they wrote to the Occupational Therapy team for an assessment of my living conditions. They finally arrived six months later and concluded that not only did this house not suit my needs but also that it was dangerous for me to live here. However, they did suggest some improvements but South Shropshire Housing said they weren't going to do it and basically we had to move. But for me to move, my sons had to be rehoused first because I was the tenant. My lads asked if they could move me and they keep the house but my housing officer said that was not possible. My Occupational Therapist was also told the same thing when he asked.

Still awake?

As two of my sons work in a nearby village and rely on me for transport they need a house in that village or they can't work. Forget it, although a house did come up in Clun and they're on priority banding they couldn't be considered for it because they'd put in separate applications and not a joint application. I did ask if they couldn't just put the applications together and instead of having to find individual properties they would only have to find one. This to is logic but no, sorry can't do that they'll have to put in another applications which will take twenty one working days to process.

And as for me, well if I consider a wider area I will have a better chance of being rehoused. My lads are my carers and I do need them fairly close and they're happy about that. So thirty miles down the road is not feasible.

So briefly (don't laugh) that's how I ended up sleeping in a garden shed in the middle of winter, in one of the coldest places in the country.

And the Housing Association well - happy Christmas guys