Mother in homeless campaign evicted by landlord (From Your Local Guardian)

'Only' £1100 a month to spend on accommodation? Poor thing! I just did a search and found plenty of flats for rent in that area for £250pw or under. Are they not in the right part of Battersea?

Personally, I've decided that it's my right to live in central London - maybe the council will pay my rent of £3000 a month?

If you can't afford the rent, move to a cheaper area. It's called 'living within your means'.

What isn't clear from this article is that the flat she was living in used to be a council flat. It was sold under that last sell off, probably at a discount. The person who benefitted from that is now making money from money invested by rate payers.

This will be happening again. Local Authority housing was introduced to make housing affordable. We now have Wandsworth Council supporting a climate which will encourage the profiteers at the expense of people who don't have the money for a deposit or enough income for a mortgage.

No Estate agent in Battersea had a two bedroom below the cap and the few privatly owned just under were not accepting housing benefit recipients. My landlord wanted £400 extra a month after my two years contract finished. Is that right to increase a property that much in such a short period of time? The housing benefit money is only passing through me to the landlord pocket. Bring back the rent control and no family and their children will have to leave their community. The area I want to live in is in the most deprived area of Battersea, and this place is attractive to me because of the support network I have and the easy access to my child school. As a single parent, a network like this is invaluable. I am now living in a council run temporary hostel in one of the most though after location in Balham but it is not my community and I feel I don't belong here. I would happily go back to my Estate where I use to chair the resident association, surrounded by my community and network that took me many years to build. Especially as we support each other and trying to make a difference in this borough. It seems that this government is out of touch willing to invest tax payer money to help first buyers who will then in turn re-rent their place to tenant at crazy price. At least if they retain social housing stock, they are paying themselves (Not the landlord) and in the long run, will make a profit to build more housing which is needed. I am only in this situation because of the sudden enormous rent increase and the change of benefit cap and it can happen to anyone. With thousand of families in London becoming homeless (14% rise) it will cause more more pain and cost more. Families with young children can't keep on moving home/school every 2 years, they need stability. I volunteer in order to improve my job prospects and build up my carreer (not a lifestyle choice as I would rather work for money than free) and becoming homeless has been a serious set back. Hopefully I will use this bad experience into a positive one as the BBC finally showed interest in my work but only if I can produce a documentary out of the life experience of becoming homeless and living in temporary accomodation, regrouping glimpse of families stories, drama and resolution including my own. It is not easy to live in an unkown place with a small child in two small rooms filled with boxes, without even a fridge, a washing mashine or telephone line. Thanks to technology, I have a limited internet with a USB Key, so I am not totally cut off but I can't do online editing work. My community, the women of Wandworth and local councillor were really supportive and were a great help through the entire process. Shelter also helped, and gave me great advice and was there with me in difficult time. If you or your family are going through this, do not hesitate to contact them.