MELISSA’S STORY

MELISSA Gaynor saw her housing benefit reduced by £125 a week, which left her in thousands of pounds of rent arrears.

She was living in a three-bedroom privately let flat for three years in Granton in Edinburgh with her children Tyler, six, and five-year-old son Riley.

In May, she was evicted and had to declare her family homeless.

Melissa, 26, said: ”On the worst day of your life, you are watching all your stuff being taken into storage and you are left with what you can carry. It is awful.”

She was told that she was going to be placed in Almond Lodge House in Edinburgh. The bed and breakfast has been the subject of terrible reviews, with one guest dubbing it ”the worst hotel in Scotland”.

Melissa said: “I burst into tears. I just couldn’t have taken my children there. When I refused, I was told the alternative was a park bench.”

For the next 10 days, she and her children sofa-surfed.

Melissa said: “We had nowhere. The anxiety was horrendous. To see your children so vulnerable is the worst thing a mother can face.”

She was placed in a temporary two-bedroom home. But it is so cold that the whole family sleep on two mattresses on the floor of the living room.

Riley has bad asthma and the only heating is storage radiators which

We just want a proper home but who knows when that will happen

exacerbate his condition, so they warm the living room with an electric fire.

Melissa said: ”It is a nightmare. It is not fit for purpose but we have no choice.

“We just want a proper home but who knows when that will happen.

“Every day of life feels like a struggle. This is a terrible way to live.”