You just feel like you have nowhere to turn
Sonja had never been homeless - until this May. With lung disease and severe mental health problems, her experience over the past eight months has given her a disturbing insight into life battling against Bristol’s housing crisis. Bronwen Weatherby reports.
AHOMELESS woman with lung disease and severe depression has been put in temporary accommodation by the council, which she says is hours away from her doctors and parttime job.
Sonja Davis Banner, 46, has Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and has lived in South Bristol for decades.
In May this year, after breaking up with her partner, she found herself homeless for the first time in her life. Moving from rough sleeping to hostels and back again she said she was eventually moved to a temporary place in Fishponds – but the new accommodation is hours away from her medical care and support system.
The mother-of-three gave up her home when she moved in with her partner, but after the split she said her only option was to declare her self homeless.
Working part-time as a cleaner while having mental and physical illnesses, Sonja is on benefits and can’t afford or is not eligible for private renting. Her only option is to rely on Bristol City Council who have said she could be facing an almost two-year wait for a permanent place on band two.
A council spokesperson said the number of homeless and people in desperate situations has increased over the past few years and while they are working on long-term solutions there are more than 500 other households currently in temporary accommodation who all need long-term housing.
The ordeal for Sonja means she is now having to travel hours, sometimes up to three hours on public transport to reach her place of work, a retail shop in Bedminster Down, which she relies on financially.
And she says her predicament – not helped by the distance away from her medical providers – means her healthcare is having to take a backseat.
Rather than stability, Sonja says she wakes up every morning waiting for an email from the council which might tell her she needs to move somewhere else, which terri-
❝
Sonja Davis Banner