Family left to live in a Premier Inn for 3 years
A Family has been living in hotels for three years following a series of disasters that started with a flood at their rented home.
luke and Olga Burns thought their emergency stay at a Premier inn would last no more than a week.
They could not afford the initial rent and deposit for another home and hoped town hall officials would offer them housing.
But their application was rejected and they have now spent £88,000 on hotel accommodation, much of it coming from benefits. They have even had a third child while homeless.
The couple, who are qualified teachers, are now waiting for the council to respond to a ruling an ombudsman made in their favour.
‘initially we tried to treat it like an adventure for the girls,’ said mr Burns, 42. ‘But it became impos- sible to hide the situation from them. We’d love to get a job – me and my wife both have degrees.
‘But hotels don’t want us using their address and without one i’ve struggled with applications.’
His 40-year-old Russian wife said: ‘i used to cry a lot, and then i used to shut myself in the bathroom and cry so my girls couldn’t see. Now i don’t – i’m all cried out.
‘i’m not looking for a pampered life, i’m looking forward to the simple things, like making a room for the baby.’
The couple have pulled their daughters – lolita, 11, and Alina, ten – out of school and teach them in their hotel room.
They have used a dozen different Premier inns in the Bristol area, paying from £60 to £110 a night. following the birth of their son Nicolas 12 months ago they have stayed put in just one. mr Burns, who lost his job in 2010, said they sold their wedding rings and borrowed from relatives to help pay the hotel bills.
Each week they receive £176 housing benefit, £220 tax credits and £75 jobseeker’s allowance.
They also pick up a £62 carer’s allowance and £55 in disability living allowance because Nicolas and lolita have a degenerative eye condition. in 2012 their landlord served notice on them after their home in Bridgwater, Somerset, was damaged by flooding. They refused to go and were evicted after a hearing at Taunton County Court in April 2014.
They had fallen behind on their rent because their housing benefit had been stopped by Sedgemoor council. This led to them being denied help on the grounds that they were intentionally homeless.
Bristol City Council rejected their application for housing in December 2014 and the family started their hotel odyssey.
in february the local Government Ombudsman ruled that Bristol council had caused them ‘substantial injustice’ and should offer help.
A council spokesman said it would not comment until the ombudsman’s final report was published later this month.
Sedgemoor council said the family had received discretionary payments and had known about the shortfall in rent.
The couple met in moscow where mr Burns was working for the Home Office and she taught. They moved to the UK in 2003.