STAIRWAY TO HELL
Family of disabled tot struggle to get out their home due to dozens of stairs
The mum of a threeyear- old boy with an incurable brain disease has made a desperate housing plea to be moved.
Kelly Baird struggles with a hike of 47 steps from the front door just to reach her parking space and the bus stop.
Little Tyler Fallon is in a wheelchair and completely unable to move.
His mum , 32, said: “I am
at my wit’s end.
“How anyone can think we can live here for much longer is beyond me. “This really is our stairway to hell.” The family of five are living in a two-bedroom flat on a hillside in Barrhead.
They’ve been on a housing waiting list for three years trying to get a home which meets Tyler’s complex needs.
The unusual Auchenback Court property has 47 steps to reach Newton Avenue for the bus, or 15 down to Fenwick Drive.
They’ve been on the waiting list for three years and jettisoned up the priority scale when Tyler’s condition became evident.
Kelly said:“We keep going round in circles and, in bad moments, I sometimes wonder what the point is.
“But I have got the fight in me to stand up for our rights and stand up for Tyler.
“He desperately needs a house adapted for his needs and the current situation is just not acceptable.
“The authorities tell me we are right at the top of the list - I just don’t know what that means, because nothing is happening.”
The former nursing home carer gave up her job to look after Tyler full time.
Tyler turned three last month and suffers from an incurable brain disease, Polymicrogyria.
Kelly lives in the two-bed flat with partner John Fallon, 38, young Tyler and his older brothers Jaxon, four, and six-year-old TJ.
She said:“This is a very unusual property and although it’s a flat, it has a front and back door.
“The stairs have become a nightmare trying to get Tyler in and out.
“We are being failed by our landlord and our council and the older Tyler gets, the more difficult it will become.
“There are just so many stairs here and I just hope we can make a breakthrough.”
The home sits on sloping ground sandwiched between Fenwick Drive and Newton Avenue.
The family was unaware Tyler had problems until he was being weaned at six months.
Kelly said:“When he was trying to eat, he was choking and, despite what my GP in Barrhead said, I knew it was not normal.
“The doctor said it was viral and I shouldn’t be telling him his job.
“I went over his head and we discovered Tyler had a rare brain disease.
“Polymicrogyria is a form of cerebral palsy and causes spasms.
“Tyler needs positional changes around the clock, he cannot move himself.
“He makes sounds, but is non verbal. “We just want to be able to do as much as we can to make his life less of a struggle, and a suitable house is our top priority.
“If it had a garden, it means there is somewhere safe for the other two boys to play.
“We can’t get out and about because of Tyler’s complex needs.”
Kelly said it is essential they are rehoused in Barrhead as her mum and dad both live in the town and give support.
Tyler goes to nursery at the Isobel Mair School in Newton Mearns, which now gives Kelly a break in the mornings.
As he is under five, the family are not entitled to respite care.
Kelly has launched a Facebook page called‘Crisis in Housing East Renfrewshire’and claims it is obvious many people are falling through the cracks.
The family’s landlord, Barrhead Housing Association, said Kelly’s application had been given the highest priority, but had no suitable properties.
Lorraine Dalls, the association’s director of customer services, said: “We are fully aware of, and sympathetic to, the family’s circumstances.
“Miss Baird has been awarded the maximum priority available for housing through Barrhead Housing Association’s allocation policy.
“Unfortunately, the association has only a handful of properties which meet the particular needs of the family and none of these properties have become available since the family let us know of their need to move.
“We continue to work with East Renfrewshire Council to help identify a suitable and available property for the family, and have offered to help with any adaptations to their existing home that could make their lives easier until such times as a suitable property becomes available.
“We truly are sympathetic to the needs of the family, and regret that we don’t have any available properties that will meet the needs of the family at this time.
“Through our new housing developments, the association is planning to provide more accessible and inclusive homes which will meet the needs of families such as Miss Baird’s in the future.”
East Renfrewshire Council said it is committed to helping the family find a new home.
A spokeswoman said:“Miss Baird has the highest medical priority based on her family’s circumstances and, should a suitable property become available, she will be able to bid for it.
“Previous properties which Miss Baird bid on were either not suitable for the family’s medical needs or were given to someone with a higher priority, such as those experiencing homelessness.
“We have a legal duty to find accommodation for anyone facing homelessness in East Renfrewshire and, unfortunately, there has been increase demand for this during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“There have been some suitable properties that Miss Baird has chosen not to bid on as they may not have been in her preferred area choices, however we are committed to supporting the family in finding a home that suits their need.”