Homeless Trap

Shedding light on housing struggles and unfulfilled duties

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★★★★★

This is a true, personal account of the experience of a homeless, vulnerable, single mother with physical and mental health problems and how she was treated, by each of the organisations who are supposed to help homelss people through their legal obligation to exercise their Duty of Care for homeless people.

The organisations who were involved were...

1. Darlington Police

2. The Magistrates Court

3. Darlington Borough Council

4. Darlington Citizens Advice Bureau

5. Waythrough

6. Lola McEvoy - Darlington's MP

7. Blacketts Medical Practice

8. Solicitors

Police

My ordeal began on the 4th of March 2026 when Darlington Police turned up at my Council house with officers from the Council, also in attendance.

They had a warrant to search my premises for drugs and proceeded to search my home, my garden, my shed and even my wheelie bin, but, as one police officer stated in their report "Unfortunately, no drugs were found."

Because they had not found any drugs, they called a meeting of my neighbours to see if any of them could make complaints against me of anti-social behaviour and used a handful of neighbourly grievances against me by a couple of those neighbours, to apply to the Magistrates Court for a Closure Order under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 - even though no drugs were found.

The Police turned up at my door on the 9th of March 2026 at 4:00pm and served me with notice that I had to attend the Magistrates Court on the 11th of March 2026 at 10:00am. Less than two days later. They also handed me a slip of paper with the telephone number of a Law Firm and told me to give them a call and ask them to represent me, unless I already had a solicitor of my own.

I rang those solicitors and told them what I was after, their response was, that they would call me back. They still haven't called me back, to this day. The same day, I also called two other Law Firms and they responded in the same way and nither of those companies have still not called me back.

Magistrates Court

I was forced to travel 35 miles to the Magistrates Court to appear to them before 10:00am and when I got there, I asked if I could speak to a Duty Solicitor. I was told that because of shortages and illness, that there were no Duty Solicitors available and that there were also no Judges in attendance.

Because of this and also because the Court was very busy that day, the Court suggested that my case be adjourned and another date would be set. The Police insisted, that because it was a Closure Order, that it had to be tried today. The Court agreed but also said that it would have to be "quick".

I broke down in tears, because I was going to be unable to represent myself because of my mental health issues and as a result, I was just about to lose my house and become homeless.

Whilst I was in tears, a man approached me and took my into a side room and asked me what my thoughts were, regarding my case. I thought that the Courts had managed to find me a Duty Solicitor and so I spoke to him. The man left the room and the next time I saw him, he was standing up in Court - acting for the prosecution.

The Police offered no witnesses as to my alleged anti social behaviour and were unable to offer any evidence relating to drugs, because they hadn't found any. Their only evidence were Police statements that were no attributed to anyone.

The Magistrates found in favour of Darlington Police and granted them the Closure Order and I was now Homelss and broke down in tears.

Whilst I was waiting for a lift back to Darlington, I overhead the Police having a conversation nearby and heard one of the female officers saying that if couldn't manage to keep my dog then she would have it beacuse "it's lush".

Darlington Borough Council

I went down to Darlington Borough Council, accompanied by my daughter, to tell them that I was now homeless and asked them for some help in finding me some emergency accommodation. I was crying while I was there and the Council officer who was dealing with me, asked if it was OK for her to get the on-site nurse to check me over. The nurse checked my legs, because they were very painful and pulled my daughter to one side and told her that I needed to get in touch with my doctor as soon as possible, because there was an obvious problem with my legs.

The Concil officer told me that she couldn't help, because I still had a Council house. When I told her that it was actaully them that had made me homeless, she asked me to wait a minute whicle she went and checked with her supervisor. She came back shortly and said that they didn't know that I had been made homeless, because it was the Police who had taken me to Court, even though Darlington Borough Council officers were present at the Court when I was tried. She said that my records had been updated and that I could now be dealt with.

She then made her assessment and concluded that I didn't actually qualify for any assistance, because I hasn't ticked enough boxes to qualify for any help. I left the Council offices in tears.

The next morning, I then went to the Darlington Citizens Advice Bureau and asked them if they could helpme and the woman asked me for my Letter of Denial and when I told her that I didn't know what that was, she explained to me that the Council should have given me one, because it explains the reasons why the Council had refused to help me. I went back down the Council to get that letter and they said that they were closed between 12:00 and 3:00 and that I would have to come back when they were open.

The next morning I called them and they said that they had already sent the letter out to me, but when I pointed out to them that I no longer had access to the address they had sent the letter to, because of the Closure Order, then I would need a copy of the Letter. They told me that I wouldn't be able to get a copy until they checked my file and to give them a call later on in the day and they would probably have had time by then, to organise one. I requested that they send it to me as an attachment, to my fathers email address, because I no longer had the Internet access that I had previously been using at the addrees where they had evicted me from.

When they sent the letter to my Dad, It was full of errors, where they listed my current situaution, at the time of application foe help, as Social Rented Accommodation or Hostel - which was blatantly wrong. They also claimed that I had no dependent children, which was also wrong, as I have a teenage son, who is on my tenenacy agreement, with the Council. They also stated that I told them that I had no physical or mental health problems which would make it more difficult for me to be homeless, when compared with a normal, healthy person. There were also other small errors, but their decision to deny me any assistance, was based on blatant inaccuracies in their assessment of my situaution.