Newport mum faces homelessness with three young children

Image source, Jess Hanshaw

A woman has described telling her three young children they were going “on an adventure” as they face becoming homeless.

Jess Hanshaw, from Newport, said she was “the loneliest I’ve ever felt” as she expected to move into a hotel or hostel with other families.

Law changes to provide more protection from eviction for tenants have meant more landlords are selling up.

This leaves many families like Jess’s with no choice but to leave.

Latest figures from homelessness charity Shelter showed more than 8,000 people across Wales and England faced no fault evictions, an increase of more than 30% on the previous year.

Under previous rules landlords could ask tenants to leave with two months’ warning without giving a reason, but changes which came into effect in December 2022 increased this to six months.

Image source, Jess Hanshaw

Jess received a phone call from her estate agent, telling her the landlords were selling the only house her children have known after 12 years.

“I felt a bit numb at first, a bit shocked. It was completely out of the blue, but it was a case of ‘OK, I’ve got three children – how am I going to navigate through this’.”

Jess, who was made redundant while pregnant last year, is searching for a new private rental, but said the market was oversaturated.

If she is unsuccessful, they will have to stay in the house even after her notice is up.

“I have to go through this process. If I leave when they want me to the council will refuse to help me because I will be classed as intentionally making myself homeless,” Jess said.

If she was taken to court by her landlord and forced to leave officially, she and her family would join more than 11,000 people in Wales in temporary accommodation.

Newport council is willing to support her with moving and the deposit if she finds a suitable property.

But Jess felt she was “running into a brick wall” and wished estate agents would give “single people a fighting chance”, as many have been reluctant to offer her a new place to live.

Over the six months following the law change, the proportion of landlords who told the National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA) they intended to sell rose to above 50%.

And 25% of landlords registered with the NRLA in Wales ended up selling in both quarters from January to June.

The changes were meant to provide greater security for tenants and were built as tenant-friendly, but some argue that these legislation changes have created more problems than they have solved.

Stuart Kayte, a landlord from Cwmbran, Torfaen, who is selling all 13 of his properties in Wales, said: “I would love to give these properties to my children, but I feel as though I wouldn’t be passing on an asset I’d be passing on a liability”.

He acknowledged that giving tenants more time to find a new home was positive but he “does not see a future of profitability for landlords”, although this is also partly due to interest rates.

Steven Bletsoe of the NRLA said research showed landlords could earn in 10 weeks from holiday rentals such as Airbnb what they can make in a year in rental income from the local housing allowance, adding to growing supply and demand, and pressure on social housing.

“Landlords are leaving the private rental sector and we need legislators to realise that fact because we have a housing crisis in Wales,” he said.In Newport, there are more than 9,000 people on the waiting list for social housing, according to council figures, almost twice the number 10 years ago.

A Welsh government spokesperson said: “Numerous factors could impact a landlord’s decision to leave the sector.

“However, data from Rent Smart Wales on the number of properties being registered each month since the introduction of the Renting Homes (Wales) Act does not indicate that private rented housing stock is being lost in Wales.” 

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