Paralysed Social Care Worker In Fight For New Home

Social care worker and foster parent Shelly Brown, 44, approached Brighton and Hove City Council for help when she became paralysed from the chest down in March last year after a motorbike caused her to be thrown from her horse while riding on the Downs.

She was told she was not entitled to a council house adapted for wheelchair use because she already owns her own home. After appealing an earlier decision she is now housed in an unsuitable first-floor flat at Noble Court, Portland Road, Hove, with an unreliable lift.

She said: “I want to be with my children and go back to what it was like before I couldn’t walk. I know I’m paralysed and accept that but I am being penalised for being a mum and not being able to come home to my boys. They’ve lost out.”

While she lives in a housing association flat, her older birth son lives at the house she owns in Isabel Crescent, Hove. Keeping two homes means Mrs Brown can barely make ends meet.

Mrs Brown says she is now stuck in a Catch-22 situation as she cannot sell her house to buy a new one because she would not be able to get a mortgage and that if she sold it with the intention of applying for a council property she would not qualify as the council would rule she made herself intentionally homeless.

She does not have the money either to convert her house as it would cost £35,000 and has looked into applying for a grant from charities and the council but time and finances are running out. She is currently using her savings to pay the mortgage. Her family have all pulled together and are contributing what they can.

Mrs Brown, who is employed by the council but is on long term sick leave, said: “It has been devastating but they have all been absolutely fantastic. Without my family and close friends I don’t know how I would have survived.”

A city council spokesman said: “Our housing team’s occupational therapist helped Mrs Brown apply for the flat at Noble Court, and arranged some minor adaptations to the property to help her live independently. Mrs Brown had suggested while in the process of being offered Noble Court that she wanted it to be a temporary placement and she wanted to be allocated a new adapted property also in Hove.

“We advised Mrs Brown at the time that she would have to re-register on the homemove waiting list if she wanted to bid for properties when they became available. To date, Mrs Brown has never re-applied to go back onto the homemove system. Our housing team would of course be happy to advise on her wider housing options.”