Homeless at Christmas - Family life in a b&b - Homelessness - Shelter

"I thought homeless was being on the street... I wasn’t living in my own house - that’s being homeless.” Nigel’s boys are just two of the 90,000 children that will be homeless this Christmas. Help us be there for families like his: ****** Nigel is a single dad. He and his children are homeless and share a cramped B&B room with his two young boys. He hadn’t even realised he was legally homeless until he spoke to Shelter. In this film he talks about the effect on his young family of being without their own home and living in temporary accommodation, far from their friends and school. The boys want nothing more than to celebrate Christmas in their own home, to ride their bikes to school and have friends sleep over – but Nigel and his boys will still be homeless at Christmas. We’ve talked Nigel through his options and got him a solicitor to fight his case. And we’ll be with them every single step of the way until they’re in a home of their own again. Some stories don’t have a happy ending… yet. £33 could help a family find and keep a home. £188 could fund a Shelter helpline adviser for one day. Find out how you can support families like Nigel's: ******

I'm a single parent. Three children. I was a lorry driver, and I lost my job. I thought homeless was being on the street with your sleeping bag. It wasn't until I contacted Shelter that I got the idea. Because I wasn't living in my own house, that's being homeless. I thought it was actually walking round the streets with your bags, not having anywhere to live, living on people's settees, all locked in. That's homeless. A lot of people think Bed and Breakfast is like when you go on holiday, you go down the coast, you go to a guesthouse, a Bed and Breakfast house. You get your breakfast cooked for you and things like that don't you. But, it's not a Bed and Breakfast like that. Me and the two little ones share. I have to sleep with the five-year-old in the double bed. The little one's got his own little cot. In the morning, the taxi gets to us and picks us up. Get their breakfast ready. Once they've finished their breakfast, start getting all their clothes out, get all the bags ready while I'm getting them dressed. "Daddy, here." "Thank you". "Right come here... no stop. Feet in... no just one." Difficulties are discipline for the children, because if it's like 'send you to your bedroom', I can't. It's just the rights and wrongs of actually living in a house. And by the time I've managed to get it all ready, got all the bags ready, the taxi usually just turns up in time for us to walk straight out and get in. We're fourteen miles away from our B&B. I've got a routine to try and keep with the boys to try and keep them in as much of a routine as I can. All they know is that they're waiting to... we're waiting to get housed, we're gonna get a house. My little one keeps saying to me that he wants to be housed near his school, so he can walk to school, or ride his bike or his scooter to school with his friends, have sleepovers. Because we're in the B&B, and we're so far away they can't go. We missed the fireworks, the other night, because they had the fireworks display. Can't go to that, any parties, erm, I can't do parents evenings, because we have to get a taxi straight back from school. "There's a tree, a green patch, a see-saw, a car, a swing and a roundabout." Christmas would be great if we had our own place. We could actually have a Christmas tree, decorations. "Will Father Christmas come and deliver presents there?" "Yeah, I think he's going to fill our room with presents." We could eat Christmas dinner, proper Christmas dinner, make bread sauce and all the trimmings and it'd be great. The decorations, the boys would love, because they help, put all the decorations up, putting the star on the tree, at the top, or the angel, whatever one they wanted, you know. They'd love it. So would I. It's a family event. "My turn now" "Your turn now?" "Yeah" "Pillow fight" I try and just, you know, do everything for the kids. Make sure they're OK, and happy.