Help the Roses Escape Homelessness

A SHORT SUMMARY OF THE SITUATION AND THIS FUNDRAISER

Vulnerable family faces imminent eviction from their home of 12 years.

Connor Rose is a single parent who works as a full-time carer for his autistic child and elderly mother. The Roses have lived in their home in the Scottish Borders for 12 years. Now that the landlord needs to sell the house, they are facing homelessness. Help us keep this hard-working vulnerable family in the only community and home their child has ever known.

It takes a village, and we are that village!

The money raised in this campaign will enable them to stay in their accessible home, having been abandoned by their local council and housing association.

Connor has been relentlessly searching for a new home for 18 months since first receiving notice from the landlord in October 2020, and his situation is now dire. Unfortunately, the landlord can no longer wait, and the local council and housing associations have failed to help.

Connor’s family friend is now offering to buy the house from their landlord to enable the Roses to stay in their home, but Connor must raise a deposit of £82,000 to make this happen.

Who are the Roses and what do they need?

Connor Rose is a single parent to Archer, a disabled 13-year-old, and sole carer for his 82-year-old Mum, who has limited mobility. They live in rented accommodation in West Linton, Scottish Borders, having lived in the same home for 12 years. Connor is from a small family, with very few extended relatives. Their local community is their home.

Connor works full-time as a carer for his elderly mum and autistic child. On top of home-schooling, he is excelling at his part-time MSc at Queen Margaret University Master’s where he is studying to lay the foundation for the career in hospitality he wishes to pursue once his child becomes more independent with age.

Their accessible rented bungalow has just been valued at £330,000. This high price is not unusual for the market in the area. After an 18-month nightmare of extensive searching and dead-end attempts to find a new home, Connor’s friend has offered to buy the house from the landlord so that the family can remain in their accessible home and pay the monthly mortgage until they are the owners. However, this requires a 25% deposit because it is classed as a second home for the purchasing friend, who cannot put up the deposit. So we want to help Connor raise it here.

This is where you come in!

We want to keep this hard-working vulnerable family in their accessible home and allow them the security and stability to take care of their health and their future. They’ve been through 18 months of housing hell - during a pandemic no less - and desperately need to find security and stability.

Please help them escape this housing crisis: donate what you can and share this campaign with everyone you know. Help us secure this desperately needed home.

Help the Roses escape homelessness.

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MORE INFO AND BACKGROUND

Abandoned by the local authorities:

In October 2020, Connor received an email from his landlord telling him that their rental agreement would not be renewed. Connor immediately began searching for a new home in the village and packed their belongings in preparation for what seemed to be an imminent move.

By January 2021, without a place to move to, the panic set in.

At this point, Connor was already registered on the rehousing list, posting regularly on the village Facebook page, and taking initiative by putting up posters at rural bus stops in a bid to find somewhere to live. In addition, he started carrying flyers with him at all times, posting them through the doors of empty or renovating properties, and has a weekly check-in phone call with his landlord.

Through his efforts, Connor received two contacts from local residents, one of which looked promising for several months until the owner decided to rent the house as an AirBnb holiday let instead.

Connor has been badly let down by the local council and housing associations.

They have failed to offer any suitable homes that would be accessible to his Mum, suggesting instead that the family either move into separate rooms in an elder care-home (which is less than ideal for their autistic teenager who would be required to make no noise) or be split up with Mum being placed alone in a care home and Connor and Archer housed elsewhere in the Borders area. This would be detrimental for all of them. While Connor provides care for his mum’s physical limitations, she provides support with raising Archer, who has special needs.

As there aren’t many rentals on the market at the moment, the housing association pursued buying a home for the family. However, when the housing association’s funding fell short, they refused the donation from a family friend who offered to make up the shortfall, and the Roses are still left without a plan.

Connor and his vulnerable family have been abandoned by the authorities charged with protecting their welfare, and after an 18-month effort to secure their housing, the family are exhausted and at their wits’ end, living surrounded by boxes and the immense strain of uncertainty.

A vulnerable family with special needs:

Archer, 13, is autistic and requires full-time care and support. Archer is home-schooled by Connor. The village of West Linton is the only community that Archer has ever known, and they have recently managed to walk into the centre of the village alone – this is a BIG step forward for Archer, made possible only because they are starting to make friends and feel a sense of safety and confidence in their community. Archer has also been able to take part in horse riding in the community since 2016, which has had a big positive impact on their development. As with many autistic children, familiarity and consistency is a key factor for Archer’s wellbeing. But, unfortunately, the threat of displacement and living amongst packed boxes ready to move at a moment’s notice since October 2020 is hitting them really hard, and the ongoing uncertainty is putting a massive strain on Archer’s ability to cope and develop.

Connor’s Mum has arthritis, which affects her mobility and means she can’t manage stairs. It has gotten a lot worse in the last year - she was hospitalised, and now that she is home again Connor does all of the housework, cooking, and care work in the household, in addition to homeschooling Archer.

Connor is living with the exhaustion being a full-time carer without respite opportunity takes on a single parent. The continuous existential threat of the last 18 months is taking a toll on his physical and mental health, making it harder every day for Connor - as the head of the household - to protect his family.

Please help us be the safety net this family desperately needs.

Any donation you can make towards their housing needs will be hugely appreciated.