A SERIOUSLY ill Greenock social housing tenant on kidney dialysis told today of her ‘despair’ at having to share a cramped one-bedroom flat with her THREE children.

Claire Hamilton — who has lived in the Heron Road property for three years — has her own bed, a set of bunk beds and all of her medical equipment crammed into a single room.

The 35-year-old says that her living conditions have become an ‘infection risk’ because of the difficulty she has in keeping her vital health apparatus sterile.

Claire — who is desperate to get a move to a larger place — said: “I’m in despair about it all now because I don’t think that anything is going to improve for me.

“It seems like nobody actually cares.”

The River Clyde Homes tenant has been placed on a specific medical category in order to get a house that suits her needs but she says that no suitable properties have become available.

Claire told the Telegraph: “When I phone up River Clyde Homes it’s like that sketch from Little Britain, ‘Computer says no’.

“They don’t seem to see you as an individual person and what your problems are.

“Every time I call I seem to speak to someone different.
“I’m told that I’m in a ‘critical’ category for a three-bed place, but it can’t be that critical when I seem to be waiting forever and ever to get somewhere.”

Claire — who is fighting to get removed from her medical grouping for a house — currently shares her home with her 16-year-old daughter, Chelsea, and her younger children, Aidan, 12, and Teighan, nine, stay with her at weekends.

She said: “The place is horrendously cramped.

“I’ve got a single bed, a set of bunk beds and my dialysis machine all in the one room.

“There’s not even enough room to hang jackets up.

“We’re all crammed into one bedroom and there is an infection risk because it’s hard to keep the place as sterile as possible.

“This is our life and it seems like no one cares.”

Claire said: “There are no properties coming up for me at all that are all on the one level.

“An occupational therapist wanted to see me climb stairs, and I did that, but still my category for a house has not changed because she thought I still struggled.

“I’ve told them that I’m not going to be climbing up and down stairs all day long, but it makes no difference.

“I did ask for my medical points to be removed because it is hindering me, rather than helping me.

“It makes me feel more trapped than ever.”

River Clyde Homes’ service improvement manager, Craig Russell, said: “There has been regular contact between our staff and Ms Hamilton with a view to trying to resolve her housing situation and her application was assessed as being in our medical mobility group, taking account of her needs. 

“Ms Hamilton has been bidding for properties that have internal stairs and she would not qualify for these under her current category. In our most recent contacts, Ms Hamilton has indicated that her circumstances have changed and she can now manage stairs and wishes to be removed from our medical mobility grouping.

“We have a responsibility to house our customers appropriately and have advised Ms Hamilton of the impact this change will have on the priority attached to her application. It may be more difficult to meet her housing needs.

“We have asked Ms Hamilton to speak with her GP and occupational therapist to make them aware of her change of circumstances and should they feel it appropriate that they submit a reviewed assessment, which we can then consider.”