How new council home has given this Mansfield mum a 'new lease of life'

A Mansfield woman says that her new council home is helping her to be “the best mum she can be” after a series of housing setbacks.

Lauren Eldred, who recently moved into a new council home in the Bellamy area of Mansfield with her husband and three children, says she can finally look forward to making memories after years of uncertainty with private landlords.

Lauren, who lives with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a connective tissue disorder that causes extreme joint pain as well affecting the skin and internal organs, said that adaptations she needed to manage her condition were refused by previous landlords.

She said: “It’s been a nightmare since I moved out of my in-laws in 2019. We moved to a house in Woodhouse and it seemed to be ideal for us but then my health started declining and I got pregnant with my first. I just thought that because I played a lot of sport in my teens, I had dodgy knees.

“Ehlers Danlos Syndrome makes things like walking upstairs is incredibly painful. Pregnancy made my condition significantly worse as my joints were stretching even further and I lost all support in my core. I only got diagnosed during my second pregnancy when the doctors noticed lots of different things about me that I hadn’t; I just thought my body was a bit funky. Getting the diagnosis was life-changing as everything made sense.

“It was around that time that I was told I couldn’t work anymore. I worked in payroll but I was dealing with chronic migraines and I was in absolute agony trying to sit at a desk. I also found getting to work very difficult as the journey in was causing too much pain.”

With her husband working full-time to provide for the family, caring for two children while managing her symptoms became a daily struggle.

Everything changed when Lauren got a call from Mansfield District Council to tell her that the family had been approved for one of the new homes on the Bellamy development. Despite only being in a few weeks and still being in the middle of unpacking, Lauren says she and the family are already seeing the benefits of the new home.

“I was feeling pretty hopeless, but then I got the call from the council about this place and I think I must have cried for about three days straight. Even though we’ve only been in a couple of weeks, it already feels like home. The space is incredible; it’s ideal for me with my aids and my tools and still have enough room for the kids to play. I have the space to use my wheelchair so that, on my bad days, I’m not stuck in one room. I just love it.

“I feel like I’m living here, and not just surviving, which is all I’ve been doing before. It seems really silly but, with my disability, I’m just trying to be the best mum that I can be, and this home is helping me to do that.”    

Kerry Turner, Housing Choice Officer at Mansfield Council, worked closely with the applicants for the new homes on the Bellamy Estate, and said that each property was matched closely with the needs of the incoming tenants.

She said: “Housing allocations is a mindful process and it’s not about giving whoever is at the top of the list the first available property. We have to make sure that the people moving into these homes can sustain their tenancies for a long time, and that the home is 100 per-cent suited to what they need. For example, some of the homes on this development have two sets of stairs, which would present a big problem for someone with mobility challenges.

“We want people to feel as though they can stay in their home for as long as they need it, so everything is taken into consideration to make sure these homes are matched as closely as possible to the housing needs of the people on the list.”

For more information on Mansfield District Council’s housing service, visit: https://www.mansfield.gov.uk/housing