One woman said she was removed from her home while in a coma, and when she got out of intensive care, all her belongings were gone.
Juliet Iswan, 43, was in Bristol Royal Infirmary last February after suffering a stroke that left her in a coma. She spent ten months in intensive care until January 2024 and is now in social housing with nothing but a hospital bed and hospital gowns.
Juliet had a home at the Connolly & Callaghan emergency accommodation facility in Bristol, where she lived for eight years before being hospitalised.
The woman, who was in a coma for five weeks, said all her belongings, including £300 in cash, her passport, irreplaceable family jewelery and other items, were either sold or disposed of.
Juliet, who was born with sickle cell disease, which can cause paralysis, said neither the council nor Connolly & Callaghan took responsibility for her belongings.
Connolly & Callaghan said it was acting “in line with our contractual obligations”, which required the items to be kept for seven days. He also denied that any items were auctioned and said he had “no complaint on file regarding this matter.”
A Bristol City Council spokesman said the housing provider, not the council, was responsible for the tenant’s belongings.
‘I have nothing’
Juliet said she had lived in a one-bedroom flat in Stokes Croft for more than six years and agents knew she would be in hospital when she was not at home. She said: “When I came out of my coma I was told that I had been evicted from my home and that everything was lost.
“The most important things that I can’t even estimate the monetary value of – the necklaces, the earrings, every gift I got from my family – my mother, my grandmother – and it seems they’re all gone.
“I lost all my clothes, my shoes are still in the boxes; I used to love walking every day when it rained, but now I have nothing.
“I don’t even know where my passport is. I’m in a cold house right now with just a hospital bed and that’s it; how can you discharge someone into this life?”
Born in Uganda, Juliet has lived in Bristol since 2005 but after suffering a massive stroke in 2009 she became physically disabled and had to have multiple hip replacement surgeries.
Juliet was told she or a family member could collect some of her ‘important’ belongings, but after collecting she said her friend was only given her medication and an empty jewelery box. She also said a homeless police officer met with his agents and was told he was about to be discharged and had been given a one-bedroom council flat so they wanted to pack his belongings.
A spokesman for Connolly & Callaghan said: “In order to dispose of items we need to obtain a tort letter from the statutory body and a copy of this is sent by the statutory body to the resident, then and only then are the items destroyed.
“I was asked a few questions about Juliet’s belongings this week, but the initial response from my colleague was that we generally cannot keep items for more than 7 days, so if Juliet is discharged 8 months ago (as the enquirer stated) we are unlikely to still have them.
They added: “We empathize with residents who book our accommodation and will always try to accommodate wherever possible. It is truly disappointing that the following account is inaccurate and portrays our colleagues as if they do not care about those staying in our accommodation. This is simply not true.”
Juliet’s friend organized a fundraiser to help her.
Landlords ‘disregard’ security vulnerabilities
Grief and financial hardship should also be considered among factors that could leave social housing residents vulnerable, a new report calling for a Royal Commission says. The Housing Ombudsman Service said it had seen evidence that landlords were not taking such vulnerabilities into account.
In its latest report, which focuses on attitudes, rights and respect, the Ombudsman said it considered what it means to be vulnerable in social housing in 2024 and how social landlords can better respond to the needs of these residents.
A new Royal Commission into housing (a type of committee appointed for the specific purpose of inquiry or consultation) was called for; It was said that this could be “transformative” because such an investigation would be independent of the Government and “unimpeded by politics”.
The report, which draws from more than 1,663 public responses from the call for evidence and hundreds of ombudsman cases, said that although vulnerability is defined under the Care Act, not everyone who is vulnerable will meet this legal definition.