Housing heartbreak

I FEEL compelled to right this letter to you after being inspired by Debbie’s story (‘I try to never let my boy see me cry’: Mum’s poverty plea, Evening Times, October 11).

My situation is very similar to Debbie’s. I live in a one-bedroom flat with my daughter and 12-year-old granddaughter - my daughter had to flee abusive relationship and came to live with me.

My daughter and granddaughter share a bed, and I sleep on a sofa at 53years of age and have done so for the last seven years.

Every aspect of our lives revolves around the housing situation but can’t get rehoused because I made myself voluntarily overcrowded and because I had large arrears.

My arrears are now very low but I’m still waiting to be rehoused. Like Debbie there are mental health issues in the home. I work, but my daughter is not in a position to work at the moment.

There are people in my area that are living in houses too big for them but the housing association appears to do nothing about it!

I just can’t understand why this is happening to people in the 21st century but in reality, it does.

Thank you Debbie, for inspiration to write this letter.

Name and address supplied

Expenses oversight

I see that many people wish to defend Lord Provost Eva Bolander for her cavalier spending spree with the public purse.

Whilst I acknowledge that she acted within the rules regarding her experiences, I have to question the ability to claim £358 for a pair of spectacles.

Surely if you require spectacles, then it is your own responsibility like everyone else to buy them, not claim them as an essential item in order to represent the City of Glasgow.

There should be more oversight regarding what councillors can and can’t claim for.

To me, the ability to claim for spectacles is a blatant manipulation of the expenses system.

DJ, via email