A man who was evicted from his home after 45 years has chosen to camp outside the front of it rather than go back to the council’s drug and violence-ridden emergency accommodation.
Neighbours of Gary Lambert are rallying around the 63-year-old, and say the situation is a damning indictment of Bristol’s housing crisis, because there’s a one-bed council flat a couple of streets away that has been empty for months.
Mr Lambert is being supported with tents, provisions and company from the people who have been his neighbours for decades, after he said he was brought to a nervous breakdown and had suicidal thoughts for the four days he lasted in a hostel. Bristol City Council refused to discuss his case with Bristol Live.
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Mr Lambert lived in the former council house in the Stockwood area of South Bristol all his adult life - his parents bought it under right-to-buy, but later were convinced to sell it to a landlord with an agreement they would be able to continue living it in perpetuity, while paying rent.
That agreement was broken on June 7, when the home’s owner won a year-long legal battle to issue a no-fault eviction against Mr Lambert. He was told by council housing officials he wouldn’t be rehomed or eligible for any help until he was actually homeless, so on that day, he reported to the council as homeless and was sent to emergency accommodation on Bath Road in Brislington.
“It was shared accommodation, a hostel. You each have your own room,” he told Bristol Live. “Everyone there was a lot, lot younger than me. They were shouting at each other all night, banging on my door, threatening me. They were trying to get me to buy drugs, half of them were like zombies on this Spice. One of them pushed a packet of drugs under my door and then wanted money for it later.
“It was an absolute nightmare. I had a nervous breakdown, basically. I thought about suicide, I thought if this is what it’s going to be like now, then I don’t want to be here. I couldn’t sleep, I didn’t feel safe. I was scared. I’m 63, I’ve never lived anywhere else other than Stockwood, I’ve never seen anything like it,” he added.
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After four days, Mr Lambert told council housing officers he’d had enough and was leaving. He was offered a different emergency housing hostel place in Eastville, but turned it down, and instead returned to the street he’d lived since he was a teenager.
“I feel safe here. I had a tent, one of my neighbours gave me another tent for my stuff, and my brother lives close by. They have all been wonderful. They’ve got families of their own and children or live in shared houses here, so no one’s got a spare room for me up here, but they are looking after me,” he said.
So far, the weather has been kind to Mr Lambert, and the neighbours come out most evenings to sit with him. “It does get damp in the tent, and I do have trouble sleeping. My health is suffering,” he added. A letter from his doctor outlines a range of medical conditions, including COPD and diabetes, which are being exacerbated by camping outside all the time. The letter demands he be found a permanent home as soon as possible.
Neighbours say they have been outraged at the situation Mr Lambert has found himself in. “He’s a vulnerable adult and there’s no way it should have come to this,” said one neighbour, Sarah. “We’re all looking out for him, but it says a lot about the state of the emergency accommodation that he’d rather be here than there in a proper bed. We’re making sure he’s alright, but it can’t carry on like this,” she added.
Another neighbour, who declined to be named, said Bristol City Council’s housing officers appear to have written him off. “The worst thing is no one from the council has come up here to see him. No one has checked him out. If they did, they’d see he’s a vulnerable adult and should be higher up the priority list. It’s frustrating because there’s a one-bed council flat down the road in Stockwood that’s been empty for months,” she added.
A spokesperson for Bristol City Council declined to provide a statement publicly about Mr Lambert’s situation, or the state of the emergency accommodation the council had placed him in. But the council did issue a more general statement about the process.
“Anyone facing eviction and at risk of being homeless should talk to the council by coming along to the Customer Services Point at 100 Temple Street between the hours of 9am and 5pm or calling 0117 3526800,” she said.
“Where someone is made homeless and in need of housing support, we do what we can to ensure emergency accommodation is provided to those eligible, giving them somewhere to stay while we work with them to find a more permanent solution.
“With over 19,000 households on the housing register and over 1,200 in temporary accommodation, Bristol remains in the grip of a deepening housing crisis. The administration is making every effort to alleviate this by building homes and making sure affordable and social housing is included in these developments.
“Over 11,000 new homes have been built in Bristol since 2016, including 2,563 new homes in the year to April 2022. Almost 500 affordable homes were built in that year, the most in more than a decade, as we scale up to get Bristol building 1,000 new affordable homes a year,” she added.
