A mum and her three children might have relocate some 200 miles from their school - because that's the nearest emergency accommodation.
Rae Layton is being evicted from her rented property- her home for 15 years - and has just weeks to find somewhere else to live.
But she is finding it tough to do so with the high prices and extraordinary demand for rented houses in and around Cornwall, her home county.
Speaking to Cornwall Live, the mum of three said: "Private landlords have so many applicants, and they always choose couples, people with no kids, people with two incomes. I’ve signed up to Homechoice but it could take ages.
"Yesterday they phoned me and said emergency accommodation will be Cardiff or Plymouth. But even then, these places are like B&Bs and Premier Inns so I could be moving around all the time.
"My eviction date is July 15, and the council worker told me that my kids can look at it as a holiday. If it were in person, I’d have punched her in the face."
Cardiff is more than 200 miles from Ponsanooth, Cornwall, but Homechoice, Cornwall’s social housing waiting list, had more than 15,000 families on it as of September 2021.
Rae works in Falmouth, around 15 minutes away, and is happy in her job.
The single mum said: "I work in Falmouth, my kids go to school here. At the minute my only choice, the only thing I can do, is send them to live with the boy’s dad in Mawnan Smith.
"My kids are my everything. And now I have to be split up, it’s better they have a roof over their head but I have a 12 year old going through teenage hormones and all that and now he has to be pulled away from his mom.
"It’s just wrong. Everyone in this situation needs help.
"Something needs to be done, really. There should be caps on renting, locals should be offered properties before anyone else.
"And landlords shouldn’t be greedy. After Covid, when everyone had such a bad two years, now all this is happening."
Rae was handed the Section 21 eviction notice on Friday last week.
But this rising demand, and a lack of social housing has caused house and rental prices to rise across the county.
A Cornwall Council spokesperson said: "Our priority is to keep people safe, and we are working hard to find suitable emergency accommodation for all those who need it.
"We sympathise with the position that some residents are finding themselves in as Cornwall continues to face extreme pressure on the availability of housing. We do everything possible to keep residents within their own communities.
"The Council has established emergency accommodation and is buying and refurbishing homes to provide medium-term temporary accommodation, but the current unprecedented demand does mean that we are having to use emergency accommodation hotels. In a very small number of instances, we may have to offer accommodation outside Cornwall in the short term and as a last resort.
"We seek to move people back as soon as we can Cornwall and continue to offer support to help them find long-term homes."
