'Our three kids still sleep on pull out mattresses at gran's six months after fire,' says Sheffield family

The ‘Five Bs’ of the Eyre-Roberts family - Ben, Beth, Bella (10), Briar (7) and Bryn (6) - were sent reeling in April when a blaze erupted in their kitchen in Eastcroft View, Halfway, and left them without a home.

What they didn’t know was the crisis meant they were now just another of the 13,000 Sheffield households on the waiting list for a new place of their own.

Now, six months later, Bella, Briar and Bryn are still sleeping on pull out mattresses on their grandma’s floor in Eckington - and the family have been told it could be like this for another 18 months.

“It’s so hard to not sound ungrateful,” said mum Beth. “But it’s also been so difficult for all of us.

“You have to remind yourself you have a roof over your heads, you’re all together - you’re lucky, in many ways.

“But all five of us are living in Ben’s mum’s two-bed house, the children are sleeping on pull out mattresses on the floor in gran’s room, and none of us have any privacy. Ben’s mum is 71 this year and must want her home back too.

“Then these moments come that remind you you’re technically homeless. When I’m out and see a family through a window just living their lives I feel jealous - I think ‘I want that for my family again’.

“You don’t know how important having a place to go and be by yourself in your home is until you lose it.”

One of the many ways the fire has impacted the family is Bella, Briar and Bryn all having to change schools and leave all their friends behind as it was costing £65 a week in bus fares to get them from Eckington back to Halfway - and even then, they had to walk another mile to get to class.

Beth logs on to the Sheffield Property Shop every Wednesday to try find a new home and finds only frustration week after week.

The council operated website is where hundreds of households every week look to see what housing is available, where they then bid for the opportunity to rent it.

With so many others competing for every property, Beth said it’s easy to feel like she is making no progress at all, and she bids on homes she feels wouldn’t even be suitable for the family if she got one, just to give them the best odds.

Beth said: “I went to my MP, Clive Betts, to ask if he could help, and his team got back to us.

“His team found out with the priority we were in, it could be another 12 to 18 months to be rehoused in a three bed property.

“It just knocks the wind out of you. I couldn’t believe it. How is it that bad?”

In 2023, there were 13,662 households on the social home waiting list. The council’s current plan is to build or acquire just 202 new social homes a year over the next five years. In 2021, Sheffield lost 408 social rented homes through the ‘Right to Buy’ scheme and demolition.

It was also revealed in January 2024 that by the end of 2023, there were 47 empty council properties in Sheffield. The council reportedly owns 39,000 houses.

Meanwhile, the local authority has spent £52m purchasing back 725 Right To Buy properties, including £20.7 million on 244 homes since the start of 2020.

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Beth and Ben’s former home in Eastcroft View, Halfway, has been sold since the fire. Had they stayed, they would have now been there eight years.

Beth said: “We have to just carry on. My partner, Ben, is so good, he still gets up and goes to work every single day. The kids are settling at their new school but miss their old friends.

“And when we do get a place we will have to start all over again getting furniture.

“But I think we all just miss having a safe place to call our own.”

Following the house fire in April, which was caused by a faulty gadget, Sheffield residents raised £1,035 for the family through an online GoFundMe page.

Beth says the money was “such a lovely thing” for people to do for them and says she “hasn’t touched it,” and instead plans to use it when the day finally comes to furnish their new home.

Councillor Douglas Johnson, chair of the Housing Committee, said in a statement: “An incident like this will always be harrowing for those involved, and our thoughts are with all members of the family who have been affected by this trauma.

“We have given the family priority for rehousing and our officers have been supporting the family as best they can in finding a new home, and will continue to do so.

“But unfortunately, the pressures on social housing both in Sheffield and nationally remain as high as they have been and there are many other families also in desperate need. The Council continues to face an unprecedented demand for affordable and social housing in the city.

“Our recent decision to amend the lettings policy will help to free up more housing to help families like this.”

The Star contacted the office of Clive Betts MP, who responded in a statement: “Ms Eyre first contacted our office in April following a house fire at her property. We have been trying to make a case for her to get a higher housing band and are waiting for evidence we can submit to support that claim from her.

“Separate to that we are not clear why Ms Eyre was not automatically given Band A priority given she is effectively homeless. We are pursuing this concern with the Council.

“The backdrop to this is the crisis we are facing in social housing where councils across the country simply do not have enough properties. It is not a coincidence that in the time the council’s housing stock has been halved the demand for people needing council properties has increased. The only way to solve that is to build more social housing, something Clive Betts has and continues to argue for in Parliament.”