It is a blisteringly hot day in Liverpool and in the front garden of a large city hotel, a group of women are sitting and talking.
We have protected the identities of the many women we spoke to at the hotel and their location because of their difficult and sometimes dangerous situations. But they wanted to speak out. They wanted to be heard. "I was spending five or six hours a day on the phone. Then they said they would put me in Warrington. But I don't drive and would have no way to get there, so they said I was refusing it."
"I was going ‘please, please, no.” They ended up putting me somewhere in Kirkby near the motorway, we had from 10pm until 11am. They only told us where we were going at 10pm. To not know where you are putting your head from night to night is the worst trauma, especially for my son." "I have been here for five weeks and I have heard nothing. Sometimes it feels like its down to whether the person on the other end of the phone likes us or not whether we will get a property to move in to."
Having contacted the council's Housing Options team, she and her children were placed in emergency accommodation at a service station on the M6 near Warrington.She was eventually placed in this hotel and is equally grateful to the staff. "They have gone above and beyond for us, it feels like they are filling in where others are failing us."She says she is yet to have an application to rehouse her registered and feels like she is being targeted by social services.
They all feel frustrated by their communication with the council's housing team, which the local authority says is now completely overwhelmed. The women talk of long waits for information and a lack of empathy from some of those at the other end of the phone. "I am lucky that my kids are at an age where they don't quite understand what is going on, but I am worried about them. We are all worried about our kids.
"There are women here who have got out of domestic violence relationships," one mum explains. "Some have considered going back there because of how long this all takes. I was on the verge of going back.For its part, the city council says it is under enormous pressure with the sheer volume of people now requiring emergency accommodation and housing.