I’m a Romani gypsy mum-of-4 -my family’s been made homeless by the council… they NEED to find me somewhere to live
A ROMANI gypsy mum-of-four claims she’s been made homeless by her council – and says it must now find her somewhere to live.
Eva Price, 53, was recently booted out of the property she’d called home for 50 years – where she’d not only grown up, but raised her daughters.
She is now living in a caravan on a former school site in the Midlands.
The mum-of-three says the council is to blame, and is pleading they find her a new place to call home.
She said: “Just give me somewhere to go – then their problem would go away.
“I wish they would just put me somewhere where I could settle and just live like everybody else, a normal life.”
But Stoke-on-Trent City Council says it’s tried to help Eva on multiple occasions, but she’s refused its help.
The mum lived on the council-run Linehouses site until her recent eviction.
She had been living on the site for five decades and brought up her daughters Hawthorne, 22, Anna-Mae, 18, Eva Marie, 17, and Queenie, 15, there.
Eva says she’s now worried about her own health and the welfare of her children.
She said: “I just want to live like everybody else, go home, go in, shut the door and be peaceful at the end of the day.
“They evicted me off Linehouses where I’d been for 50 years. Now I’m just moving on. Nobody’s here to help me.
“I’m very ignorant of all this, I don’t know how you go about renting things.
“I don’t want to move up and down on private property that doesn’t belong to me. I’ve got three teenage daughters, they’re not used to this, I’m not used to this. I’ve lived on the site all my life.”
The council was expected to go to court this week to try get the caravans off the land.
Just give me somewhere to go – then their problem would go away.
Eva Price
Eva added: “It took them eight-and-a-half years to evict me off Linehouses. I just want to know how long you have to live somewhere to be a part of the community.
“I lived up there for 50 years. I can’t even talk about it, I get so upset I keep crying over it. I never thought they would have done that to me.”
The mum, who said she’s a Romani Gypsy not a traveller, continued: “I feel like I’ve been discriminated against because of what I am.
“That’s all I’m asking for, support. I’ve got no voice. I’ve got lung disease, I’ve had a stroke, I’ve got very high blood pressure. I’m struggling.”
“We’re not making a mess, we’re picking up the rubbish. But I don’t want to live like this, I want someone to help me, but I can’t find any help.”
The council told The Sun Online: “A possession order was obtained through the Courts to evict Mrs. Eva Price from the Linehouses gypsy and traveller, site, following over four years of multiple attempts to work alongside Mrs. Price to ensure she meets the terms set out in her pitch agreement. Mrs. Price continued to breach these terms.
“Stoke-on-Trent City Council would emphasise that prior to and since the eviction, we have approached Mrs. Price on several occasions to offer and provide support including with her homelessness application however she has refused to accept the support and advice offered.”