Martin Shales (64) and Jeannine Noel (63) issued an urgent plea for help when they could not find a home through the Affordable Housing Gateway, which is managed by Customer and Local Services.
Ms Noel said they have had ‘no luck in finding anywhere and have not been given a reason as to why we cannot get a place’.
She said they had been put in ‘such a difficult situation’ and added: ‘If we do not find somewhere soon it could have tragic implications.’
After writing to Andium on several occasions and following questions by the JEP, the couple have now been ‘reprioritised’ and offered two property viewings.
Ms Noel said they had previously had ‘no luck’ in finding a home that was within their £1,100-per-month budget and which would accept their pet dogs.
She said they had lived in Jersey all their lives and that their age and Mr Shales’ health conditions meant that they ‘should not be living out of a van’.
The pair had been staying in a flat above a takeaway but decided to leave after living in what Ms Noel described as ‘unbearable conditions’.
The Beachcombers Hotel temporarily offered one of its winter lets to the couple at a reduced rate and they had been living there since, with Ms Noel saying the team there had been ‘so accommodating’.
However, the hotel asked them to leave in order to make space for their summer bookings.
Ms Noel said: ‘We had been living above the takeaway but our flat was directly above their extractor fans, which were left on through the night and the noise was unbearable.
‘When we first moved in we were unaware of the noise and we eventually had a member of the Environmental Health team visit the place, and they said the flat was not suitable to live in. We were getting no sleep and Martin, who has diabetes, was getting so stressed that he was actually admitted to hospital due to his extremely high blood pressure.’
Ms Noel said they had ‘nowhere to go’ and felt ‘really let down’.
She said that Mr Shales’ doctor had written to Andium Homes on multiple occasions urging them to prioritise finding the pair a home for the sake of Mr Shales’ health. The couple also say they wrote to Housing Minister Russell Labey and Grouville Constable John Le Maistre.
A spokesperson for Andium Homes said the gateway team had ‘reprioritised’ the couple’s application and they were committed to finding a solution.
They said: ‘Andium Homes does not manage the waiting list for social housing. Assessing applications for housing and deciding on the priority of those cases is the role of the Affordable Housing Gateway, which is managed by Customer and Local Services on behalf of the Housing Minister. When we have a vacant home we will allocate it from the gateway waiting list maintained by CLS.’
Vacant properties had previously been allocated to higher-priority cases, the spokesperson said, but added: ‘In the past two weeks the gateway has reprioritised the couple’s application, giving them a higher level of priority.
‘We are committed to finding a solution for the couple subject to the availability of vacant properties created by existing tenants moving and hope that this will not take long to achieve.’
