A Keswick family facing homelessness have expressed their sincere thanks this week after their emergency housing headache was solved with an “amazing” act of kindness.
Following last week’s story in The Keswick Reminder, offers to accommodate the De Mesa family came in from Keswick and Borrowdale.
Sarah, the front of house employee at Italian restaurant Casa Bella, and a resident of Keswick for nearly a decade, is due to give birth to her second child within a fortnight.
Fighting back emotion, Sarah, 30, said: “We now have temporary accommodation offered by a very nice couple until the end of March.
“It is a four-bedroom flat in Keswick which is really good and we can’t thank them enough or express our feelings of gratitude. We don’t know them at all and they have opened their house to us.
“Even though it is temporary, it is a big, big help – it’s amazing. I feel like it has really eased the problem. Now that I have two weeks left (of pregnancy), it is taking the stress away for a bit and we feel really grateful and appreciate all their help.”
In July, Sarah and her family had been given four months’ notice to leave their existing rented property in Keswick this week as the owner needed it back.
She and husband Eduardo, 34, a head chef at the restaurant and daughter Aneesah, aged 14, have spent that time trying to find somewhere in Keswick, as neither of them drive.
But they found nowhere to rent and missed out on affordable rental bids too. All council emergency accommodation is based in Maryport or Workington, and there is none available.
The family have been supported by employer Andrew Stockwell, who highlighted their problem to draw attention to Keswick’s dire shortage of rental properties for people working in the town.
Mr Stockwell said: “I have had people stop me in the street to wish Sarah and Ed all the best and give them their support, even though they can’t do anything, which has been lovely.
“A lot of people have also reiterated that they have experienced similar issues in the town and are finding that friends, colleagues and family members have had to move away because there just aren’t enough places and there is a shortage of affordable property.”
Mr Stockwell added: “Sarah and Ed have both worked for me for some time and I have got to know them very well and to see them going through what they have has not been pleasant.
“The fact that Sarah is two weeks away from having a baby – I can’t imagine what that must have been like for the pair of them.
“They have made a life and home here and suddenly they were facing having to be uprooted and possibly shipped off to a new town.”
Sarah, paid a tearful tribute to Andrew for all his support and to those people who had chosen to send supportive messages.
She said: “We are really, really grateful. We couldn’t thank him enough because at the beginning of this he was always there for us.
“As an employer he never let down his staff and has always been there for us and we are really, really grateful for his help.”
