SHEILA Woodburn, her daughter and two young granddaughters returned last month from living in California.
She is from Annan and they have all been staying with relatives in the town after they were unable to find their own accommodation.
But the situation is getting desperate with ten people crammed into a house.
Sheila, who has existing health conditions that stop her from working, was, however, dismayed to be offered a property in Stranraer after registering on the council’s housing list.
She turned it down as her grandchildren, aged five and seven, have already started at Newington Primary and all her support network is here – but she is worried they will now end up at the bottom of the list, or homeless amid rising demand for homes locally.
Sheila moved to California in 2006 with daughter Stacey, who was 12 at the time, after a holiday turned into a permanent stay.
Her husband passed away last year after falling ill and Sheila decided to come home, selling her car to buy the flights.
However, this week she said the family has faced many barriers trying to find somewhere to live and it has been even harder after their luggage, containing important documents, went missing.
Sheila said: “We were offered a house in Stranraer from the council which is no good for us.
“The children are supported here, they have cousins at the same school.
“There are two homeless properties that I know of in Annan. They were empty when we arrived here, so they can’t tell me that there was nothing available.
“If there are so many people homeless and they are desperate for a house, why don’t they send someone else to Stranraer who is fit enough to go there.
She added: “I just keep going round and round in circles with them constantly.
“Every time I give them an answer to the question they come back with something else.”
Her daughter-in-law, Sharon Bingham, also queried if all the Government focus is presently on finding homes for Ukrainian refugees and said: “When they flew
back into Glasgow there was a Scottish welfare for Ukraine only, where is our welfare?
“I completely understand that they need help but you still have to accommodate us as well.”
Responding to the situation, a spokesperson for Dumfries and Galloway Council said: “Where someone presents as homeless the Council has a statutory duty to make an assessment on their homeless status. While doing this there is a statutory obligation to offer temporary accommodation.
“At the moment there is a significant increase in homeless applications therefore there is a reduced availability of temporary accommodation across the region.
“However the service continues to work with households to secure both temporary and permanent housing solutions when properties become available.”
Meanwhile, councillors last week heard that the number of homeless applications this summer locally has jumped by a third compared to last year. There were 325 applications to Dumfries and Galloway Council for temporary homeless accommodation between April and June, which was 82 more than the same period last year – and an increase of 33.7 percent.
The number of out of hours cases rose from 44 to 64, while the number of households in temporary accommodation is up from 177 to 190.
