Robert Carver, a paraplegic gay man abandoned for the last 5 years in a second floor flat in Hove with no disabled access calls for Human Rights Commission to investigate Brighton & Hove City Council’s (BHCC) policy for housing disabled people.
He is asking that his case be included in a new enquiry being undertaken by the Equality and Human Rights Commission into housing for disabled people launched on December 14.
Mr Carver has been housed in a second floor flat by Brighton & Hove City Council for the last 5 years. The flat has no disabled access and he has to be physically man handled up and down the stairs by his carer.
Mr Carver is paraplegic and has been told by his GP, nurse, occupational therapist and psychologist that he needs 24-hour-a-day care but Brighton & Hove City Council (BHCC) has only allocated him 28 hours a week.
This means he is left to his own devices for two days a week and on the other days from 17:00 till noon the next day. During that time he has no access to food, water, toilet, bath or even his bed.
Despite pleas for a review of this situation from Mr Carver’s medical team, independent advisers, and the local ambulance and fire services, BHCC recently reiterated that they see no need to expand the care he receives.
The accommodation the council allocated to Mr Carver is a second-floor flat which can only be reached by two flights of steep stairs. The flat has no lift and Mr Carver has to be dragged up and down the stairs by his carers in order to attend his medical appointments.
The flat itself is too small to accommodate a wheelchair which means that he is pulled around over the floor by his carer when moving round the flat to go to the bathroom and to bed.
For several years Brighton & Hove City Council social workers have maintained that Mr Carvers current accommodation and care is ‘perfectly acceptable’.
Following Mr Carver’s plight being highlighted by Meridian TV in October 2016 a BHCC spokesman admitted that the accommodation the council had housed Mr Carver in was “unsuitable”.
Despite BHCC saying in a statement to Meridian News on October 12 that new temporary accommodation with disabled access would be available shortly, no new accommodation has materialised.
Subsequently the Council have offered Mr Carver a bungalow in Whitehawk that was not wheelchair accessible and a ground floor studio in emergency accommodation in central Brighton notorious for damp, drug-use and misbehaviour, described by Caroline Lucas MP for Brighton Pavilion as being unsuitable for disabled people and previously ruled out by Brighton & Hove Council when they withdrew an offer of the property to Mr Carver in March 2016.
Mr Carver’s medical team and legal representatives advised him not to accept these offers despite being advised by Brighton & Hove City Council that if he does not accept their offer they might opt to choose to no longer recognise their duty of care to him.
This means Mr Carver could become ‘intentionally homeless’ and have no other option but to try to survive as one of the many street homeless in Brighton & Hove.
To sign the petition asking the Human Rights Commission to investigate Mr Carvers case, click here:
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