I’m a mum-of-5 homeless at Christmas… we’ve lived in 7 caravans in one year & face hellish winter in UK benefits capital

AS CHRISTMAS draws ever nearer most families are putting the finishing touches to their trees and hanging twinkling lights outside their homes.

But that enchanting festive vision is just a dream for Amy Crutcher and Dino Baccellini and their five children, who are aged seven to 14.

The family have been homeless for three years, due to having no permanent residence, and spent the last six weeks living in three bedrooms at a guest house in Cleethorpes, North Lincs.

In a shocking case that exposes the extent of Britain’s housing crisis, they have been shunted from pillar to post as they struggle to get a forever home in the UK’s benefits blackspot.

Over the last three years, they have lived in seven different caravans, two bed and breakfasts, a holiday cottage and two temporary homes 

Their kids Kyle, 14, Kylie, 13, Lexie, 11, ten-year-old Carlo and seven-year-old Gino have spent three years being homeschooled because the family haven’t been given the chance to settle anywhere long-term.

They are currently living in three bedrooms of a bed and breakfast where they have a tiny fridge for food and a microwave for cooking.

All seven share toilet and bath facilities with other guests, including male workmen.

Amy sobs: “All I want for Christmas is a forever home for my kids. 

“I feel like a total failure. Nobody wants this for their children.”

Every day, the family walk an hour into nearby Grimsby to do their washing and get a hot meal at the Salvation Army.

They live on benefits of £2,076 a month but a huge chunk goes on eating on because they have no proper cooking facilities. There’s little chance of Dino securing a job with no permanent address. 

Forced to flee

The family’s ordeal began in September 2021 when they were forced to flee their home in Leicester after Amy received threats having given evidence in a sex abuse trial.

They landed up in Skegness where the local authority housed them in a series of temporary homes and caravans for almost a year 

There, family were placed in seven different caravans, two bed and breakfasts and a holiday cottage between July 2022 and March 2023. 

A police officer involved in the original trial begged their local East Lindsey District Council, in Lincs, to help the family in a letter that has been seen by The Sun – but his pleas fell on deaf ears.

I feel so bad because little Gino has never known a real home

Amy

When the authorities suggested the family might have more luck finding a long-term home in Grimsby, Amy, 33,  and Dino, 48 moved to the town.

After spending months in a short-term house, they were given yet another temporary property on Grimsby’s notorious Nunsthorpe estate, where crime and drugs are rife.

The couple were finally offered classroom places for their kids but in four different schools around the area and, without a car, they had no choice but to home-educate them.

‘Estate turned on us’

Things soon turned sour when the tight-knit community turned on the couple – and daughter Kylie was attacked by a grown woman.

After 18 months the family were once again faced with uprooting their lives.

Amy said: “We kept ourselves to ourselves on the estate but people were suspicious because we were strangers to them and it’s such a tight-knit community.

“Then this rumour started going around that we were in witness protection and people started calling us snitches, egging our house.

“Then Kylie was badly attacked by a woman who lived nearby and the council moved us out for our protection.

“The local authority has been as helpful as it can but there are just no homes. It said it would pay £600 a month towards a private landlord but they all want guarantors and we don’t know anyone around here and I can’t even ask my family.

“It’s utterly hopeless.”

‘We’re cursed’

The UK is facing an unprecedented housing crisis with record numbers of households living in short-term accommodation – higher than at any other point since records began in 1998.

A staggering 159,380 children are living in short-term properties.

The family will now spend Christmas Day eating a meal donated by the Salvation Army in their guesthouse room.

The couple are also struggling to buy gifts because their cash is being swallowed by food bills.

Amy broke down in tears as she told how they have lost almost all their possessions moving from house to house.

She said: “I feel so bad because little Gino has never known a real home.

“He’s never been able to go to school and shut the front door in a proper house that is ours.

“I feel utterly cursed, like everything that could have gone wrong for us has – and there seems to be no help coming.”

A spokesman for North East Lincolnshire Council said: “We are not able to discuss the details of individual cases.

“For households in these circumstances, as a last resort, they can be placed into family rooms in local B&Bs.

“Every effort is then made to find alternative arrangements that provide the family with security and stability.

“We aim to move households with children into self-contained accommodation as soon as possible. They remain there until permanent accommodation has been sourced.”

East Lindsey Council was probed by the Ombudsman over its treatment of the family.

It found the family had suffered delays in communication and ordered the authority to pay £500 for failing to protect property which was wrecked after they were forced to store it underneath a caravan. 

The council told The Sun: “The ombudsman publishes the findings of cases they investigate. 

“East Lindsey District Council takes all feedback from the Ombudsman seriously and uses it to further improve council services as appropriate.”