A Gloucester mother has described the relief of watching her children sleep and eat properly again, after 15 months in temporary accommodation
A Gloucester mother says her children are sleeping and eating properly for the first time in over a year, since moving into a permanent home.
Pippa Baker, her husband and their three children lost the house they had lived in for 15 years when their private landlord served them with a section 21 “no-fault” eviction notice in April 2024.
By September the bailiffs were at the door. They did not get keys to a permanent home again until 12 December 2025.
The family presented as homeless to Gloucester City Council and were placed in temporary accommodation. Their first six weeks were spent in hotels, and for a fortnight the family were split across two rooms – Pippa and her two daughters in one, her husband and son in the other.
When her eldest left for university, the remaining four were moved into a single room together.
After that came one night at a YMCA; all of them in one room in bunk beds, sharing a kitchen and bathroom with others in temporary accommodation.
“There were people in there who had been living like that for months,” Pippa said.
The family eventually got a two-bedroom flat on the third floor. Their furniture and belongings sat in a storage unit throughout – a large one at first, then a smaller one once they had space in the flat – costing them just over £5,000 in total.
“We had to pay £300 a month for the storage, for the privilege of being homeless,” Pippa said.
Two of the three Baker children, now 20, 16 and 14, are autistic, and the third-floor flat left them nowhere to go when things got too much. The family dog, a cavapoo called Nova, went to live with Pippa’s mother – the only way to keep her.
“Going into temporary accommodation was really difficult for my children, because they had never known another home,” Pippa said. “It was really taking a toll on our mental health and our physical health as well, and not knowing how long we’d be there.”
The family has now moved into a home in Brockworth with the housing association Bromford, part of Bromford Flagship LiveWest (BFL). Pippa said the difference showed in the way Bromford spoke to her about the property.
“From the beginning of speaking to Bromford about this property, we were always told about this home, or this house,” she said. “It really felt like a light at the end of the tunnel. The biggest change has been the children’s confidence. They’re sleeping better, they’re eating better.
“This is really the start of our life again. I can envisage us being here many years. I would be very happy here.”
Settled living
The house has three bedrooms and a garden. The girls took the main bedroom for its en suite. There is space in the living room for the family piano, once heaved up three flights of stairs into the flat, which Pippa’s son uses to calm himself down.
The house is heated by an air source heat pump, and Pippa said the bills are running at about half what gas and electricity would have cost. Nova was back with the family within a week.
“The biggest change is the children’s confidence. It seems like they’re ready to go out into the world now,” Pippa said. “They can just enjoy that time after school and really relax, ready for the next day. They’re able to achieve their potential because they’re settled.”
Pippa worked full time throughout. She is autism support lead at Gloucestershire Rural Community Council, a charity supporting autistic adults across the county who do not have a learning disability. She had also started a master’s in autism studies nine months before the eviction, through the University of Kent, and wrote her research paper while living in temporary accommodation.
“I wasn’t going to let the homelessness thing ruin my studies,” she said. “That’s human resilience for you.”
Asked what home means to her, Pippa describes somewhere the family can share their hobbies, relax in a safe space, and take on whatever life throws at them together. She is planning a vegetable patch in the garden.
A record 177,530 children were living in temporary accommodation in England at the end of March 2026, across 135,580 households.
Main image: Pippa Baker, happy to be settled into a new home with her family. Image credit: Bromford
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