98 year old Dorset WW2 veteran homeless after being evicted
Alfred Guenigault's been put up in hostel while Council rehouses him
A 98-year-old World War 2 veteran has been made homeless after being evicted from his Ferndown bungalow.
Alfred Guenigault, who has cancer, kidney disease and a broken hip, was issued a no fault eviction notice two months ago by his landlord.
The former paratrooper lived in the bungalow for seven years but has since been moved to St Gabriels hostel in Verwood with his daughter, Deb Dean, and her husband, Bernard Dean.
Founder of Poole-based charity Helping Homeless Veterans UK, David Wood told us:
“The fact that Alfred turned to his local authority and was told, ‘we're putting you in a hostel because we don't have accommodation for you’ is absolutely devastating.”
He’s been told it could be months before the council rehouses him which is “heart-breaking” for a man who was “part of a generation that built this country.”
According to Mr Wood, the family are very emotional; they don't know where to turn to next, “I'm worried about their own mental health and how they're suffering with all of this,” he said.
Deb Dean, who is a pensioner herself, lives with her father as his full-time carer but has seen her carer’s allowance, around £700, stopped.
She said the room given to them didn’t even come with a bed for her, it came empty with just one bed, provided by the hospital, for Alfred.
The great-grandfather-of-six-fears he won’t be able to see his grandchildren in his new residence.
Mr Wood told us: “We have promised the family that we will do whatever it takes to get Alfred into a place that he can call home so he can see out the rest of his days and spend time with his family and with his grandchildren.”
He’s criticised the government for not building enough affordable social housing: “We have been talking about this for years and it’s finally happened. Unfortunately, I believe it's going to get much worse than it is at the moment.”
Helping Homeless Veterans UK believe successive governments have been too reliant on private landlords and now private landlords have seen their interest rates “go sky high” they have two choices: either sell their properties or put their rents up. “It's a ticking timebomb,” David Wood said.
Mr Guenigault, a D-Day veteran and recipient of the National Order of the Legion of Honour by the French government, now finds himself homeless.