A single mum with a seven-week-old baby says the tiny room they share is unsuitable because one of them must sleep on the floor.  

Valentina Mitrofan, 27, was working two jobs as a waitress and a cleaner when her landlord suddenly raised the rent on her Vicarage Road flat, making her homeless.

Already several months pregnant, she was unable to afford any alternative accommodation and was turfed out on the street, sleeping in churchyards and parks with no more protection than a sleeping bag.

Ms Mitrofan said: “I didn’t have any support. The YMCA said they couldn’t take me because I was pregnant.

“I was dirty. I had back pain, bump pain. I thought I was going to lose my baby.”

In April, Watford Borough Council moved her into a single room in a shared accommodation house in Tibbles Lane, Garston.

But she argues the accommodation is far from suitable for a single mother and her young child.

As well as the prevalence of drug and alcohol abuse in the area, the shared kitchen and bathroom are often filthy, and with just a single bed in the room she faces a tough choice: either she or her baby must sleep on the floor.

Naturally she sacrifices her own comfort to protect her child.  

“When they moved me here I didn’t know where I was. It was hard,” she said.

“You can’t put drug addicts and alcoholics next to a mother and her child. I don’t care what other people do but this is too much.

“This is not a suitable home for my baby. But I don’t have a choice - I have to go where they tell me.”

Because she has lived in the country for less than five years, Ms Mitrofan cannot be moved into permanent accommodation and is still classed as homeless by the council.

She says she simply wants a safe flat with one bedroom but struggles to find landlords who will accept housing benefit towards the cost of rent.

“I came to this country to work. I want to live here – I didn’t come to steal or take money and then leave. I didn’t do any harm to anyone,” she added.

When her baby gets older he will need a cot but her present lodgings will not allow one in the tiny room as it would be classed as a fire hazard.

She is now applying for a suitability review of her accommodation for a second time after her first request was ignored.

Watford Borough Council said it could not comment on individual cases but said its process for dealing with homeless applications was “open and transparent”.

Watford Community Housing Trust said in a statement: “We are working with the residents of the temporary accommodation on Tibbles Close to address their concerns.

“We take the safety of our residents very seriously, and we are collaborating with our partners, including our cleaning contractor and Hertfordshire Constabulary, to tackle these issues, as well as increasing our visits to the building to monitor conditions.”