I've been waiting 15 years for a council house - why am I not top of the waiting list?

A single mother from London has called for her local social housing system to be "overhauled" after spending 15 years on a waiting list. Harlie Swann, 30, went into temporary accommodation at the age of 16, and more than a decade and two children later, she still hasn't been given a permanent place to live. The Croydon local said she was shortlisted for a home in the south London borough earlier this year but later found out that she had been removed from the shortlist.

"It made me really upset and angry," she told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS). "The whole thing just seems like a luck of the draw." Ms Swann said she had let herself believe that her children would be given the stability of growing up in the property she was shortlisted for, and even went as far as befriending neighbours with the aim of settling in the area.

"I think the whole bidding system for social housing needs to be scrapped and overhauled," she said. "There are people that have not been on it for very long and then are housed, and then you have people like me who have been waiting 15 years and still haven't been housed."

Ms Swann argued that her nine-year-old son's ADHD diagnosis and her own mental health issues should have a greater bearing on whether she is allocated a permanent residence.

"It seems like there is no sense of priority," the 30-year-old said. "I have a child with additional needs and my own mental health issues, and there is no way to be moved up the list when you have these issues. So many people within the council have told me it doesn't work, and that it is the luck of the draw.

"It has a huge impact on my son Frankie, who has additional needs. He gets really upset that we aren't allowed to decorate and make it a permanent home."

Croydon Council's social housing system enables residents to place bids on available homes online, with applicants ranked in order of the urgency of their situation, with qualifying factors including medical needs and risk of homelessness.

Ms Swann, Frankie and her youngest child, Finnlie, 3, have never known housing security as a family unit, however, and have been moved around between temporary accommodation in Croydon, Sutton and Lambeth over the last decade.

The hopelessness of her situation has compelled her to launch a petition calling for the housing system to be completely overhauled on the grounds that it leaves people like her trapped in an endless cycle of temporary homes and uncertainty.

"A reformed system should encompass clear criteria that consider length of wait time, family size, economic need and health conditions," the 30-year-old said. "Ensuring transparency through regular updates and a publicly accessible priority list will nurture trust between the council and the community."

A spokesperson for Croydon Council said: "We are committed to preventing homelessness and supporting people who need housing. But like many London boroughs, Croydon faces a severe shortage of affordable homes.

"More than 3,600 households are in temporary accommodation and over 8,600 households are on the housing waiting list. We also receive around 400 new homelessness applications every month, but only a small number of council homes become available. This means residents can sometimes remain in temporary accommodation for longer than we would like.

"We do our best to support our residents within the options available, including helping them explore other suitable housing, such as private rented accommodation. We remain focused on supporting our resident and will continue to work with her to find the best outcome within the options available."