The gas and electric are just too high.
I come when I can afford to.
It's warm, I don't have to worry about keeping the heating on
and it's a nice group, it's friendly.
I spend most of my time sitting in my bedroom,
no telly, no nothing, just wrapped up underneath the quilt.
Come on, Sue.
I didn't mean to get –
No, no, it's all right, it's really hard
and it doesn't help when you haven't got, like, your bills and everything paid.
It's my fault, it's all –
It's not your fault.
Something needs to be done because this is not life at all –
Well this is a step that you're taking.
You're taking a step now.
You took that big step of coming here, see when you forget,
how brave you were doing that?
That's not brave.
It is.
I'm a coward.
You're not, you're not.
And we will get to the point where you love yourself again, OK?
I've never loved myself.
And it will just be little baby steps.
I've never done that.
Well you're funny and you're hilarious and you make me laugh.
Got to be to survive.
Yeah.
Alright?
So don't apologise.
We've been doing the whole warm hub thing for a long time.
We're now seeing fuel poverty and uniform poverty
and clothing poverty and hygiene poverty,
but food and fuel poverty are the two main things.
They're having to choose between food and heating their homes.
Yeah.
I compromise with food, I've got to have the heating on.
It's either that or I end up in hospital.
So we're doing a lot of advocacy,
which I think should be done at root cause, elsewhere,
by the public sector, it shouldn't be down to us.
Yeah.
She's got mould in her property and considerable health issues,
COPD as well as mental health.
Oh Sue, that sounds awful.
So we're just off to see one of our clients, Sue.
We don't normally do visits, as we're doing today,
only in really extreme circumstances,
but I do need to see Sue's property and what she's going through.
So many of our clients particularly 45, 50-plus have COPD.
So COPD and asthma are really, really common in our area
and I think that is down to the health inequalities within poverty.
Hello.
Hello, petal.
Aw, you're all wrapped up?
Where would you like us?
You're not happy about that, are you?
Hello!
Well, your chest sounds awful, Sue.
It's weird because I just noticed yesterday, when I was at the group it wasn't as bad
and then as soon as I got back home, within an hour, I was ill with it, wheezing.
So ...
Is it like this all the time then, the wheezing?
Yeah, it has been since the bad weather started.
Oh here you go tiger, come here.
He looks like Gizmo, doesn't he?
He's naughty.
I'm frightened to use the heat, but I've got no option.
The only time I turn it off is when I go in my bedroom.
I used to think people were exaggerating and now I know they're not.
In the wall right the way along here,
you get these water bubbles, wasn't to sure it's that,
because I used too think it was just me imagining it,
but no, water bubbles come in.
There's mould there as well, isn't there?
I can see mould on the other side.
Probably.
Sue, your breathing's horrendous.
What's happened with the council and everything, Sue?
They're saying it's not damp, but seriously ...
Water is coming in from outside.
Yeah.
I don't think it was checked thoroughly before I moved in.
You're coming to the group.
I'll sort some milk out and stuff, OK?
All right'?
Yeah.
Hey Carl, you alright?
Where's the horn?
That is the shitest horn.
Look it's even got lights.
It's even got lights on it.
And indicators.
We want to make sure everyone's got a winter coat.
Basically sorting all the women's out into sizes.
To save money I come down here during the day.
And you're on a prepayment meter?
I am, yeah.
I put about £120 on my gas and it's £30 on my electric, a fortnight.
Every fortnight?
Every fortnight and even then sometimes I'll run low on the gas.
I'll get the odd food parcel or like, the fair share and stuff like that,
just to top my cupboards up, just to make ends meet.
I had to pack in work because of my illnesses,
the COPD and I've got peripheral nerve damage in my left leg
and back problems and I've got like, skin cancer and bones disease.
So, I've got a lot going on medically.
They want employers, nobody's going to employ somebody that's at the hospital
at least three times a week, do you know what I mean?
So, here gives me some self-worth.
There's a bag, Jules.
Thank you.
No bother, mate.
Sue, who we saw in Burradon on Tuesday, contacted us
because she's found further mould and it's quite significant.
So that's her bedroom and she's sleeping in that,
but she was saying to us it's always worse in the bedroom,
but there was black mould around the window.
I know, bless her.
No wonder –
And no wonder she's a bit peed off as well.
Yeah.
Just ringing the council for Sue, Ashley.
I have been in the property and it does smell of mould.
Yeah, yeah.
She's struggling with the prepayment meter as well,
obviously to afford to heat the house.
Thank you, bye, bye.
Bye.
So that is the North Tyneside council repair service
and the earliest they can get someone out is the 17th of April.
And it currently the 20th of January.
20th of January, so she's waiting four months.
She said since the little boy died, everyone is contacting them
and there's not the resources.
You just shouldn't be be living like that
and paying full rent and council tax.
It's not fair.
But look, we keep going, this is why we're doing it.
So Earl has a load of lived experience
and he's joined us to inform us and help us
develop our men's provisions, haven't you, Earl?
Best way I can.
the men in our communities don't feel like they can tell you when they're not OK
and they struggle a lot with the pressures they have,
so they suffer as much as our families do from it.
A lot of men won't come forward and ask for that help,
because of the male pride, the masculinity around it
and that as well.
They think it's not good to talk or they can't talk,
they think people will think less of them.
One of the outcomes of this cost of living crisis on our communities
is that we are seen as a charity, more people turning to us
with mental health issues, addiction issues
and I would say the cost of living crisis today,
will be the mental health crisis of tomorrow.
Bagfuls, sackfuls, rucksackfuls, anything.
You see a lot of people struggling,
there's more people coming in to get food parcels than there was.
I think it's a big step for somebody to come and say, "I am struggling for my children
and because I think I'm letting my kids down as well."
And they shouldn't feel like that,
but in the back of your head, you think, "Oh well, because of the cost of living."
It's crazy.
It has been amazing how many people are coming together
and helping each other really hard,
but it helps you, even with your mental health, coming in here.
Like, sitting at home by yourself, it's not going to help you,
coming in here for a few hours, you'll go back happy.
Shopping for the week.
There's been a huge spike in requests for blankets,
heaters, electric heaters, that we've never seen before,
because people are telling us their gas is
burning so much money on a prepayment meter.
Living in an atmosphere that's damp and cold and wet
and even just being cold has a huge impact on health.
We cope because that is what we do
and that is what we've always done.
Don't worry about that.
Don't worry, mate.
I'll deal with that.
But we are on the brink mentally, myself and Louise, of exhaustion.
It's fine.
What would people do if they didn't have us?
That's my worry if they didn't have that safety net
and it's scary.