'I've spent 13 years waiting for a permanent home'
BBCAn Army veteran who has spent 13 years on a waiting list for social housing has said the uncertainty has had a "big impact" on his mental health.
Tom Weaver, from Bridgend, currently lives in temporary accommodation run by homelessness charity The Wallich but has struggled to find a permanent home due to the adaptations required for him as a wheelchair .
He is calling on the Welsh government to address what he called a "chronic lack of suitable accommodation" for individuals and families.
A homelessness and social housing allocation bill was announced in the Senedd on Monday, which the Welsh government said was a "vital step" towards ending homelessness.
Mr Weaver had a brain haemorrhage in 2012 which left him paralysed on his left side and partially blind. He now uses an electric wheelchair.
At the time the local authority semi-adapted his house for him but he has since had to move several times to different homes.
Once going onto the waiting list, Mr Weaver said he realised a lot of the houses offered were unsuitable.
"I've gone into properties where I can't turn into the bathroom or into the bedroom, in one property I couldn't get in the kitchen with an electric wheelchair. It was so badly designed but on paper it was wheelchair friendly," he said.
Mr Weaver loves his current home, allocated to him by Bridgend council and managed by the Wallich. During the two-and-a-half years he has been there he said he has made friends, however it is hard to deal with the uncertainty.
The local authority have been "very understanding" of his needs with his current housing worked "perfectly", he said, but he is worried about the future.
"I think after 13 years it'd be like winning the lottery to get a permanent home where I can put roots down," he said.
Mr Weaver is calling on the Welsh government to do more to tackle what he described as a "chronic lack of suitable accommodation, across the board not just for me but for families".
He wants the Welsh government to block planning permission unless developers include some houses for able-bodied homeless people and accessible bungalows or ground floor flats.
Freedom of Information data previously found 139,000 people in Wales were waiting for a social home at the end of 2023. That, however, is likely to be an underestimate.
Data shows there were an estimated 125 individuals sleeping rough throughout Wales on 28 February 2025.
StatsWales data also shows in February 2025 there were 11,057 homeless people in temporarily accommodation.
It comes as the Welsh government introduced legislation on Monday it said would transform the way Wales responds to homelessness.
The Homelessness and Social Housing Allocation (Wales) Bill focuses on a few key elements:
- Transforming the homelessness system in Wales so that it focuses on earlier identification and prevention
- Targeting action at those most at risk. In particular, providing the opportunity to end homelessness among young people leaving care
- Focusing on a multi-agency response to homelessness, bringing Welsh public services together to respond to the different causes and consequences of homelessness
Ruth Power, chief executive of charity Shelter Cymru, said the new bill was "a key moment" that had "the potential to initiate transformative change in how we tackle homelessness in Wales".
She said she was looking forward to seeing the full details and it was "vital that we seize the opportunity this bill presents".
Jayne Bryant, cabinet secretary for housing and local government, said "the system at the moment is pushing people into crisis" and doing nothing was "not an option".
"It is going to take time but we want to really push first ahead with the prevention side of things.
"We know by preventing homelessness at an earlier stage that money will be able to go back into our public services... and it's not just financial costs, it's the human cost."