A GRIEVING father who lost his wife and young son in a fire which destroyed their house has been forced to move his family into a shelter for the homeless.
Hyndburn Council and Eaves Brook Housing Association were today investigating why Brian Stoddard and four of his children -- including his nine-year-old son Dean, who suffers from Down's Syndrome -- ended up in the local authority unit in Accrington after the offer of a new home was withdrawn by the housing association.
Brian lost his wife Gaynor and four-year-old son Brandon following a fire at their privately rented home in Lonsdale Street, Accrington, in May, but was offered a new home by Eaves Brook just days after the blaze.
The new house in Charter Street, Accrington, wasn't due to be ready until the middle of July so Brian moved sons Aaron 11, Dean and daughters Lyndsay, 19, and Melanie, 15 into his daughter Lisa's house, where Brian spent eight weeks sleeping on a kitchen floor.
But now Eaves Brook has said it is unable to hand over the keys because it has not received references from the family's previous landlords.
Brian said today: "We didn't try and find anywhere else to live because we knew Eaves Brook had promised us somewhere. Nobody told me anything was wrong with my application until I turned up to get the keys. "I was then told they didn't have a house for me and my case had been referred back to Hyndburn Council.
"Lisa has moved into a new flat which can't accommodate all of us so we have been left with nowhere to go.
"We had hoped that once the inquest was out of the way, we could look to the future.
"When I went to the offices they said they had not received references from me. They had never asked me for references before.
"What am I supposed to do now?"
At an inquest into Gaynor and Brandon's deaths at Hyndburn Magistrates last week, accidental death verdicts were recorded for both mother and son.
The hearing was told that the most probable cause of the blaze was Brandon playing with matches.
Hyndburn Council today said the family are now a priority on their waiting list and will be offered a suitable property when one becomes available. Council leader Peter Britcliffe today vowed to help the family, saying: "I am grateful to the Lancashire Evening Telegraph for bringing this to my attention. This is by no means a satisfactory situation and one which upsets me and I will be contacing Eaves Brook to find out what went wrong."
Steve Glover, manager of the Preston-based regional office of Eaves Brook said: "We offered this family a home after being contacted by Hyndburn Council, however this was subject to receiving references from previous landlords. We did not receive any references from them so we were unable to offer them a house as they did not match the criteria we need for them to join our scheme.
"We have referred the case back to Hyndburn Council."
He added he would be looking into the claims that no request had been made for references.
Mark Hoyle, from Hyndburn Council's housing department, said: "Eaves Brook originally said they would house the family but for whatever reason this has not proved to be the case."
Picture: (left) fire victims Gaynor Stoddard and son Brandon and (right) Brian with Melanie and Aaron outside the homeless hostel where they are now staying.
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