'I've spent 13 years on the social housing waiting list'

Tom Weaver says he lives uncertainly about his future

BBC Tom sits in his wheelchair in his living room looking at the camera and smiling. It has short white hair and wears a red shirt. You can see a wooden exhibition cabinet with a glass front out of focus behind it. — Tom Weaver says he lives uncertainly about his future

An army veteran who has spent 13 years in a waiting list for social housing has said that uncertainty has had a “great impact” on his mental health.

Tom Weaver from Bridgend currently lives in temporary accommodation led by the Car beneficial organization Homelessness The Wallich, but has struggled to find a permanent home due to the adaptations required for him as a wheelchair user.

He is asking the Welsh government to address what he called a “chronic lack of adequate accommodation” for individuals and families.

It is expected that a bill for the assignment of social housing and housing will be announced in the Senedd later on Monday, what the Welsh government said was a “vital step” to end the lack of housing in Wales.

‘It would be like a winning lottery’

Weaver had a cerebral hemorrhage in 2012 that he left paralyzed on his left side and partial blind. Now use an electric wheelchair.

At that time, the local authority adapted his house, but since then he has had to move several times to different homes.

Once he was going to the waiting list, Weaver said he realized that many of the sacrificed houses were inappropriate.

“I have entered properties where I cannot become the bathroom or the bedroom, in a property I could not enter the kitchen with an electric wheelchair. I was so poorly designed, but in paper it was friendly with the wheelchair,” he said.

Tom says that some houses that sacrificed the leg were not suitable for his wheelchair

Tom in his electric wheelchair in his kitchen, with his back to the camera. You can see an exhibition cabinet on the left, with the sink of the kitchen, the washing machine and the counter in the front. — Tom says that some houses that sacrificed the leg were not suitable for his wheelchair

Weaver loves his current home, Bridgend’s council was assigned and managed by the Wallich. Duration The two and a half years that has bone there, he said that he has made friends, however, it is difficult to deal with uncertainty.

The local authority has been “very comprehensive” of their needs with their current home “perfectly,” he said, but is worried about the future.

“I think after 13 years it would be like winning the lottery to get a permanent house where I can leave the roots,” he said.

Tom is asking the Wales government to do more to address what he described as a “chronic lack of adequate accommodation, in all areas not only for me but for families.”

He wants the Welsh government to block the planning permit unless developers include some houses for homeless people and accessible bungalows or low -floor floors.

Freedom data found previously 139,000 people in Wales were waiting for a social home at the end of 2023. However, it is likely to be a underestimation.

The data show that there was an estimate of 125 people sleeping roughly through Wales on February 28, 2025.

Stathalles data is also shown in February 2025 that there were 11,057 homeless people in temporary accommodation.

It occurs when the Welsh government is expected to enter the legislation on Monday that said transforming the way in which Wales responds to the lack of housing.

The Project of Assignment of Housing and Social Housing (Wales) will focus on some key elements:

Transform the homeless system into Wales to focus on previous identification and prevention
Action aimed at the most at risk. In particular, providing the opportunity to end homeless people among young people who leave attention.
Focus on a response of multiple agencies to the lack of housing, joining the Welsh public services to respond to the different causes and consequences of the lack of housing