A HOMELESS charity is supporting a mother-of-two in a battle with her council to find accomodation.

Amanda Richardson is sleeping on the floor of her sister's two-bedroomed house in Redcar along with her two children, aged 11 and 14. Her sister, her partner and her 11-year-old daughter also live there.

Ms Richardson has been homeless since October 2003 after she returned from living with her ex-partner in Spain.

She says she has been told by Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council that she cannot get a home because she is failing to pay £613 rent she owed to Wellingborough Borough Council, in Northampton, where she moved six years ago with her ex-partner and her children.

But Ms Richardson says she is paying back the money and has already reduced the arrears to £500.

"It's so unsettling for my children," she said. "We all have to go to bed at the same time and we're living out of boxes on the living room floor.

"The council offered me a house in Grangetown, but when I got there, there were four teenagers doing drugs on the doorstep of the house and a neighbour told me it was no place to bring up children.

"My children are at school in Redcar and I don't want to disrupt them. But the council says I don't have a right to say where I want to live."

A spokesperson from Teesside Homeless Action Group, in Redcar, said: "We are helping Amanda and are currently in negotiations with the council."

In a joint statement, a spokesman for Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council and Coast and Country Housing said the council's Homelessness Unit had fulfilled its duty by offering her temporary accommodation.

"The unit has also referred Amanda to private sector leasing, the Endeavour Housing Association, and she is on their waiting list."

It said Coast and Country usually had a policy which excluded people with rent arrears.