A single mother who has battled to turn her life around by studying for a university degree and a masters, says she will never be able to afford to buy a house unless she wins the lottery or her son becomes a famous footballer.
Terri-Anne Hamer, 38, who lives in Leeds, told i that while recent mortgage rate cuts are giving some people hope of finally being able to afford their first home, for her it is an impossible dream.
“I’m in a situation where it’s just about getting through each month,” she said. “A mortgage isn’t even in my mindset right now.
“It’s something I’d like to have, but I don’t think it’s ever going to be achievable for me, no matter how hard I work.
“The only way I can see myself ever affording a home is if I have a lottery win. Or if my 14-year-old son achieves his dream of getting signed up for Liverpool as a footballer.
“He always tells me: ‘When I’m older and get signed up as a footballer, I’m going to buy you a house. Even if I don’t get signed up, I’m going to look after you’.”
Ms Hamer, mother to Kaemon Smith, 14, Amayah Durrani, 11, and AJ Durrani, eight, has faced poverty all her life but has worked hard to break the cycle to give her own children a better future.
The eldest child of parents who were drug and alcohol addicts, Ms Hamer has been in and out of care since she was a baby and describes her life for years as being about “survival”.
At the age of 24, Ms Hamer became her younger brother’s foster carer. By this point, she had already had her son Kaemon, who was six months old.
Ms Hamer tells i she was on benefits for years and it wasn’t until she got to her 30s that things stopped being chaotic and was determined to turn things around making sure her own children had all the opportunities and experiences she never had.
Having worked as a youth worker and volunteered in her community after being grateful for the support she had received herself from organisations, Ms Hamer decided to embark upon a university degree in her early 30s while looking after her three children as a single mum.
She was not only successful in achieving a degree in Youth and Community Studies, she went on to complete a masters in Criminology.
Ms Hamer is now working part time as a project worker for the Care Leavers Association, while bringing up her three children.
But she says despite all her efforts, and knowing she is doing the best she can for her children, she fears owning her own home and having a mortgage will always be out of her reach.
“I’ve worked hard as a single mum and as a care leaver to overcome the odds. But even though I now have a masters and a BA behind me, I am just making ends meet.
“I can only work part-time as I have three children and I am also looking after another child who I took on after my mum passed away a couple of years ago.”
As lenders have started to slash mortgage rates following the Bank of England’s decision to reduce interest rates last month, some renters and first time buyers are feeling a ray of optimism that they may finally be able to get on the property ladder.
But Ms Hamer says that for people like her, it is still completely unattainable and the people she knows can barely afford their rent, let alone ever think about saving enough money for a house deposit or getting a mortgage.
Ms Hamer and her family rent a housing association property and she says with it being social housing, she is lucky it is affordable at just under £700 a month.
She says she was never taught about things like mortgages and her aspiration now is that her children can go on to forge a secure future and achieve all the things she never had.
“I’ve only got to the stage where I am thinking about these things for my children, ” she said. “It was never taught to me. I don’t understand how it all works with mortgages, but I don’t think I’d have enough credit to attain it because of my circumstances.
“Myself and the people I know are all renting their homes and are not in a position to buy. Everyone is just trying to get by and live the best life they can with the means they have.
“I would love to one day have my own home, but in the pit of my stomach, I know it is just a pipe dream.”
Looking back to her own childhood, Ms Hamer recalls how her parents used to shoplift to fund their habit and lifestyle.
“Sometimes, when I get overwhelmed, I start to think why have I grafted so hard only to still be struggling to make ends meet. When I was younger, the job and life I have now would have been considered well off.
“We didn’t know the value of anything when I was a child and I want my children to be completely different. In the last nine years, I have worked hard to do what I should have done in the previous 25 years.
“My kids are doing really well at school and are top of their classes, and are achieving and attaining.
“I just hope I set my children up with enough knowledge and that schools are teaching them the things I never learned so they can have the best lives they can. Kids have a lot more at their fingertips now and can look things up online.
“In my mind, as long as I bring this lot up and get them to university, they can have a solid foundation and go off into the world and achieve their dreams.
“I am investing in my children and they are already reaching things I couldn’t have dreamed of at their age,” she says.
“I don’t have much of a social life and most of my clothes are given to me by my sister. I work very hard to give my children the life they have and they don’t understand the struggle I have to make sure they don’t know there is a struggle.
“They are living their dream and I am so proud. They are already beating the odds. Even though I might never be able to own a house or have a mortgage, I pray they will do it and that their generation will get to do what the rest of my family never did.”
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