A new mum has told of her “hellish” life in temporary accommodation after she was moved into a top-floor flat in a four-storey apartment block without a lift.

Skye Hart was heavily pregnant and in desperate need of housing when she was offered the property in Maidstone – 20 miles away from family and friends in Canterbury and Faversham.

Seven months on and now mum to a four-month-old boy, she has told of the daily struggles of navigating four flights of stairs with a baby - often with bags of shopping in tow.

The lift at the high street building has long been decommissioned, leaving the 25-year-old fearful of an accident while carrying little Danny-Blue up the steps.

Miss Hart is one of many single parents moved miles from their support network and into temporary accommodation during one of the most difficult times of their lives.

She says life at the top of Paramount House is a bleak struggle as she faces the full brunt of Kent’s deepening housing crisis.

“When I first moved in here it was really difficult as I had to bring my belongings up the stairs while heavily pregnant,” she recalled.

“Everything, such as food shopping, has been a struggle.

“Now I have had the baby, it is hard to carry my shopping along with him up the stairs.

“It’s quite dangerous. I don’t want to trip and fall with my child so I end up having to carry him in his carrycot up a flight, run down and get the shopping, bring it up, and so on and so forth.

"I am right on the high street and my baby is being kept up at night with the noise, the fighting and the shouting, so it has been hellish.

“There is also a fire exit door leading to the bins with steep stairs and a drop, so simple tasks like taking rubbish out [are] very difficult.

“I have reported it to the council saying I need a ground-floor [home].”

Swale Borough Council (SBC) moved Miss Hart into the block in May after she presented as homeless three months before.

She had fallen pregnant in November last year, two months after being released from prison following a spell on remand facing charges that were later dropped.

Now, she is desperate to move to a more suitable property, fearing an accident could happen on the stairs of the building, which she says should only be for people without children or those with partners.

“We have a massive support network but it is not here,” she added.

“I grew up in Canterbury with my mum but my dad lived in Faversham so I lived between the two, but never Maidstone.

“I had the baby a month early, which I think had a lot to do with straining myself up the stairs with shopping.”

Ms Hart says she reports the issues she is experiencing to the council at least once a fortnight.

Ms Hart says a bannister is broken on one flight of stairs, with the steps themselves branded a “trip hazard”.

“Where my baby is getting heavier and I am carrying him up in a carrycot, I feel I am bumping him up some steps as it is so heavy,” she added.

“I feel like the council is waiting for an accident to happen to act on it, and I do not want to keep taking that risk as he is only very small.

“If I have the baby and my shopping, I have no bannisters to hold onto and he could be injured, so I feel very vulnerable.”

KentOnline shone a spotlight on the deepening temporary accommodation crisis earlier this year as the bill for authorities across the county doubled in five years.

Responses to Freedom of Information (FoI) requests revealed every council in Kent had seen a rise in its spending, with large sums going to private landlords.

Medway topped the list with more than £5 million forked out in the 22/23 tax year.

By comparison, Folkestone and Hythe District Council spent £315,289 on 221 placements during the same period.

Across the five years, Kent councils saw almost 17,000 TA placements accepted by families or individuals.

This excludes Maidstone and Medway, which were unable to provide the relevant figures.

SBC’s spending on temporary accommodation had quadrupled in the past five years – and the chair of the authority’s housing and health committee, Angela Harrison, admitted more needed to be done.

On Ms Hart’s situation, SBC says it is “working closely with her to resolve” issues.

“We as a council are responsible for providing suitable temporary accommodation (TA) to homeless people in priority need,” a spokesman said.

“But the shortage of TA means that sometimes we need to relocate people outside of the borough temporarily.

“That is why we are currently looking to buy houses, that will be used as TA, to help combat this shortage.”

Paramount, which manages the block, says it is sorry to hear Ms Hart is “experiencing difficulties with her emergency accommodation” but its team would only be able to answer queries about the building itself.

“The details of where and how homeless households are accommodated is entirely the decision of the local authority making the placement, and Paramount do not form part of this discussion (or any wider decision-making process) with either the council or household,” a spokesman said.

He added the lift was decommissioned before Paramount took management of the building and has been for many years.

He also says there is no need to use the fire escape to reach the bin area, explaining: “It is very normal to exit the front of the building through the main entrance when taking any domestic waste to the bin store.

“The fire escape is neither very steep or extremely dangerous; this aspect and the wider building accord with building control and the relevant legislation, passing the standard inspections for this nature of accommodation.

“However, if residents do wish to use the fire escape to access the bin store, this is also acceptable.

“In closing, we are sorry to hear that this household is experiencing any difficulties with their accommodation.

“The best approach is for Skye Hart to approach her placing authority with any suitability concerns in relation to her changing circumstances or wider housing needs.”

Emily Gibbs described how she had racked up 18 months across three different boroughs during the search for a permanent home.

Now settled in a new flat after a plea for help earlier this year, the 29-year-old said it felt as if she “was left to rot”.

“I was being put into places that were a health and safety risk. Pipes for old-style heaters were left bare, the stairs weren’t fit for purpose – it was all so unsafe,” she said.

Ms Gibbs was considered homeless for 32 months in total.

During her stays in Ashford, Swale and Folkestone, she says she was put in eight different houses and flats – with the constant uncertainty having a detrimental effect on her daughter’s development.

Leah Dawes told of her terror when she and her two infant daughters were placed in a room she says was grubby, with mice scurrying about at all hours.

Alexi Price was another who was subjected to what she calls “vile conditions” at the hotel.

One of the key issues with temporary accommodation is the quality and safety of the establishments people are housed in.

Jade Connor, from Herne Bay, told KentOnline in October last year she would rather sleep in a car than risk spending a night in a mouldy placement in Ashford - a move that left her homeless.