A young Darlington mother and her baby have been sofa surfing for the last 10 months while waiting for temporary housing.

The mother and her child have only been offered a hotel room - with no kitchen - during that time.

This is the reality facing young mums with babies in the North East due to the "national crisis" in temporary accommodation.

It comes as figures reveal that there are hundreds of homeless children in Darlington, County Durham and North Yorkshire.

The young mum, who wishes to remain anonymous, described how she has been forced to alternate between sleeping on her mum's sofa and her aunty's, with her 18-month-old baby.

The 18-year-old mother has been on the Darlington Borough Council list for temporary housing for 10 months and has still heard nothing.

The only offer she had was to live in a hotel with no cooking appliances - which she says was no good for her or her baby.

The mother described how it takes weeks for her housing officer to reply to her questions about the situation - and nothing has changed 10 months on.

She came forward after reading The Northern Echo investigation into the number of empty homes in the North East.

She said: "I am 18-years-old with an 18-month-old and I am currently staying between my mam's and my aunty's on their sofas as I have nowhere to go.

"I have been on the council list for 10 months and I have got nowhere, not even temporary accommodation - the only thing they are offering me is a hotel which has no cooking appliances.

"That is no good for me, especially my little one.

"It is absolutely ridiculous."

"When I came across the article about the number of empty homes I thought I should get in touch.

The Northern Echo has been investigating the situation with empty homes in the North East - there are 50,000 in the region.

The mother added: "It takes me weeks for my housing officer to get back in touch with me and when he does I’m still no further forward. No one is doing anything to help me.

"I’ve registered with loads of housing associations and still I have got nothing.

"It has been 10 months I’ve been waiting. It is making my mental health really bad."

A Darlington Borough Council spokesman said: "We currently have 85 households in temporary accommodation, 29 of those are in B&B/hotels. Any families with children would be moved into either self-contained or temporary housing as soon as possible, and would be in B&Bs/hotels no longer than six weeks.

"We work proactively to support households to find permanent accommodation and follow all guidance around the use of B&B/hotels and ensure we do not use this long term.

"We are also currently reviewing our Preventing Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy."

Nationally there are more than 150,000 children living in temporary housing.

Temporary accommodation is a form of homelessness and can include people living in hostels or bed and breakfasts.

By law, B&Bs are meant to be used only for families in an emergency and for no longer than six weeks.

But across England, the number of households with children exceeding that timeframe has rocketed by 80 per cent from 1,810 in 2023 to 3,250 this year.

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This included one in County Durham.

Housing charity Shelter said this Government must "tackle the housing emergency head on".

Chief executive Polly Neate said: "Without a clear plan to invest in genuinely affordable social homes, thousands more children will be forced to grow up in damaging temporary accommodation, spending months if not years living out of suitcases, crammed into grim bedsits and B&Bs, and unable to put down any roots."