A WOMAN with severe disabilities is writing to the Government to try to change housing rules which could leave her on the streets.

Janice Fairbridge, 45, said she must leave her Teesside home because her medical condition is worsening and she needs to move into a bungalow.

But Mrs Fairbridge and her husband, Stuart, said their applications for housing are continually turned down by councils and housing associations because they are too young.

Many associations specify a disabled person must be either 50 or 60 to qualify for an adapted home.

Mrs Fairbridge is writing to local government minister Nick Raynsford to protest that the rules are unfair and should be changed.

The couple agreed to sell their house, in Costa Street, South Bank, to Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council.

But if she and her husband cannot find another home by the end of the financial year, the £15,500 deal will be off or they will be forced on to the streets.

It will leave the couple among the last people living in run-down Costa Street with no chance of selling the house privately for what the council is offering.

Mrs Fairbridge has shown notes about her terminal condition from her GP, occupational therapist and respiratory physiology specialists, to housing associations and councils across the Tees Valley and North Yorkshire to try to find a home.

Although adapted homes are available for elderly people, no homes for younger disabled people are available.

The couple, who are both on benefits, recently ended a national steroid awareness charity they ran from their front room.

Wheelchair-bound Mrs Fairbridge, who has a condition called chronic obstruction pulmonary disorder, osteoporosis and diabetes, and rarely leaves the house, said: "We had a housing association called Broadacres who have a bungalow available at Great Ayton, in North Yorkshire.

"They came to assess our medical condition but we were told there's no real chance because we're under 50.

"It just doesn't make sense. I'm virtually housebound and 45 years old. It's not like we're a couple of daft 19-year-olds who are going be causing hell having parties every night."

A spokesman for Broadacres said the rules could be altered but only in cases of extreme need. He said Mrs Fairbridge's case was being considered.

Coast and Country Housing, which manages Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council's former housing stock, also said Mrs Fairbridge's case was being assessed