A couple, from Bolton, Greater Manchester, are forced to live in the woods after losing their home and jobs amid coronavirus outbreak.
Ashley Khan and Katie Bland are living in a tent in the woods after Ashley, who worked as a painter and decorator, lost his job amid coronavirus crisis.
The couple, who had been homeless before, was not able to pay the rent and became homeless again.
Ashley said: “I was working, but the coronavirus situation happened and that led me to being unemployed. I had given my landlord money but once that was eaten away they gave us notice and said we had to go.”
The landlord told them to pack their bags before taking their keys and they had to leave the place.
The couple decided to buy a tent and started living in the wild areas of Bolton.
Ashley added: “We don’t do drugs and we’re not alcoholics we’re just living in the woods at the moment in Rivington. Times are hard, we’ve got no food.”
The couple is planning to live in the tent in the woods for a few months and they will move to a house of their own after the coronavirus crisis ends.
The couple said they decided to live in the woods so they could avoid getting in contact with people and maintain social distancing.
But, they regularly go to the town to get food and other items. They said someone even destroyed their tent and stolen many of Katie’s clothes when they went to the town for shopping.
Ashley said: “We were camping in Rivington a few weeks ago and we thought we were out of the way but when we went out someone knifed our tent. We had tried to hide it away with branches.”
Katie added: “I’ve literally only got the clothes on my back now. It’s terrible, we can’t even go to charity shops and ask if they have anything to spare because the shops are all closed.”
Now, they carry everything around with them so they don’t have to deal with such things as they are already going through a lot.
Katie even fell and smashed her knee and hurt her shoulder while in the woods. She said she is even forced to wash her hair in cold water and she can’t even go to a doctor.
Despite living far away from people, the couple is scared of contracting coronavirus.
Katie said: “The virus has made us homeless. Now, I’m worried about getting the virus. I was sick for about four weeks recently. I’m not sure if it was the same thing but I had a temperature and I was sick and I had a really bad chest.”
She said it’s her birthday next week and she doesn’t want to be ill on her birthday.
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