A FORMER social housing worker is fearing for his health if he is evicted from his temporary accommodation in a few days’ time.

Steven Smith 61, said he had nowhere else to turn and would have to live on the streets if Monmouthshire County Council (MCC) went ahead with evicting him on March 11.

Mr Smith has serious health concerns – in 2012, he had one kidney removed because of renal cancer, and is currently being treated for a growth on his remaining kidney.

He also has low blood pressure and is registered sight impaired. He has suffered from anxiety with depression, alcohol dependence syndrome, and mental health problems.

A few weeks ago, Mr Smith lost his social housing placement in Abergavenny following a neighbour dispute.

Since then, MCC has put him up in temporary accommodation at a guesthouse in Newport, but Mr Smith is facing homelessness when this arrangement ends next week.

He is asking for that stay to be prolonged while he finds somewhere to stay in the Newport area.

“I worked 30-odd years in a direct access hostel in Bristol,” he said.

“It was alright for me to help people all those years, but when it comes to me nobody wants to know.

“I’d like to stay [at the temporary accommodation] until an alternative can be found in Newport.”

Mr Smith said if he had to sleep rough, his already ill-health could deteriorate.

Recently, Mr Smith said, he’d had trouble accessing his medication and had missed medical appointments for the treatment of his kidney, because he’d been moved from Abergavenny.

He was considering returning to Scotland, where he was born, but would rather stay in south east Wales where he had his friends and attended church.

“I haven’t been back to Scotland since I was six,” Mr Smith said.

He is currently looking for alternative accommodation but fears he may not find anywhere before Tuesday’s eviction date, and has contacted housing charity Shelter.

In a statement, an MCC spokesman said the authority could not comment on individual cases but said its policy was for support staff to contact clients and other agencies to try to prevent homelessness.

"Where this fails, we work under the Housing Wales Act 2014 by providing emergency interim accommodation if the client is deemed likely to have a priority need," the spokesman added.

"We then carry out investigations under a S73 Homeless Duty to confirm eligibility, homelessness, priority need, intentionality and local connection, all while looking for alternative accommodation options for the client."

For clients like Mr Smith who had been deemed intentionally homeless, the spokesman said there was a 21-day appeal period during which MCC encouraged them to seek advice from housing charities. Should an appeal be submitted, those clients could request MCC accommodate them pending the outcome.