A 600-signature petition has failed to help a 21-year-old Thurnscoe man who faces eviction from the home where he has been lodging for 18 months.

Thurnscoe Tenants Housing Association has refused to give Darren Naylor the tenancy of the house in Hickleton Terrace.

“I shall be homeless,” said Darren, whose landlady died last month and he has been left to care for her dog.

He applied to TTHA for the tenancy to be transferred to him and faced a panel of five people on October 3 with references from five members of the community.

“I was refused on a majority vote and appealed, then had to face a panel of eight on Tuesday and thought it was going well. Again I was refused, but I have nowhere to go. I have had a lot of support with the petition and even strangers have knocked on the door asking for sheets to fill in.”

Barry Sawyer, chairman of TTHA which owns 300 houses, said that there are rul

es to protect the families of tenants and they cannot be broken. “We have two lists, List A and List B, and Darren isn’t on either list, in fact we didn’t even know he was living in the house,” said Mr Sawyer.

“It’s hard and we feel sorry for him, but we have a policy and if we let him have the house we might as well throw our waiting list away. We set up as a co-operative to provide houses for Thurnscoe people and their siblings so that they will always have a roof over their heads.”