Homelessness, worst crisis in life, ...

I am a naturalised immigrant in Scotland, with a physical disability, about to be expelled from my research course due to disability discrimination by some ableist professors, facing homelessness due to serious housing crisis in the part of Scotland I am living.

My student hall contract will end on 21 August. I love my town and would like to stay. My parents, who live outside the UK, advise against it on the basis of this town lacking job prospect however. I have some connections here and won't want to give it up in addition to my love for this town.

I am an eBay seller earning merely ~200 quid a month, which is nowhere enough to rent the cheapest room. I literally can't survive without money from my parents, both of whom are 60+ years old and one of whom has just retired.

I have been doing Zoopla, Rightmove, SpareRoom, local house search Facebook groups since January and yet to get something. I called the homelessness team of the council of my area, the respondent of which said they currently had nothing to offer. I would call again tomorrow.

All these academic + housing problems have caused me the biggest, unprecedented crisis in my life. I don't regret immigrating here because my native country is a totalitarian hellscape. I won't go back to risk my own safety.

The situation is critical. I am not sure if anyone can help me out.

Have you contacted the disability support team at your uni? If there is evidence of ableism they may be able to fight the expulsion for you

Have you contacted the disability support team at your uni? If there is evidence of ableism they may be able to fight the expulsion for you

Adding to this, many student unions have an independent advice service for any issues you're having with your course or in wider life. If nothing else, they should be able to point you towards where you can get more support.

1) You can try contacting the university accommodation service and asking to extend your contract with them as you are unable to find another place to live. August is already quite late for them, but they're unlikely to be filling most rooms until mid-September and will gladly take more of your money if you have some in reserve/from parents.

2) Definitely make your family aware of your situation - the more you share about these problems the easier it will feel to resolve them.

3) Can you eBay sell from anywhere? You may like the city you're in, but if it's unaffordable you may need to look farther afield in order to find an affordable place to stay. Some cities in Scotland are far more expensive than others. It is much better to be housed in a city you dislike than homeless in a city you love.

The situation is very nasty, my mind very chaotic.

You have to look at it as a sequential order of different scenarios, as there are a number of outcomes involved.
Plan A is you stay in that city, in accommodation you can afford, and don't need to rely on parents.
Plan B might be that you stay in that city, in accommodation but need some support from parents.
Plan C might be that you need to move somewhere else but can afford to live there.
Then there's Plan D, E and so on.

This is how to bring order to your chaotic mind.

Yes, they have been helping me with bargaining with the university all the way through, but they do emphasise that they are not able to influence academic decisions.

When you say academic decisions, what does this mean? Is it that they are saying the work you are producing is not good enough? If so, assuming they have made reasonable adjustments for you to do the work, if it is not up to par, you don't really have a case. The only case you could claim is if they denied you reasonable adjustments.

Good luck!

PS - might be worth thinking about plan B. It sounds to me like you need some form of employment or to ramp up your eBay enterprise.

FYI: Worst crisis in my life - what would be the best way out?

FYI: Worst crisis in my life - what would be the best way out?

I'm sorry. But that doesn't answer my question. You just said they discriminated against you. What form did the discrimination take? What did they do that meant you felt discriminated against?

Both disability + indirect.

Yes - I have gathered that. You still haven't answered the question. What were the events that happened that led you to feel discriminated against. I am afraid you can't just say you have been discriminated against. Something has to have happened. Here are some examples of discrimination
- you were allocated to a room you could not get into because of a disability
- you have been spoken to in a derogatory manner with reference to a disability
- you have not had reasonable adjustments made to allow you to work e.g. change of work station, chair, furniture positioning

and so on. With all due respect, if this has gone to several committees / bodies within the university and they are coming back blank, perhaps your inability to detail what discrimination has taken place is the problem and in actual fact you are using your disability as an excuse for a grievance that in reality has nothing to do with discrimination?