A BRITISH couple have been left homeless due to coronavirus as they are unable to return back to the Spain where they’ve been living.
Copywriter Rosalind Ryan, 44, and her DJ husband Mitch Matthews, 48, had been living their “dream life” on a sailing boat moored in Spanish marina for the past six months, paying just £330 in mooring fees.
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But earlier this month, during a flying visit to London, they suddenly found themselves with no way to return when Spain went into lockdown.
They’ve been in the UK for a long weekend as Mitch had a DJing gig.
“I hadn’t seen my family for eight weeks so decided on the spare of the moment to come back with him. We only had hand luggage and our laptops,” said Rosalind, 44.
The couple were aware that COVID-19 was spreading across the globe but at this point the UK was still operating as normal.
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“When we got to the UK no-one seemed bothered and there were lots of people at the airport.
“Mitch did the gig and then on the Sunday we went out for lunch with friends. But then on the Monday Spain went into lockdown.”
Worried that they wouldn’t be able to get back to their boat in Barcelona the couple decided to stay in the UK but they had nowhere to live.
Staying with parents was not an option because people over the age of 70 had been advised to self-isolate and they did not want to risk passing the virus onto them.
“My parents offered to help us with money but I am a grown woman and I feel ashamed, like a student asking for money. But then this situation is completely unprecedented.”
After their hotel booking expired on March 17, they rented an Airbnb for six nights for £250. But they needed to find longer term accommodation.
When Rosalind posted their predicament on Facebook she was overwhelmed with responses from friends and acquaintances offering a room in their home.
“We didn’t want to stay with friends in case we went into lockdown. We were offered spare rooms but we didn’t know if it would be for weeks or months and we didn’t want to push those friendships.
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“It did make me realise though that home is not where you live, it is where your community is.”
Eventually they found an Airbnb flat to rent in Brighton but they had to sign up to a three month agreement at £950 a month. This was on top of their £330 boat mooring fee.
Self-catering was their only option because renting a property would have meant buying new towels, linen, crockery and kitchen equipment – all of which is currently on their boat.
To make matters worse the pair have seen a 75 per cent drop in income. All of Mitch’s bookings have been cancelled for the next three months and Rosalind has seen her work halve, as clients postpone projects.
“I do a lot of work for charities and they are putting everything on hold. They don’t know what is going to happen to their donations if people can’t afford to give money at the moment.
“We have had to use our savings and they have now been wiped clean. This was the money for our self-employed tax bill.
“I am now supporting both of us and Mitch will be applying for the self-employment grant by he can’t get this until June. In the meantime we will have to use the overdraft.”
And because they only came to the UK with enough clothes and toiletries for a weekend they have had to borrow items from friends.
“A friend bought me a bag of her old running gear and a couple of tops which she left outside out door. We had some things stored in a garage over here but all I had in there was a Madonna fancy dress outfit and a cocktail dress!”
Buying food has also put pressure on their budget because the cost of living is cheaper in Spain.
“We are spending about £60 more a week on food now and meat is much more expensive.
“The first week we spent about £200 getting toiletries and all the basic kitchen cupboard ingredients like herbs and spices plus things like washing powder and hand soap”.
There is also the additional worry of what might happen to their sailing boat home if they are not in Spain to fill out paperwork.
“We are meant to be filling out forms at the moment because the marina is being handed over from the national to the local government.
“We don’t know what is happening and we are worried about our home being impounded. We don’t know when we will get back to our home.”
