A MUM-of-three made homeless more than a year ago is preparing to spend her second Christmas in a Rhyl hotel.

Tracy and her children Olly, 13, Angel, 10 and Bella, 7 have been sharing one room at Rhyl's Westminster Hotel for more than a year. They’re about to spend their second Christmas in the hotel, with more than 100 other homeless people, including other families.

Tracy's story was highlighted as part of BBC Wales Investigates: I’m Homeless - How Will Santa Find Me? which aired on Monday night (December 11).

Tracy and her family were made homeless when her landlord sold their four-bedroomed rented home.

Denbighshire council sent them to live in a hotel in Rhyl until alternative accommodation could be found.

In the programme, Tracy asks her children what they miss most about their old home.

Rhyl Journal: Tracy in her hotel room in RhylTracy in her hotel room in Rhyl (Image: BBC Wales Investigates)

Olly replies: "Just having a proper house, really."

Asked what she'd wish for if she could make a wish on a Christmas star, Bella replies: "Get a cat and a dog that love each other...

"For when we've got a house."

Tracy said she "can't thank the hotel enough… but even so, it's not a home".

She added that being homeless is making her physical and mental health issues worse.

"At the moment Christmas doesn't mean much, but we're a family together, so we'll just make the most of it as we can," Tracy said.

"That's the only thing we can do really."

Bella admitted that she finds it "weird and embarrassing" all sharing one room.

She told reporter Elen Wyn: "The bed wobbles and we have to take turns in the bathroom, all getting dressed."

Denbighshire County Council said demand for social housing exceeded supply and temporary accommodation was used "for far longer" than it would like and was working with Tracy to find a permanent solution.

Prof Peter Mackie, from Cardiff University, Housing charity Shelter Cymru and housing expert, said placing people in unsuitable temporary accommodation for more than six weeks was unlawful, according to Welsh housing rules.

"I think if we treated this with the urgency that we treated Covid-19, and that's the most recent example in history where we've really seen it as a public health emergency, we'd find other ways," he said.

Julie James MS, the Welsh government's minister for housing, said: "My heart absolutely goes out to anyone who's in that circumstance, but the alternative to that right now is that we would have many more people rough sleeping and that's not something I want to contemplate.

"We are going as fast as we absolutely can to get both the transitional accommodation programme up and running and of course we've got our targets to build our 20,000 decent, social homes for rent.

"But if you look at... what the government's money can do, prior to the pandemic, we could get somewhere between five and seven houses for £1m.

"Now, we get four if we're lucky. So although we've put more money into the system, it's not buying the same amount back out of it as we were getting before the pandemic."

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Tracy, who volunteers at the Foryd Centre Community Hub and Cafe and Rsource Centre, said: "I'm disabled and being a mum of three in here [in the one room in the hotel], it really does affect my mental and physical health and also the children's.

"You put a front on for the outside world. Everyone expects you to be happy and just get on with it because oh yeah there's worse people off than me. But this is me.

"On the worst days you just don't want to be alive anymore and you think everyone would be better off without you. You just feel as if... if you're not there, then they can to a home. You can find a home for them, for them to be happy."

Catch up on BBC Wales Investigates: I'm Homeless - How Will Santa Find Me? on BBC iPlayer.