Bexley Council coughed up more than £10,000 paying £40 a week to store a homeless mum’s belongings – for five years.

Taxpayers started footing the bill as soon as Josephine Morris, 47, was kicked out of her rented three-bedroom house in 2009.

Sofas, chairs, toys and clothes were put in a storage unit – paid for by the taxpayer.

The mum-of-two, who suffered from meningitis as a baby, claims to have been “broken” by the local authority and accuses it of failing to give her a permanent ground-floor home which she needs as she struggles to get upstairs.

Josephine currently rents a room in a shared house with her benefit money and has lost contact with her children, who rejected her because she is unable to look after herself.

She feels Bexley Council “owe” her a suitable home which suits her disability and brands it “irresponsible” and “disgusting” for not finding her a home to live in.

Josephine said: “Last year when I was living in my step-dad’s porch I had to use a bucket as a toilet but the council said it was not detrimental to my health.

“I feel like the council are trying to break me, mentally and physically.

“I have a three-bedroom house worth of stuff in storage which they pay for.

“The council has let me down, where can it go from here, I can’t cope living on my own.

“I pay my landlord cash in hand but she wants more money and moans at me because my room is so messy. I’m broken by how the council have mistreated me, they owe me a permanent home, it’s irresponsible.”

In 1998, she moved between 12 properties including the porch of her step-dad’s home and her step-brother’s car.

While living in a three-bedroom house in Welling social services took away her two children Tommy, now 21, and 23-year-old Gemma.

And a few years later she was thrown out of the home by her landlord, with the council moving her belongings into a storage unit.

Since 2009 the family Shitzu Munna has been put into kennels while Josephine moved to a homeless hostel in Erith and then into a house with her mum, step-dad, uncle and step-brother.

She spent a year caring for her cancer-stricken mum before she passed away in 2013, leaving her alone with her step-dad whom she claims became abusive and threw her out on the street, changing the locks.

Despite sleeping in a hospital, a police cell, her step-brother’s car and even her father’s porch, the homeless mum was declared as “not a priority” by the council.

As she was caring for her mum, the council tried to get her to pay for the storage bill but Josephine took her case to the ombudsman and won.

But in 2014 the council’s legal obligation to hold her belongings ended and they disposed of Josephine’s belongings after she failed to claim them.

By the time they had got rid of the family’s sofas, chairs, children’s toys and other memories, the taxpayer had footed a bill of £10,400.

Josephine, who takes £286 a week in benefits, and found a room in a shared house in Bexley last year, said: “I’m very grateful to the council for paying for my stuff in storage.”

A spokesman for Bexley Council said: “Ms Morris has been known to both housing and social services for a number of years, having been placed at different times in all types of our accommodation.

“Her situation over the years has been extremely complex, but we have tried to provide her with as much support as possible.

“She was previously offered a permanent property which was perfectly suitable for her but she refused to accept it.

“Our most recent contact with Ms Morris was six months ago when we accepted her as homeless and made her an offer of permanent social housing which she did not respond to.

“She has not contacted the service since that date.

“We paid approximately £40 a week to store Ms Morris’ belongings.”