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<\/p>\nFatou Tall’s children are being affected by their seven mile trek to school, taking an hour on two buses. The price of this side-effect of homelessness is \u00a380 per month, Ethan Davies reports<\/p>\n
The 18 is the other service Fatou’s girls take(Image: LDRS)<\/p>\n
Fatou Tall\u2019s teenage daughters are growing up on the 409 and 81 buses.<\/p>\n
Up at 5am, they spend hours on two services for the school run. Bousso and Nabou face a tough grind: Leaving home in Royton just after 6am, \u2018grabbing what they can\u2019 for breakfast, doing a full day of class for their GCSEs, then another arduous journey to get home around 6:30pm, a quick half-hour break, and time for homework.<\/p>\n
No wonder the \u2018oldest always comes back with a headache\u2019.<\/p>\n
The girls, in year 11 and 9, have such a trek because they go to school in Harpurhey<\/a>, more than seven miles from home. Mum-of-four Fatou, 43, never planned for this.<\/p>\n When her eldest daughter and son started secondary school, Manchester Communication Academy in Harpurhey made sense. The family were renting privately nearby until October 2023, when their landlord handed them a section 21 eviction notice.<\/p>\n With help from \u2018friends\u2019 scant, healthcare assistant Fatou presented as homeless to Manchester council, which housed them in temporary accommodation in Royton, more than seven miles from school. They\u2019ve been there ever since.<\/p>\n It means her youngest daughters now face a commute on the 409 and 81 buses, at best. The ordeal \u2018always worries\u2019 Fatou.<\/p>\n She said: \u201cI\u2019m not comfortable with this. It\u2019s a long way. When I am at work, I cannot put my head down because there\u2019s insecurity when they spend one hour coming home. I\u2019m always worried.\u201d<\/p>\n Fatou Tall works as a healthcare assistant to support her four children. Three days of taxi travel costs her a quarter of her wages(Image: Fatou Tall)<\/p>\n The girls\u2019 only respite comes the bus home, when they might snatch a nap. It\u2019s always clear how tired they are. Fatou went on: \u201cThey sleep all the time when they come back.<\/p>\n \u201cBousso always comes back with a headache. She\u2019s doing her GCSEs, and she goes in early and comes back at 6pm or 6:30 pm.<\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019s out of the house for more than 12 hours and she has to have a 30 minute rest before doing any of her homework. She and Nabou are exhausted.\u201d<\/p>\n Sometimes, it can be even more stressful. If the 409 is late, they take the 59 to Middleton<\/a>, and 18 to school. Other times, they get to a tram stop and ride until Queens Road. When this delicate balancing act of multiple buses or trams falls apart, the teens ring mum for a taxi.<\/p>\n Kids who get to Manchester Communication Academy before 8am get a free breakfast. It’s popular(Image: Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n Forking out for a taxi puts a strain on the family finances, with autumn\u2019s three-day Bee Network bus strike resulting in \u2018a quarter\u2019 of the mum\u2019s salary going on cabs. The situation would be worse still if Fatou needed to pay \u00a380 every month for two bus passes, but Manchester Communication Academy has stepped in to cover the cost.<\/p>\n The reason why homeless families usually have to pay for school travel is because government rules on home-to-school transport say children are only eligible for free travel if they live more than two miles from class, and there is no \u2018suitable school\u2019 nearer.<\/p>\n But it\u2019s almost-impossible to be further than three miles from a school in the city. In Greater Manchester, there are 8,000 children in temporary accommodation.<\/p>\n The school pays for bus passes for some in a pioneering move(Image: Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n So parents like Fatou normally face two options: Pay for buses, or move her children\u2019s school.<\/p>\n The Manchester Evening News believes <\/a>no homeless parent should have to make that decision.<\/p>\n It\u2019s why we have called on Andy Burnham<\/a> to introduce a free bus pass for children in temporary accommodation more than 30 minutes\u2019 walk from school since August. It\u2019s a campaign backed by eight Greater Manchester MPs, including six from the mayor\u2019 Labour<\/a> Party, high-profile charities, and hundreds of residents who have signed our petition.<\/a><\/p>\n It\u2019s now backed by Fatou, who explained: \u201cIf kids have free bus passes, it will help a lot. On top of the burden of moving into temporary accommodation it will take one issue off your mind.<\/p>\n \u201cHaving to pay for the bus passes is very stressful on top of paying for your own. It\u2019s a good idea. If it was not for the school, I would not be able to manage this.\u201d<\/p>\n Previously (December 3), the mayor said he was \u2018sympathetic\u2019 to homeless families\u2019 plight. But he did not commit to introducing the passes.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cWhat might open the door is we are moving to a more interventionist space as a combined authority when we signed off using 400 empty properties to reduce the bill in temporary accommodation.<\/p>\n \u201cAs part of the support packages there\u2019s an opportunity to link the two. I cannot say more than that because we are in discussions over the budget which come to a head in January\u2026 we have a lot of things to consider. We are looking at all of it. I am sympathetic.\u201d<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/0_WhatsApp-Image-2026-01-09-at-123445jpeg.jpg\")
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