Homeless SAS hero Bob Curry, 64, was put up in a hostel filled with drug addicts and ex-offenders
HOMELESS SAS hero Bob Curry was put up by his local council in a hostel filled with drug addicts and ex-offenders where he had to ask permission to use the loo.
His revelation came as a to find him a home topped 104,000.
Proud Bob, now 64, was part of a team of Who Dares Wins troopers who took part in the storming of the Iranian Embassy May 1980.
Iconic footage seen by millions around the world showed him charging through a window to help save 19 hostages and kill five heavily armed terrorists.
But Bob - who had served his country ever since he signed up as a boy soldier aged 18 - fell on hard times last year when a business failed and he split up from his partner of 25 years.
The council in his home city Hereford - where the SAS are based - told him back in November they couldn't find him a council house and got him to fill in forms to see if he fitted "the criteria".
Former city mayor and ex-Para Councillor Jim Kenyon took up his case and went with Bob to the council offices to fill in more "required" forms on Wednesday and he was finally placed on the housing list.
Meanwhile he's living in a B and B paid for by the British Legion while the wait for a home goes on.
The only accommodation he says he's been offered so far is the hostel with the strict toilet rules which he could only stand for two nights.
And a room in a sheltered old folks home even health workers told him was unsuitable because of the "advanced" age of the other residents.
But Bob's worst experience was last month the council gave him a "shoe box" room in the controlled hostel housing drug addicts and ex-offenders in the city centre.
It's a stone's throw from a subway and car park notorious for drug dealing.
Teetotal Bob - who hasn't had a drink for over ten years and did undercover tours in the Falklands and Northern Ireland said: "The hostel experience was my lowest ebb.
"I had served my country all my working life and never thought it would come to this in a place with more security cameras than a prison.
"I found myself alone in a room in the hostel where you could touch the walls if you spread your arms.
"There was just a camp bed to sleep on and the poor woman next door was a manic depressive on drugs who screamed all night. The walls were paper thin.
"There was a 10pm curfew, I had no privacy as I could lock the door on a catch when I was inside but you had no key to lock up if you went out and your stuff would be stolen. Lets just say my neighbours on the corridor were not the kind of people you would like to mix with.
"But the most undignified part was that the toilet downstairs was kept locked.
"I had to go and ask the warden in the lobby for permission to use it and he would walk to the loo with you, unlocked the door and waited until you had finished.
"But I realised on my first day that the person who had my room before me had not observed the toilet rule.
"I went to make a cuppa with a kettle in the room and realised it contained urine. Someone had used it as a potty and hurled wee out of the window. It was disgusting.
"I lay on the camp bed and thought about all the missions I had done in the regiment. I'm 65 next month, a pensioner, and I was having to ask a bloke permission to use the toilet.
I may as well have been in a ditch like the regiment days. I just felt humiliated. I stood it for two nights then had to leave." Bob added: "Don't get me wrong the hostel and its regime is needed for some people with certain issues. It can help them.
"But I just never thought someone with my service record would end up there."
Bob - whose had two heart attacks,is a diabetic and registered disabled - then spent a month on another camp bed downstairs at his 26-years-old daughter's terraced house in Hereford before "swallowing his pride" and asking the Legion and SAS veterans charities to help him.
They have put him in the B and B where he has been given a room for 28 days.
But the council has warned him it could be months before is allocated a home.
Councillor Jim, who runs the Victory pub in the city, and himself painted a dramatic military mural on the boozer's wall said: "The hostel has a role for people with certain issues but Bob should not have been sent there.
The OAP home housed people in their 80s and 90s suffering from diseases like dementia and was just not suitable for him.
"The council should have realised the complexities of his case and sorted him out weeks and weeks ago but the right decisions were not made and in the end he had to go cap in hand to the British Legion and the SAS veteran's charity to even get a place at the B and B.
"That was hard for him because he is a proud bloke whose done an awful lot in a distinguished career.
"The two other places he was offered like the hostel were completely unsuitable for him.
"We went back in to see the housing people on Wednesday and filled in some more forms they required.
"We are hopeful Bob could get what they call a forever house - a permanent home. But it could still take months and he's only got 28 days in the B and B."
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Bob - who led a team into the rear of the Iranian Embassy by smashing out a door frame with a sledgehammer added: "The Sun is known by the men and women who serve as the Forces champion and I can't thank it enough.
"But I want to highlight not only my problems but those of hundreds of veterans who leave the services then fall on hard times. It's as if you hand in your badge when you've served your time and they wipe their hands of you.
"It can't be right and a lot of ex squaddies are ending up on skid row with no safety net.It's not just me but many, many veterans deserve a bit better.
A spokesman for Herefordshire council said: "We can confirm that we are actively working with this individual to secure accommodation within the county.
"The council's housing team has found and offered two different forms of accommodation in areas which were agreeable to the individual, but which have subsequently been turned down.
"We are continuing to work with the individual to help secure appropriate housing."