A baby recovering from a potential killer disease is living in a cramped house with six other people after his parents were made homeless.

Four-month-old Liam Lower has just come out of hospital after almost dying from meningitis.

He shares a house in Meadow View, Bevendean, with his mother, father, grandmother, step-grandfather, 12-year-old aunt and nine-month-old cousin.

Parents Selina and Darren cannot find a place they can afford to live in.

They take it in turns to sleep on a sofa or armchair in one bedroom with Liam in a cot.

The tot is too young to be aware of the tension and stress suffered by the adults but Mrs Lower said the distress shared by everyone else in the overcrowded house was bound to put his health at risk.

She said: "We had to get out of our last flat but we just couldn't find anywhere else we could afford.

"We were told we were going to be rehoused but we still haven't been. Then Liam got meningitis. It was terrifying. He stopped breathing and we were scared we were going to lose him.

"We can't put Liam into a B&B, especially when he is in this condition. But we can't keep living as we are.

"All our furniture is stacked up in one room and we have to sleep on an armchair or the sofa. "I feel guilty living like this because I'm sure it cannot be good for Liam. We all get along fine but you can't live under each other's feet and not get a little stressed."

Another room is shared by Mr Lower's mother Angela Hilden, her partner John Riley and baby Sunny, aged nine months.

Sunny is the son of Mrs Hilden's other daughter Louise, who is herself looking for a place to live and is living with her grandmother up the road.

Mrs Hilden's daughter Clare, aged 12, has the house's third bedroom.

The Lowers are among hundreds of people in Brighton and Hove forced to camp out on friends or relatives' sofas because of the acute shortage of affordable housing in the city. Another 270 people live in bed-and-breakfast accommodation.

The family has been living a nightmare for more than seven months after being made homeless when the lease on their rented flat expired and their landlord decided not to relet.

They were forced to stay with Mrs Hilden as an emergency measure but Brighton and Hove City Council's housing department has not been able to find them anywhere to live.

Liam was taken to hospital last week but pulled through after being placed on a ventilator.

Medics are still waiting for the results of tests to discover which strain of the deadly virus he contracted and he has to go to hospital every day for injections.

Rents have rocketed since the Lowers signed their last tenancy agreement and they could not find any private flats they could afford.

The couple have spent some of the time living with Mrs Lower's father, moving between the two houses.

Jenny Backwell, of Brighton Housing Trust, said there was a significant problem of homeless people camping out in the houses of friends or relatives.

She said: "We need more social, affordable housing whichever way you look at it."

A council spokesman said Mrs and Mrs Lower and their son were at the top of the priority list, having been homeless since July last year.

She said: "We are hoping to make them an offer very soon. We accept they are a high priority."

"It is safe to say there are hundreds of people in a similar situation.

"There is simply nothing available for them."