Renting, CCJs, Mental Health and kids! help!

Hi all, I apologise in advance for the length and complexity of this but hopefully someone can help...

(Background first)

2011... I had my own brick and mortar business with an "old school friend" my business partner was in charge of the accountancy side of things, paying the bills and rental and I managed the business, did all of the stocking, hiring and firing, creating the branding...you name it.

Long story short...he was using the money for his own gains and the only thing being paid was the staff wages and the restocking which I did in cash...the business went under and the bailiffs took everything (though he had sneakily put the assets in his other businesses name so he gain £30k worth of assets and I lost everything..never saw him again.

My wife ended up cheating on me after all the stresses of losing the business and us losing our jobs...she ended up running away and I just lost it.

I've a mental health issue for over 20yrs now and I just broke down. I have a son from a previous relationship so tried to hold it together for him whenever he came to me but on the whole I lost it....got evicted as I couldn't keep up with the rent after the ex wife left me with it...left me with a load of debt too.

I ended up in a shoddy house through a dodgy letting on gumtree...I had no money and savings anymore and I was about to be evicted (3weeks before Xmas) there was no deposit paid just rent...the floors were carpeted in only 2 rooms it stank of tobacco smoke, no plaster on the walls, just floorboards in the bathroom...it was freezing and I was just defeated.

- Being a "single male" without dependants (as son lived at his mums) I wasn't entitled to anything other than being put on the waiting list for housing benefit...I now had zero income and had a landlord who kept coming for his rent in a place that should have been boarded up as derelict.

A friend came to visit from up north, saw how I was living and offered a one off graphic job (my original profession) for a percentage of sales income for a one off product he was selling.

I jumped at the chance and managed to finish it all before the deadline and waited with baited breath as he launched. I'm the mean time I had missed rent by 2 weeks and had two very large and nasty men come to the house delivering a message (handed me a phone with the LL on the other end as I had not answered after he called shouting I owed him money)

Meanwhile - I was told I had two weeks to pay him £2000 or I'd have my legs broken...this sounds surreal but I swear to you this actually happened. I was terrified, vulnerable and had my son in the house at the time...we had made the front room into our "home" so there was at least one part of the house that was ok for him to be in.

I called my friend panicked and he said he will get back to me...a few hours passed and he called to say that the product didn't go as well as he had wanted but my cut was still £3000!

It felt like I'd been given a lifeline...I used the money to buy a very cheap car and luckily I found a house which is owned by a trust...I paid them 6mths upfront.

I moved in over the next few days and ran away from the house...there was no tenancy agreement there was no deposit...I left with a note and the money owed for the 2 weeks owed but not the 2k he had demanded. (He lives quite far away too so no worry of bumping into him).

All the while I was grieving a broken marriage, mental health deteriorated and I gained more weight than I want to commit to writing here. I struggled to keep up with debts still owed from her leaving me with...she took ALL money from the joint bank so I couldn't even use that.

Over the years I kept up as best as I could and the rent has always been paid but elsewhere things had been hard. I ended up with a CCJ for virgin media but that was satisfied after being paid off. I also picked up another CCJ in 2014 (which I've only just found out about).

I'm now in a much better place, good income, I'm with someone and we have a baby on the way (due April) however even though I've saved up 7mths rent (6mths plus deposit) im finding it almost impossible to find a house for us all to live in together.

We want somewhere preferably before the baby is here but the timeframe is shortening at a rapid rate and still nothing.

I have no family and neither does she (that she can have as a guarantor) I only have my Nana but obviously I couldn't and wouldn't ask her to be a guarantor.

I also have 2 small dogs which without I don't think I'd be here still, they got me through a lot of things because I had nobody and they were my lifeline when my son was at his mums...my mental health is much better though will never be perfect...but I am NOT getting rid of my dogs. It is proving difficult to find anyone's who will rent either with the dogs or with the CCJ...it is being paid off now that I know about it but it's still there at the moment.

Before people say I shouldn't have gotten the CCJ - I honestly didn't know about it. It must have been addressed to my former house and hence I never saw anything from it but I've only looked on my file very recently and am trying to sort it now.

Is there ANY hope of finding somewhere to rent? It seems all the three bed houses are taken apart from areas I definitely do not wish to live in; that isn't snobbery that's risk assessment and I don't want to risk safety towards the kids especially after the above 5yrs.

I've not got a perfect background but I've gotten back up from a hell that I thought I'd die in...I'm standing again with a bit of a wobble but I just need some advice on this last home straight.

Thanks for reading and apologies for the length of this...this was actually the shortest version I could put together with the background.