Things seem to be looking up for a homeless pensioner who slept in his car for three weeks rather than be separated from his wife.

Charles Gardner, 71, who is disabled and diabetic and can no longer climb the ladder to his boat at the St. George?s boatyard, may have been thrown a lifeline by the Bermuda Housing Corporation (BHC) this weekend when it promised him and his wife a home together.

However, it still remains to be seen whether he can afford his new home and he will have to sell his boat.

When met Mr. Gardner on Thursday, he said he only had $61 left to keep him and his wife going until his next pension payment on June 15.

The majority of his $967 monthly pension had already gone in just three days ? $562 for the boat being in the yard, $100 to repay a debt to boatyard owner Craig Faries, $85 car repairs, $20 gas and $75.10 for materials to fix the car and groceries, he said on Thursday.

Mr. Gardner started sleeping in his boat over five years ago with his wife Mary Kay ? who is the sister of Bermuda Regiment Commanding Officer Lt. Col. Edward Lamb.

?I was living with my mother and my stepfather and we got into two arguments,? he said. ?We moved in with them before I bought the boat to take care of them. I was working at the time and I was spending $2,000 a month to help them.?

However, after the arguments, he left home and moved into his boat.

For the last three weeks his only shelter in the dusty boatyard has been sleeping in his 17-year-old car, he said.

?The cartilage in my knees is gone, it?s bone on bone,? Mr. Gardner said on Thursday. ?It was very painful when I stand up.

?It is hard sleeping in that little small car. I need my car, for two reasons, one to sleep in because I got nowhere else to go and number two to get around and do what I got to do. I have got to get out of this car. It is really starting to get to me. I need to stretch out.

?It?s a hard life but what else can I do?? he said. ?I don?t get any disability pay because they said I was getting a pension which is the pension I got before I became disabled.?

Since he went to hospital he has been fighting to stay with his wife and seems to have been successful.

?They want to put me in an old folks home,? he said on Thursday. ?They put my wife down (the former) St. Brendan?s because she?s a little bit nervous, she?s on medication and she can?t work for herself so therefore they want to put me in an old folks home, keep her down St. Brendan?s and take all my pension from me. I said I won?t do that, I want to be with my wife.?

Mr. Gardner said he would not trade his wife for the world.

?She?s got a little job to clean up two bathrooms and an office. That cleaning helps out a lot to keep us going. All the small needs we need to get.?

For three weeks there had been no toilet facilities in the boatyard to use.

?My wife washes me here nights, because I can?t get in the shower and I can?t use the bathroom,? he said. ?We are just trying to survive, you know. That?s what I have been fighting for all this time. For us to be together. My wife needs me as much as I need her. Sometimes she is so unhappy she just sits and cries.?

However, Mr. Gardner said on Monday things were starting to look up for him as BHC general manager Major Glenn Brangman came down to the boatyard to see him on Saturday.

?Things are starting to look up and get a little bit better for us,? Mr. Gardner said yesterday. ?Things are starting to look good. At least they know about us now. The car is getting very, very uncomfortable.?

Mr. Gardner said Major Brangman assured him of a place.

?I will accept anything they can give me,? he said. ?I am very glad. But they have not told me definitely I have got it yet but that they would do their best to get me one.?

He said a social worker from the Mid-Atlantic Wellness Institute (MWI) had already submitted the paperwork to BHC.

?We are going to try and make arrangements for financial assistance when we get the place,? he said.

Mr. Gardner said the staff at MWI had been a big help as had St. David?s MP Suzann Roberts-Holshouser.