From newbuilds that are already falling apart to a woman left to live with no toilet for 10 years, developers and landlords seem to have developed a worrying apathy
The bath in a property we visited in Holborn where a man was living with no furniture after being placed there by Camden Council(Image: Facundo Arrizabalaga)
When do shocking things stop shocking you? It tends to be when you grow accustomed to seeing them every day.
After a year of leading a team of reporters investigating London’s housing crisis, I am still shocked by the shocking, but the stories we’ve covered expose a worrying apathy. Whether it’s politicians, housing officers, council call handlers or housing associations, the real people affected by the failings of the system are not having their voices heard by those with the power to do something about it.
We’ve met a woman whose pleas to sort out her broken toilet went ignored for 10 years; a man who is forced to carry his wife up several flights of stairs every time she needs the bathroom; and a mum and daughter left sofa surfing because they didn’t want to move 275 miles away.
Are councils so focussed on the rudimentary stats or ground down by the enormity of the task that they’re deaf to the cries of those literally living in sewage or jumping over a hole in the floor to get into the bathr?
There’s no easy way to fix the housing crisis but one thing that can be changed is treating Londoners caught up in a crisis that’s not of their making with empathy; or using common sense to say ‘this person should be a priority’.
During a year in which our reporters have been into hundreds of homes to hear people’s stories, these are the ones that have shocked us the most.
Woman wears a hazmat suit due to flea infestation
The Renown Close resident purchased a hazmat suit after being ‘bitten alive’ in her downstairs communal area(Image: LDRS)
A woman bought a hazmat suit because the downstairs communal areas of her Croydon block of flats became infested with fleas. It became so bad she got scabies, which prompted her to go to the extreme of buying a suit usually worn by forensic officers at a crime scene.
The Renown Close resident and her neighbours believe the fleas were the result of poor hygiene across the Handcroft Road Estate. Read the full story.
Man has to carry disabled wife up stairs
Imran and Afsheen Durrani in their home in West London(Image: Facundo Arrizabalaga/MyLondon)
Imran Durrani told us how he was forced to carry his disabled wife Afsheen upstairs every time she needs the toilet, because promised funding to adapt their Hounslow council home was withdrawn.
Having been forced to quit his job to become Afsheen’s full-time carer, the couple’s own resources are extremely limited, and without an accessible home, he was putting himself at risk of severe back injury by making the trip several times a day to enable his wife to have some dignity.
Read the full story.
Lift failures are turning high rises into prisons
Sarah Lyons, 44, has arthritis and fibromyalgia so climbing the stairs at her Isle of Dogs block of flat is exhausting and dangerous when the lift breaks(Image: Facundo Arrizabalaga/MyLondon)
This article was the result of a year’s worth of reporting on one issue – lifts breaking down in medium and high-rise buildings. Problems sourcing parts and a perceived lack of urgency from landlords are trapping less mobile residents in their homes for weeks and even months at a time.
MyLondon spoke to over 100 people living in 21 different buildings to show lift failures are not isolated issues, but a systemic problem that is causing major risks to people’s safety and wellbeing. Read the full story.
Family ‘covered in rat bites’
A pest controller reportedly described this Neasden property as “uninhabitable for humans”. After three years of feeling ignored when complaining of the “unsafe” conditions, Ms Eniola has started legal proceedings against her landlord, Brent Council.
Sewer damage allows rats to enter the property, there is damp and mould growth, and damage to the kitchen sink that causes “foul odours” to spread throughout the house, according to the claim form.
Ms Eniola claims the “dangerous” state of the home has left her family feeling depressed(Image: Ms Eniola)
Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), Ms Eniola said: “My family is struggling to breathe in the house, we have rat bites all over our body [and] I have no good drinking water as the kitchen sink is busted.
“My son’s asthma has worsened in the house and he’s been rushed to the emergency room. We’re all inhaling black mould and we’re depressed due to living here. [The] council house is killing my family, I don’t want to suffer in silence anymore.”
Read the full story.
Water ‘smells like petrol and looks like Fanta’
Residents living on an estate in Pimlico say their tap water turned ‘Fanta-colour’ and smells of petrol
Residents living on an estate in Pimlico have been in a dispute with Thames Water and their landlord, Westminster City Council, over the state of their water. People living at Morgan House said they have been forced to shower with bottled water after their taps began spewing a “Fanta-coloured” liquid they claim smelled of petrol.
They say they noticed their skin becoming irritated and itchy. Westminster City Council and Thames Water said their testing found no traces of petroleum hydrocarbons but residents aren’t convinced and want more carried out.
Residents’ own privately commissioned test claims to have found evidence of “significantly elevated” levels of hydrocarbon compounds usually found in fuels, but Thames Water claims the test can’t be relied on as accurate.
Read the full story.
Landlord tried to convince tenants to let him evict them
Ali Harsi in his mouldy home in Southall (Image: Facundo Arrizabalaga/MyLondon)
The Local Democracy Reporting Service exclusively revealed how a family-of-three living in a mouldy annexe had been told by their landlord to refuse repairs and let him evict them.
Ali Hersi and his family live in the annexe to a house in Southall, and had been asking for repairs to the mould-ridden property, after Ealing Council ordered the landlord to carry them out. But an audio recording revealed how landlord Mohammed Salim Mussa had encouraged the family not to let the council workers in. He also suggested they could get a bigger property from the council by letting him evict them and presenting as homeless.
Read the full story.
Mum’s terror of baby being crushed after ceiling collapse
Abigail stands under the huge hole in her Streatham flat (Image: Facundo Arrizabalaga/MyLondon)
The ceiling in the kitchen of a Lambeth property caved in, leaving mum Abigail terrified her baby could be crushed. The 22-year-old noticed the ceiling leaking after returning from the shop.
Despite ringing her landlord within 15 minutes, she claims she was made to feel hysterical and nobody was sent out. At 4am the next morning she was woken by several ‘booms’ and found the ceiling collapsed with debris all over the kitchen at the Streatham home.
Read the full story.
Rubbish-filled property with no heating
A North London council tenant was left living surrounded by his own rubbish, having been unable to wash for over a month due to drainage issues in their bath and sink.
The 63-year-old, who has suffered from psychosis, spends most of his time in his flat on a dirty blanket in the corner of the room, with dozens of beer cans, coffee cups and pieces of soiled bedding strewn across the floor.
Karim has lived in his council flat for 22 years after previously being homeless following a period in prison(Image: Facundo Arrizabalaga)
Karim*, which is not his real name, said he had been living in his flat in Mullen Tower, Holborn, for 22 years after being placed there by Camden Council.
Clouds of flies were present in most rooms of the flat, which has a combined living area as well as a single bathroom and kitchen containing the only working lightbulb in the property.
There was no furniture to be seen and the walls of the unit were bare, as Karim says they have never been painted the whole time he has lived in the unit. Patches of black mould could also be seen on the ceiling while the fabric of the curtains turned from white to yellow.
Read the full story.
Homeless for refusing to move 275 miles
If Soheila had taken the 275 mile move, she’d have been unemployed, living in a place she did not know with no income and rent still to pay(Image: Facundo Arrizabalaga/MyLondon)
West Londoner Soheila Serkani was faced with the choice of moving 275 miles to Hartlepool or being made homeless.
Hillingdon Council made her and her daughter a ‘take it or leave it’ offer to permanently move to Hartlepool in County Durham, after her private landlord evicted them through no fault of their own. When she turned it down, on the basis it would mean her quitting her job and moving away from their support network to a home they weren’t even able to view, the council said she’d made herself ‘intentionally homeless’.
MyLondon’s investigations have found this term is increasingly being attached to people who refuse unreasonable offers of housing, sometimes hundreds of miles away, and councils are then legally able to discharge their duty to house them.
SIGN our petition to the UK Government to end this practice. Read the full story.
Couple with baby left on street with pile of bags
Fayza Bouyhia holds her eight-month-old baby after her family was evicted from their temporary accommodation at short notice(Image: Facundo Arrizabalaga/MyLondon)
MyLondon travelled to Hoxton in Hackney to meet a family facing another property move as they battled with landlord Metropolitan Thames Valley Housing (MTVH) over temporary accommodation placements.
They had previously been told to leave their Haggerston home by MTVH because it was deemed unsafe, which sparked a series of distressing and disruptive moves, first to a hotel with no cooking facilities.
While we were speaking to them at the Hoxton property they got the call to say they were being turfed out. They were left outside with a breastfeeding baby and a trail of bags as they frantically called housing officers to find out where they were being sent next, begging not to end up in another hotel. Read the full story.
New council homes riddled with problems after a year
Yolande pictured in her flat at Kensington’s Kelso Cochrane House(Image: Facundo Arrizabalaga/MyLondon)
May marked the one-year anniversary of the opening of new council homes in Kensington – the council’s first in decades. But instead of feeling settled in their new homes, residents faced repeated issues with the supposedly state-of-the-art plumbing system that regularly left them without heating or hot water.
Tenants complained of mould, leaks, a collapsed ceiling, mice scurrying around and a faulty fire alarm system that went off all hours of the day and night as well as a front door to the block that would not lock. Meanwhile constant issues with the lift meant some felt trapped inside the building due to mobility issues.
Read the full story.
Bloodstains on the curtains
Vanessa (left) and Adriana (right) were left sofa surfing after seeing the state of the property they were moved to(Image: Facundo Arrizabalaga/MyLondon)
A West London family claimed they were ‘coerced’ by their local council into signing a tenancy agreement for a filthy house that had a rat problem and blood stains on the curtains, after asking for help when they were evicted.
The family of three, including a 14-year-old boy, became homeless when their landlord no-fault evicted them from their Ealing home of 20 years in order to refurbish the house and hike the rent.
Despite giving Ealing Council 18 months’ notice of their impending eviction and need for help, the family was given no help until they were actually evicted, limiting their options and putting them in a position where they felt they had to take an unsuitable offer of housing or end up on the streets as the council would refuse to help them.
Adriana Kassakova, 53, and her children were so disgusted by the condition of the house, having only been able to see the true conditions after signing the tenancy, they decided to sofa surf with friends despite having to pay the rent on the place.
Read the full story.
No working toilet for 10 years
Mulki Elaw in her home in Acton(Image: Facundo Arrizabalaga/MyLondon)
Mulki Elaw was left with no working toilet or shower for 10 years, and had given up asking Peabody Housing Association for permanent repairs, instead using her neighbour’s.
There were also leaks from her bathroom down to a bedroom which caused severe mould, rendering the room uninhabitable. While the initial repair had been made to the Acton property when a ceiling collapsed 10 years ago, Mulki said she was told it was unsafe to use the bath in case the ceiling underneath it collapsed again.
Mulki’s upstairs toilet had also been risky to use since 2015, because the pipes could not handle the pressure of flushing, particularly when it’s a number two. Read the full story.
Lift drops two floors with woman inside
Eve was terrified when the lift fell(Image: Facundo Arrizabalaga/MyLondon)
A mum living in a housing block by Shepherd’s Bush Westfield spoke of her terror after a lift fell two floors with her inside.
Eve said she thought she was “going to die” when the lift dropped, and that it left her feeling too scared to use it again despite repairs being made. Residents in the block faced repeated issues including flooding, antisocial behaviour and malfunctioning lifts, despite the building only being around six years old.
Read the full story.
MyLondon’s Broken Homes project spanned a year of reporting and has been shortlisted for three awards at the Regional Press Awards.