A six-year-old boy living in social housing in south London has said he wishes for “somewhere nice and safe for Christmas” after his family was forced into hotels during the festive period because their home was covered in mould.
Amar and his mother Abeba Byfield, in her late 20s, and father, Andre, 31, have been forced to vacate their past two flats due to “health-threatening” amounts of mould, making them feel “completely let down, drained and depressed” by private and council accommodation.
After moving into a Lambeth Council flat in Stockwell in September, the family discovered a leak which caused mould and damp to spread throughout the home.
Despite numerous complaints from Abeba, who is a teacher, there was then an eight-week delay before Lambeth Council declared the rotting flat was not safe for human habitation and the family was removed from the home and into hotels.
Due to a series of issues, the young family has then been forced to move between five different hotels in less than a month since they moved out on November 20.
Amar told PA Real Life: “I want to live somewhere nice and safe for Christmas… I feel really down.
“I wish Santa gave me a safe place to live.
“Why is this always happening to us?”
The family of three moved into their a tower block flat in Stockwell on September 13 after being placed on Lambeth’s social housing list for more than six years on a priority band.
Upon moving into the flat, Abeba noticed there was no gas connection and a new boiler had to be installed to replace the old one which was 25 years old.
When the boiler was installed on September 22 – just over a week after moving in – she noticed there was a leak in her kitchen cupboard, which was later determined to be coming from the flat above.
The secondary school history teacher told PA: “The day they installed the new boiler is the day I noticed the leak, I thought the leak was coming from a water tank they (Lambeth Council) removed from the kitchen cupboard.
“So I thought maybe they didn’t remove something properly, but the leak was really bad. I contacted Lambeth that very same night and the leak just got worse and worse.
“It spread from inside the cupboard to the other end of the kitchen, then it was in the passage, leaking in my bedroom and living room… it led to a mouldy-damp environment in the flat.
“It caused a great risk to my health and my family’s health.”
Emergency contractors were sent out to Abeba’s flat three days after her first complaint, but she said the worker only assessed that the leak was coming from the flat above and provided her with a blue paper roll to mop up moisture.
She added there was an eight-week delay for the council to decide the flat was not safe for human habitation, despite Abeba’s multiple complaints to the council.
She and her family were moved to a nearby Travelodge to allow the necessary work to commence.
By November 30, a contractor found and repaired a leak from the flat above.
Also, she said to ensure the council acted on her complaint she had to get her local MP, Florence Eshalomi, involved, and also the local ombudsman and councillors.
“It took them eight weeks to move me into the hotel because they didn’t know where the leak was coming from and during that time the leak spread and they didn’t know what was happening, apparently, the person above me was not allowing access – all these different excuses,” Abeba said.
“I had to contact my local ombudsman because it’s been eight weeks since my first complaint and they (Lambeth Council) haven’t responded in the timeframe given.”
The family had to move into five different hotels due to various issues – including the distance of the hotels from the six-year-old’s primary school and Abeba’s workplace, the size of the rooms, the essential amenities provided by the hotels and the availability of rooms week to week.
Abeba said: “I find it very difficult to deal with change, as it triggers my anxiety and I don’t think Lambeth has taken that into account because they have been constantly moving me around.
“My son has also started a new school, so moving him up and down is very disruptive.”
She added that “adequate” action was not taken to find suitable accommodation before Amar had an operation on his tooth on December 5.
The family was then forced to move back into the mould-infested flat after his operation so they could collect the “soft food he needed”.
Abeba said they have also been forced to stay at the flat despite the health concerns twice since they left on November 20, due to issues with their hotel accommodation.
“I had to come back to the unsafe flat because I had nowhere else to go because they hadn’t organised or extended the hotel stays in advance, so had to go back to the flat on two other separate occasions,” Abeba said.
The surveyors contracted to fix the leak have said that the flat must be dry before repair work can commence, therefore a dehumidifier has been installed.
Lambeth Council has proposed temporary unfurnished accommodation to relocate Abeba and her family, however this solution will cause longer travel times for her to commute to work and her son to travel to school.
She said: “I don’t mind moving again, somewhere permanent, but I do not want to be severely inconvenienced when this issue was not my fault.”
Abeba had a similar experience with mould in her first flat, which she rented through Lambeth Council’s homeless prevention service in 2020.
The service provided her landlord with an incentive payment from the council.
During 2020, the teacher and her family were homeless, “desperate” and needed a place to live as they previously lived with Abeba’s disabled mother in another council flat but she was later moved to an accessible flat, and only one carer could live with her.
Abeba and her sister were carers for her mother and it was decided the sister would move in with her, leaving Abeba’s family virtually homeless.
The council advised them that rather than seeking temporary accommodation, it would be better for them to rent privately as if they failed to do so, they could potentially lose their priority status on the social housing list and may have to relocate to another part of the UK.
Her old flat in south London was “freezing” as it had no central heating and there were “extensive” leaks in the kitchen and bathroom that caused “really bad” mould.
Abeba said: “By August 2021 the toilet was disgusting, water was visually leaking in and the plaster on the ceiling was peeling off.
“I complained to my landlord and Lambeth Council and I was told it was not Lambeth’s responsibility, despite being told by the tenancy sustainment team at the council that they were there to support me for the first two years of my tenancy.
“My son was ill, he had prolonged coughing and rashes on his skin… and my mental health started to decline.”
“After after long time” in November 2021, the leak was identified to be coming from a water tank on the roof and fixed it temporarily, however, the mould still had not been removed.
Abeba said: “My landlord didn’t do their duties as a landlord, she tried to say she could not do anything due to other parties but I believe she could have done more.”
The teacher felt she had no other choice but to contact social housing activist Kwajo Tweneboa in March 2022 and record a video that was posted on his social media.
The video went viral, and Abeba received calls from Lambeth Council and councillors apologising and promising to temporarily rehouse her family, but she would have to lose her priority status on the social housing list.
After some “back and forth” between Abeba and Lambeth Council, it was agreed that she would keep her priority status and was moved into temporary accommodation in April 2022, while the landlord hired someone to remove the mould.
They moved back into the private flat in July 2022 and, despite the work, the mould slowly returned.
The 25-year-old has said her housing experience with Lambeth Council has been “exhausting”.
“It’s been draining, it’s been depressing, I feel completely let down, I feel like my struggles have been overlooked and Lambeth hearing tenants are struggling has been normalised,” she said.
“I’m living a perpetual state of social housing hell.
“It’s affected my work, my mental health and I’m not sleeping, plus Amar is also struggling… Lambeth had a duty of care which they did not fulfil – yet again.”
A Lambeth Council spokesperson said: “We are disappointed that our resident’s council flat needed these repairs, but we are committed to carrying them out. The shortage of temporary accommodation in Lambeth is a real challenge, but we aim to provide the best solutions where we can.
“Where support and services have fallen below acceptable standards we will take action to investigate, learn lessons and improve.”
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