Residents write to council over ‘uninhabitable’ temporary accommodation

Members are asking for clothes-washing facilities, outside and play space, better communication so residents in temporary accommodation know what is happening with their cases, and transparency around bidding for permanent housing.

The campaign group is also asking for increased housing staff levels, furniture shortage checks and improved water quality and fire safety. 

As well as improving the quality of accommodation, residents are requesting an updated change in how cases are handled, “as many homeless applications and cases could have been avoided had proper care and consideration been taken from the start”.

The government put the local authority into special measures earlier this year, which the group said it understood.

“However, the local authority does have a duty to support the most vulnerable people in the borough, so as a collective we have composed a few of the concerns we believe to be more pressing and heavily impacting vulnerable people and the safety of small children,” residents wrote. 

The properties involved include Concord House, Windsor House and Gilroy Court. 

The group called for a more transparent system when bidding for permanent homes, and said the lack of information has “proved to be extremely detrimental to the residents’ health, with many reporting low moods, helplessness and even as far as suicidal thoughts”.

Residents said some of the blocks had no laundry facilities at all.

They wrote: “In some blocks there are many people having to use one laundry facility and other blocks there is no laundry facility.

“This means that families are having to travel with bags of clothes to wash and this is coming at a large expense for families who don’t have the spare income.

“For some households this is a minimum of £40 per week. This is especially hard for households with multiple children or household members with disabilities or health conditions where they need to regularly wash clothes.

“This physical and financial burden is making temporary accommodation even more financially unsuitable for households.”

The group said that most of the households in the blocks were living in one-room spaces with a kitchenette, one bed and a small bathroom.

It said: “In many instances there are multiple people sharing these spaces. There is no other space for children to play or develop.

“To make the properties more suitable we would like the council to work with this group to create outdoor space for people in the above blocks.”

The group said many residents were not allowed to bring in personal furniture, but were also not given adequate storage or sleeping arrangements to support families.

“Moving forward when moving people out or into accommodation, all furnishing and the room itself should be checked,” residents said.

They said ex-office buildings were “unfit for human habitation because they were designed for office use, not for vulnerable people to share a room for years”.

“The water causes damage to hair and skin and irritation to areas that are delicate.

“This is a risk to babies and young children because the water is so hard,” the letter states.

The group also said the council must ensure all blocks were checked for fire safety issues and were completely safe.

“Whilst we thank you for taking these points on board we do not want to be reminded of the financial situation facing Croydon Council or the short supply of council housing – by definition you need to have a vulnerability to be in temporary accommodation and we expect these demands to be prioritised,” the group said.

A Croydon Council spokesperson said: “The London-wide housing shortage means that we cannot always provide permanent homes for families as quickly as we like. 

“Concord, Sycamore and Windsor houses provide much-needed, self-contained, temporary accommodation for families who are homeless. 

“Fire safety improvements have been made and we continue to make homes as comfortable as possible for our residents.”