Sit-in protesters at Lewisham council offices highlight case of two families with housing issues

By Robert Firth, Local Democracy Reporter

Protesters are holding a sit-in at Lewisham council’s offices to demand officials rehouse two families they claim are living in unsuitable temporary accommodation.

About 80 demonstrators, some dressed as witches, have gathered inside Laurence House in Catford today in support of the families.

Mum Anabel, 23, whose name has been changed to protect her privacy, has been living in a one-room hostel where she and her young son for more than two years.

Her son, who is two, has spent almost his entire life in the cramped council-managed accommodation, where the family must share the bathroom and toilet with other families.

Since 2003, it has been against the law for families with kids to be kept in bed and breakfasts and hostels for more than six weeks. But a loophole in the law means that the rules don’t apply when a property is owned or run by a local authority.

The second family spent more than a year living in a council managed hostel before being moved to what they claim is overcrowded temporary accommodation outside of the borough and far from their support network.

Housing Action Southwark and Lambeth (HASL), which has been supporting both families, claims that instead of helping them, the council is exploiting legal loopholes and creating long delays to avoid providing them with suitable housing.

HASL wrote to the council earlier in October calling for local social housing for both families. According to HASL, the council responded insisting that both families’ temporary accommodation was suitable.

Anabel said: “I am worried that the lack of space is affecting his development. There is not enough room to play. The council do not really help you and the staff can be rude and do not care. I have been trying to get moved for two years but it has never felt like the council has listened to me. I think they have just forgotten about me.”

Demonstrators chanted ‘too long in temporary’, ‘que pasa que no tenemos pasa [what’s happening, we don’t have a reason]’ and ‘Lewisham council hear us say: homelessness must end today’, despite council officials’ pleas for them to quieten down. Protesters had come from across London and as far as Dartford in Kent to support the families.

Elizabeth Wyatt, a HASL member, said: “It’s unbelievable that Lewisham council is justifying these harmful living conditions. It has now been over two years that Anabel’s family have been stuck in these hazardous and stressful conditions. We’re here to say that this is definitely not okay for our members or for anyone.

“As well as the devastating impact on these families, Lewisham council’s refusal to respect the six week limit for hostel accommodation for families undermines everyone’s homeless rights. This law is there to provide minimum standards and very basic protections for vulnerable homeless families, but Lewisham council wants to lower these standards even further.”

Lewisham council has been contacted for comment.

Pictured top: Protesters today at Lewisham council offices (Picture: Robert Firth)