4 in 5 Grenfell families could spend Xmas in housing limbo
‘Like being tortured’
FOUR out of five families who lost their homes in the Grenfell Tower blaze may have to spend Christmas in temporary accommodation, it has been revealed. More than 200 households were left homeless after the tower block fire which killed 71 people in June, and just 42 families have moved into permanent new housing since then.
Survivors demanded urgent action on rehousing and accused the local West London council of breaking promises to residents.
The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea had previously said it hoped survivors would be out of emergency hotel accommodation before Christmas.
Some 118 households remained in emergency accommodation, including 103 in hotels, of which 29 were families with at least one child under the age of 18. Others are staying with family or friends, and have accused the council of treating them with an ‘unacceptable’ lack of compassion. Shahin Sadafi, chairman of survivors’ group Grenfell United, said: ‘For the survivors and affected families it seems like one broken promise after another.
‘At this rate it could take the council almost two years to rehome people. We are talking about people who have been through the traumatic events and have lost so much, stuck in hotel rooms and make-do accommodation.
‘No one can even start to rebuild their lives until they are in a place they can call home. It’s been six months and we’re now just a fortnight away from Christmas.
‘It’s not too late to put this right but it needs urgent action now.’
The fire left 208 families in need of rehousing. At a council meeting on Tuesday night, officials said 42 households had moved into permanent accommodation and a further 82 had accepted offers of permanent housing, but were yet to move.
A woman whose mother lost
her home in the fire wept as she described how her mother was ‘matched’ with a new home, only to have the offer withdrawn by officials. The woman, who asked not to be named, said her mother’s case had been handled by 11 different housing officers from the council, without her being shown any potential new homes.
She said: ‘My mum is going to be 67 next Tuesday and she is still in a hotel – she has been in a hotel for six months.
‘She is a refugee who lost her home in Eritrea, who came here, but the thing that has been most traumatic for us has been dealing with members of the council team, being taken from pillar to post.
‘ My mother said to me, because she has faced trauma previously in her life as a political prisoner, she has compared this experience to being tortured back home.’
She said survivors were being made to feel they were ‘ penalised for being alive,’ adding: ‘The thing that shocks me with the council is the lack of empathy, the lack of understanding. You’re really pushing people to the brink.’
Council officials apologised to the woman and her mother, and said the older woman had now been matched to a potential new home, and would be shown it as soon as possible.
Survivor Tiago Alves, 20, said the council’s rehousing process was ‘morally degrading’ for families, adding: ‘You’re forgetting that you’re dealing with real human beings, real lives.’ Deputy council leader Kim TaylorSmith admitted rehousing had been ‘desperately slow’.
He said the council hoped to have acquired a total of 300 new properties by the end of the year.
The meeting heard warnings that survivors dealing with bereavement, stress and isolation could be at a higher risk of suicide over the Christmas period. The council said it had arranged extra support and special meals at a community centre for survivors over Christmas and New Year.
Council leader Elizabeth Campbell said the speed of rehousing had been ‘painfully slow,’ saying that the wealthy Conservative-run council had committed its entire cash reserves, totalling some quarter-of-a-billion pounds, to coping with the tragedy.
But she added: ‘This was still not enough to deal with a disaster of this magnitude, and we had to ask the Chancellor for more.’