Riddle of urn ashes at altar

A CONVERTED office block on an industrial estate, where 84 homeless families live, is a stark illustration of the housing crisis.

Hemmed in by noisy factories, Connect House is far from the nearest bus stop and shops and has no street lighting.

Yet 200 vulnerable children are hidden away in a building branded a “death trap” by the local MP in Mitcham, Surrey.

Young mothers pushing tiny babies in buggies run the gauntlet of HGVs unloading at industrial units opposite.

When the Mirror visited recently, longterm resident Victoria Fielding, 43, explained she has to stay awake at nights so her daughter Daisy, 10, can sleep, as they both cannot fit in the bed.

Victoria and Daisy live in a room less than six metres square into which are crammed the bed, a sink, a table, a two-ring hob to cook on and a pathetically small bathroom. Their life’s possessions are piled on the floor. They tiptoe through a 10cm-wide space to cross the room.

“This will never be somewhere we can call home,” said Victoria, a former store detective. “People were not meant to live on industrial estates. This is a purposebuilt office with thin walls and a tiny window.

“I can never clean or tidy because there’s nowhere to move things. If Daisy goes outside it’s just as bad because the only place where she can play is in the car park next to the bins.

“Meanwhile the owners of this building are being allowed to make so much money from the council.”

Kimberley Barber, 22, said recently: “I wanted to turn around and leave when I first arrived here. I went to the council Pictures: ADAM GERRARD