SLUMLORD MILLIONAIRE
Anger as taxpayers shelling out for ‘filthy’ accommodation run like an ‘open prison’
A RUNDOWN hotel accused of being run like an “open prison” is raking in up to a million pounds a year of taxpayers’ cash to house the homeless.
The Queen’s Park Hotel in Glasgow charges the city council £1400 a month for one single room with shared toilet facilities. The hotel pockets an astonishing £2800 a month in housing benefit per homeless couple for a shabby double room – with one room we saw containing a chair, a bed, broken chest of drawers, a TV hanging off the wall and an ensuite shower room.
For the same money you could pick up a luxury three bedroom, two bathroom mews in Park Circus, the most prestigious address in Glasgow.
At least four doubles can be rented out for couples, which adds up to a staggering £134,400 a year alone.
Last month the hotel accommodated 57 homeless guests in 55 rooms, 44 men and 13 women – most of them local homeless people. Repeated over a whole year that would take the total income the hotel receives to £957,600.
The hotel is owned by Malvin Dale Ltd whose director is Mohammed Ikram Hussein, and is run by operations manager Mukul Biswas.
One Queen’s Park hotel resident said their dirty single room consisted of a bed with a filthy mattress, an “unhygienic carpet” and access to a faulty toilet which had to be flushed with a bucket for days before it was fixed.
The resident said: “There is stickiness, drops and stains all over the place, including streaks of what I’d rather not identify are on the mattress cover.”
There is no cooking equipment other than a microwave and there are no laundry facilities. A resident who uses one of the 12 shared bathrooms said the sink in their room “triples for cleaning myself, washing dishes, and washing laundry, as I cannot afford the exorbitant prices at the launderette.”
They have no access to a fridge so residents resort to having to store their own perishables like butter and milk on the window sill, along with food which the birds then feast on.
The hotel fee does include a “continental breakfast” without choices, which is 35g of either Corn Flakes or Rice Krispies, three biscuits, concentrated fruit juice, a tea bag and a one cup pouch of instant coffee, a small pack of milk, and four sugar sachets.
Lunch is supplied by the charity Well Fed and is the same piece of cake, small pack of concentrated apple juice, bag of crisps, an apple and varying sandwiches every day. No dinner is provided to the residents and most have to survive on cheap junk food like chips and crisps.
The rules in the hotel insist residents can’t take their lunch outside or they will have their room “cancelled” and be thrown out. They are not allowed to talk to each other in the hotel vicinity which includes the street, no guests are allowed and permission is needed for an overnight stay with friends or family elsewhere. One resident said they were told if they sat in the sunshine at a nearby church, they would be barred. A resident said: “I was told the house rules were – minding your own business, not to talk to other residents, not go into anyone else’s room, and not letting anyone enter your room. “I was also informed about the midnight curfew, after which I would not be let into the hotel but would have to call my case worker. How is it legal for a hotel owner to run a hotel like an open prison, by public contract no less?” The hotel supplies “emergency” accommodation for homeless people and by law they should be there for a maximum of seven days. But according
to a freedom of information request to the local authority, in the seven months from September 2021 to May 2022 there were 315 individual stays, of which 70 per cent exceeded the statutory seven day maximum.
The data showed that in September last year the hotel had accommodated a resident for 16 months.
Many of the residents at Queen’s Park have mental health and addiction issues but because it is a hotel, staff don’t need training or disclosure checks for working with vulnerable people.
One resident said: “My mental health is getting worse every day. When you are not even allowed to speak to other residents you can’t even have a chat when you are down. I spend most of the day sleeping because there is no reason to be awake.
“Even prisoners are allowed to speak to each other. We are constantly in fear of being “cancelled” which means they chuck you on the street. It’s horrible. It is inhumane.”
The rooms and beds are cleaned once a week but residents are not given their own cleaning products and one lady who accidentally got period blood on a sheet claimed she was humiliated when she had to show the stain to a male worker before getting fresh bedding.
Neighbours of the hotel wrote to their MSP Paul Sweeney complaining of antisocial behaviour, raising concerns for the residents’ welfare after witnessing altercations with staff.
Sweeney said: “I was horrified to hear of some of the incidents of antisocial behaviour taking place in and around the Queen’s Park Hotel. It’s abundantly clear that the hotel owners are raking in huge profits from contracts with Glasgow City Council to provide emergency accommodation that is entirely unsuitable for homeless people, and that they are failing both in their duty of care towards those who are living there and in their duty to the residents who live in the neighbouring properties.
“There have been concerns raised about the conditions within the hotel and the treatment of those living there.
“I will continue to call for tougher action against the owners of the hotel who are failing in their duty to keep those living there safe and reiterate the point that any organisation in receipt of public money should be held to the highest of standards. I do not believe that is the case in this instance.” Now neighbours in the same leafy residential street have also raised concerns about the welfare of residents in the hotel.
A neighbour said: “The hotel is ill equipped for its current role. We deserve better and so do the guests of the hotel.”
A Glasgow City Council spokeswoman said: “The council has a duty to provide emergency accommodation to the homeless and utilises a range of accommodation including a number of B&B type establishments.
“Those who are accommodated in a hotel or B&B receive support from case workers and our homelessness team liaises directly with accommodation operators on a routine basis.
“As with most bed and breakfast establishments, a curfew will be in place in order to ensure the comfort and safety of all residents.”
The Queen’s Park Hotel has been approached for comment.
My mental health is getting worse every day RESIDENT ON TRAUMA OF STAYING AT HOTEL