Landlords ‘raking in cash to let sub-standard flats’
Political Correspondent PRIVATE landlords are profiting from a homelessness crisis and housing shortage in Glasgow.
More than 10% of the temporary furnished flats used in the city are privately owned with 181 out of 1722 flats in private hands.
One flat seen by the Evening Times, costing more than £700 a month, has been declared “below acceptable standards” by the council.
The bill for privately owned flats is likely to top £1m a year.
Housing campaigners have called for minimum standards for temporary accommodation and for more homes to be built.
Siobhan Stevenson was placed in a temporary furnished flat, with a catalogue of problems.
She has been in the flat for four weeks with no hot water in either the bathroom or kitchen and has been boiling kettle after kettle to get enough hot water to wash.
In the bathroom, the wooden window frame has rotted so much there is a gap of more than 1cm between the frame and the glass.
The toilet pan is not secured to the floor and moves from side to side when someone sits on it.
Ms Stevenson said she has cleaned up mice droppings from the bathroom and the living room and has cleaned the flat and furniture several times but it is still filthy.
The flat is provided to Glasgow City Council by YPeople, who in turn have rented it from a private landlord.
Documents in the flat seen by the Evening Times show that the total charged for the one-bedroomed flat is £177 a week made up of £110 rent and £66.90 service charge.
It means the monthly bill for the property is more than £700.
Ms Stevenson claims she has reported the problems and cannot live in the flat for much longer.
She said: “I’ve reported the hot water to YPeople and my social worker. Someone came to look at the boiler and said it was 50 years old.”
Alison Watson, Deputy Director of Shelter Scotland, said: “The desperate shortage of affordable housing means people are spending longer in so-called temporary accommodation. This life in limbo comes at tremendous personal and public cost.
“It is nothing short of scandalous to see people forced to live in awful conditions that compound the distress of losing their home.”
The provider YPeople said it contacted the landlord to repair the water issue but said “This repair was not actioned in the timeline we would expect, and so we identified and offered suitable alternative accommodation to the tenant.”
They said Ms Stevenson has now been rehoused after refusing previous offers.
A spokeswoman for YPeople said: “A full review will be carried out to ensure that Ypeople continue to offer a high standard of accommodation which fits with the values we hold as a charity with over 190 years of supporting vulnerable people.”
The council has taken the flat off its list of available properties.
“A spokesman for Glasgow Health and Social Care Partnership said: “The current condition of this temporary flat falls below an acceptable standard.
“The previous flat will now remain out of use until it is brought up to an acceptable standard.
“Privately-owned flats form a small part of 1700 temporary furnished flats used by the homelessness service in Glasgow with around 90% of flats secured through social housing.”