Ruislip & Eastcote & Northwood Gazette
Waiting for permanent home three years after Grenfell fire
A SURVIVOR of the Grenfell Tower disaster feels he has been forgotten as he is still waiting to be found a permanent home, three years after the fire.
Joseph John moved to the tower block with his then partner just three months before the blaze.
He is living in temporary accommodation and because of his terrifying experience during the night of the fire wants to move to somewhere with two exits if he needed to flee again.
He carried his then partner on his back, as she is disabled, to get her to safety on the night of the fire in June 2017.
Mr John is now getting medical help for injuries from the fire.
He said: “I damaged myself. I gave my son to a complete stranger. I made it out with my family and to be treated like this is very poor.”
The young family lived in hotel rooms in Kensington for over a year and Mr John is still in temporary accommodation even now.
The 29-year-old has moved several times since the fire, including spending eight months in a flat near Ladbroke Grove.
The dad-of-three is one of the last survivors still in temporary accommodation provided by Kensington and
Chelsea Council, which owned and refurbished Grenfell Tower.
Not long after the fire, which claimed the lives of 72 people, the then Prime Minister Theresa May pledged to rehouse survivors within three weeks. It proved to be unrealistic.
Mr John said: “They promised us [that within] probably a month, three months after Grenfell, they would rehouse us permanently [but then] a year passes ... and then two years pass and it was [still] like I will definitely get rehoused. [But then] I lost hope.”
Another survivor of the fire moved out of a hotel where he was staying in May this year and is currently in temporary accommodation.
“I am one of the [people] that has
They promised us [that within] probably a month, three months after Grenfell, they would rehouse us permanently. Joseph John
been forgotten,” Mr John said.
He came to the UK from Trinidad in 2016 and his name was not on the tenancy for the flat.
“I’ve gone through a lot,” he added. “It’s been a nightmare.
“It was claustrophobic in my hotel room and I was under pressure to accept temporary accommodation.” He has seen “about 10 properties” but “most of the places they showed me are way too small for my family”. His mother had come over to support him and stayed at the hotel with him and his two children for a while. His former partner lived in a hotel for about 18 months, he said. After the fire he set up a food business with the help of the Prince’s Trust, started selling food at the Notting Hill Carnival and got a stall at Portobello Market but it proved to be too soon in his recovery.
Traumatised by the fire he said “I was not really sorted mentally”.
He’s suffered from flashbacks and trauma.
Mr John has also worked in a kitchen and hopes to get back to catering after the pandemic.
According to the latest figures from Kensington and Chelsea Council, 194 households evacuated from Grenfell Tower and nearby Grenfell Walk are now in permanent homes. Another seven are in private rented homes – and five of them have accepted permanent homes.
The council says it is “continuing to support the other two households to find a home they can settle in”.
There are 19 households from the wider community accommodation.
Mr John is now in a flat in North Kensington.
He described moving into the two-bedroom flat as “the worst point”, adding “that was my breaking point. I was sofa surfing”.
It took several weeks to get furniture.
“Here there’s one exit, so in the case of emergency I might have to jump through my window,” he added.
He said it has been difficult to cope during lockdown. He has got a lot of support from Grenfell Athletic FC and Minds Together – but that has been impossible in person because of the pandemic.
Mr John, who has suffered from anxiety, depression and post traumatic stress disorder after what he saw at Grenfell, said: “I tried my best in temporary to get back to work, to get back on track – the thing that gives me strength right now is my kids.”
In response to Mr John’s story, Kim Taylor-Smith, deputy leader of Kensington and Chelsea Council who has responsibility for Grenfell, said: “We have been working hard to make the properties we bought into a place that families can call home, working with them to do so in incredibly complex circumstances. We are nearly there, but we will not be rushing the last few to meet artificial deadlines.
“This hasn’t been simple – it was never going to be. Council staff have never stopped caring and never stopped working, and this will continue to be the case when every family is in their new home and starting to rebuild their lives. Our efforts won’t stop when they walk through their own front door.”