Among them was Sagal*, one of the organisers of the protest. A single mum of four, she lives in temporary accommodation with her young children, all under 12. Sagal is in the high-priority 1A housing band for health reasons. According to the council, this band includes emergency cases and people with medical/disability needs that require they be assigned ground floor or wheelchair-accessible accommodation.
Yet Sagal and her family are on the fifth floor of a building without a lift, despite her arthritis making it difficult for her to walk. She told openDemocracy she has been on the housing register for four-and-a-half years waiting for suitable permanent accommodation.
Tower Hamlets Council’s guidance shows the average Band 1 wait time in 2021/22 was six years for a three-bedroom home and eight years for a four-bedroom home. Sagal said she has received little to no update from housing officers despite her complex needs.
“I have to chase them and [ask] how far is my situation, when am I going to be accepted for accommodation,” she told openDemocracy. “They said to me we’re going to put you on the waiting list for another temporary [accommodation]. But I said I'm already in temporary accommodation, why would I go in another?
She added: “I'm already suffering. I’ve got arthritis, [I’m suffering with my] mental health. My 12-year-old son is suffering with his mental health. He's got ADHD… We’re already suffering.”
Sagal also expressed concern for one of her daughters, who she said has “really bad asthma…Especially at night time. It’s hard for her to breathe…We’ve got mould, damp, and a leaky roof”.” Late last year, a coroner ruled that the December 2020 death of two-year-old Awaab Ishak was from a respiratory condition caused by prolonged exposure to mould in his home. The toddler lived with his parents in a one-bedroom flat rented from a social housing provider in Rochdale, northwest England.
Sagal said the only alternative is to rent privately but said: “It’s £1,900/2,000 [a month], how can I afford that?”.
Nadia, another protest organiser, said she, too, lives with her five children and 85-year-old mum in a mouldy three-bedroom house. “We’ve had to chuck most of our stuff out. We can’t go near the walls because of the mould. The damp is in the cupboards. I use plastic containers to put my clothes in.”
As a Band 1A tenant, Nadia applied for a four-bedroom house and was assured by the council that it would take no more than a month or two due to her high-priority housing category. “That was almost a year ago. They have so many different excuses. I keep ringing. And I'm not getting an answer. Whatever I asked for, whatever house I bid for… there's so many different reasons. So I'm thinking, why am I emergency then?”
Alleging that people are being told they haven’t been successful for homes over the phone, Nadia told openDemocracy: “[The council] are trying to move [the Somali community] out, that’s what’s happening.”
“A number of Somali families have gotten calls. They don't get an email, and they don't get a letter… If you get an email… and if you get a letter, it’s got the signature so you have evidence.
“They keep taking people's houses. [Especially] if the person doesn't speak very good English, or if the person is not confident to know their rights… Because of the faith they have in the system. And the faith they have in the council, they think obviously everything has been checked and is on point... If they say to you on the phone that you’re not getting the house, then you’re not getting the house.”
The most recent census shows that in 2021 6,180 residents in Tower Hamlets identified as Somali or Somalilander. While 2011 census data didn’t include Somali as an ethnicity, a council report based on the census showed the number of people who identified as Somali or Somalilander was estimated to be 6,000 to 9,000.
Responding to these allegations, Tower Hamlets Council said it “provides written notification to applicants removed from the housing register, with the opportunity to ask for a review of that decision”.
For Umm Aniis*, a mother of five, the struggle for social housing in Tower Hamlets’ Somali community is caused by “deep” discrimination.
Aniis has been on the housing register since 2008 and the growth of her family over the years means seven people, including three teenagers, are now forced to share a two-bedroom flat.
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