Housing campaigners today (17 July) visited Lambeth town hall in Brixton to to hand-deliver a personal invitation to Cllr Danny Adilypour, council deputy leader for housing, asking him to a community lunch in September to hear directly from residents and local organisations and explore practical steps to improve conditions in temporary accommodation (TA).
The delivery was part of a day of action across London. Charities and residents visited town halls to highlight the urgent need for improvements.
In Lambeth, IRMO (Indoamerican Refugee and Migrant Organisation), Advicenow, and 4in10 London’s Child Poverty Network joined forces to make the delivery.
Thousands of Lambeth families in temporary accommodation are living without the most basic necessities, the campaigners said.
They added that the borough is facing a growing temporary accommodation (TA) crisis, with more than 4,700 households currently living in TA – including thousands of children.
Despite the high costs to the council, they said, many families are forced to live for months or even years in unsuitable housing that lacks the most basic essentials: a place to cook, wash clothes, access the internet, store belongings, or even receive clear information about their housing situation.
The invitation to Cllr Adilypour is to a lunch to meet both campaigners and local people who have experienced temporary accommodation.
The campaign – Fix the Five Basics – urges boroughs to guarantee five basic necessities in every TA placement: a way to cook, wash clothes, get online, store belongings and access clear information.
It says that, with one in 50 Londoners affected, the scale of the temporary accommodation crisis feels insurmountable.
The campaign focuses on practical, local action that will improve the lives of those in TA immediately, and ensure better value for money for local councils.
Some councils are already taking action to fix the five basics. For example Greenwich has been piloting a free Wi-Fi scheme for TA residents, showing the practical and affordable actions that councils can take.
“Imagine cooking every meal for your kids with a hotel kettle, or sending them to school in dirty clothes because there’s no affordable way to do laundry,” said Peter Ekakoro, a spokesperson for the Better TA alliance.
“These are not luxuries. Most of us couldn’t get through a single week without needing these five basics to keep our home lives functioning.
Fixing the Five Basics is a practical, affordable step councils can take right now, while we work together to solve the longer-term housing crisis.”
Councils do not have to do it all at once, say the campaigners. “Even starting with one basic is a step towards our wider mission to ensure stays in TA are as short, safe and healthy as possible,” they said.
Cllr Adilypour accepted the invitation, subject to his diary, and thanked the organisations involved.
“Obviously supporting our families in temporary accommodation is one of the big challenges we face,” he said.
The council has almost 5,000 people in TA now, he told the visitors. This was excessive in terms of finding decent placements to live and the financial cost to the council. “We’re doing the best that we can to get more homes built,” he said.
“All of your asks are things that we’re trying to work towards, for the most part. I think other than the WiFii one, the other four things that we’re trying to do in most cases at the minute
“Obviously in some cases when we haven’t got immediate access, we’ll put people in hotels, but we try and keep people in hotels for as short an amount of time as possible.
“We’re talking ideally a couple of days at the most. Worst case scenario a couple of weeks for larger families, because absolutely we want people to be in more secure accommodation where they can wash their own clothes.
“So we’re singing from the same hymn sheet in that extent. I probably can’t do all of the things that you want, but I think certainly they’re all aspirations we’d like to work towards in different ways.
“Thank you for working with our communities and I look forward to coming to have lunch with you in September.”
