Southwark mum shares bed with two kids in tiny Croydon bedsit

Veronica has been living in the tiny bedsit in Croydon with her daughter, seven, and three year old son since November 2022.

The mum-of-two, who preferred not to give her surname, was placed in the studio flat by Southwark Council after she had to flee her home in Camberwell because of domestic violence.

She claims the council told her she would probably only be there a couple of weeks but nine months later the family are still living in the room, which is an hour and a half away from her children’s school and one hour from her workplace. 

The flat the family have been living in since September 2022

Speaking through tears at the bedsit last week, she said: “It’s very, very difficult. When the sun is out, it’s very hot in here and we don’t sleep.

"This place is very difficult to live in with two children. They don’t have the space to play. 

“My children’s school is in Camberwell. It takes one hour and a half for them to get to school sometimes because the traffic is bad.

"Before, it took just five minutes by bike. My friends are all around Camberwell so it’s difficult. I don’t have family in this country and I’m alone here.” 

Veronica added that since moving to the bedsit her kids had been unable to have friends  over due to the lack of space and because the studio was miles away from where most of their classmates lived.

Veronica and her two kids have to sleep in the same bed

When her daughter went to play at friends’ homes, Veronica said she sometimes returned crying, asking her why they couldn’t have a normal house like her peers. 

“It becomes so hot in here, but I can’t leave the window open because we’re on the ground floor and it’s dangerous. Also some people smoke outside here so the smell is very strong.

"My hot water does not work [in the kitchenette] so I only have cold water to wash up,” she added. 

Veronica is one of over 3,500 Southwark families living in temporary accommodation as of March 31 this year, government statistics released last week show.

Out of the local authorities that provided figures, Southwark had the highest number of people living in temporary housing in the city and the second highest proportion per 100,000 people in the capital, only behind the East London borough of Redbridge.

But a number of London boroughs with a severe housing crisis including Enfield, Hackney, Lambeth, Newham, and Tower Hamlets are not included in the latest statistics because they failed to provide the government with updated figures.

More complete figures from December 2022 show that three London boroughs: Newham,  Redbridge and Enfield, had a higher proportion of families in temporary accommodation than Southwark.

Lambeth and Tower Hamlets councils failed to provide information to the government in both December last year and March 2023. 

Under the law, councils must provide temporary housing for people who are homeless if they meet certain conditions.

But a shortage of cheap accommodation in London means many families like Veronica’s are moved to the capital’s outskirts or even out of London altogether, miles away from their jobs, schools and social networks. 

They can then spend years in the so-called temporary housing waiting for the council to find them a permanent home.

As of December 2021, one Southwark family had been living in temporary accommodation in Lewisham for almost six years, a freedom of information request by the Local Democracy Reporting Service last year revealed.

Elizabeth Wyatt from housing group Housing Action Southwark and Lambeth [HASL] said the housing crisis in the capital was reaching new unseen levels, with children bearing the brunt of the problem. 

She said: “Families are stuck in overcrowded, mouldy, unsafe housing. They face constant worry and insecurity as they can be ordered to leave with no notice.

"Now more and more we are seeing families being housed outside of London meaning children face hours travelling on trains and buses to get to school. 

“These appalling conditions are making children and their parents sick.

"So many children talk to us about the health conditions they have developed and that have worsened living in temporary accommodation, anxiety, stress, asthma, skin infections.”

Ms Wyatt said the root causes of the problem were central government’s welfare cuts, rocketing private rents and a severe shortage of council housing, which in Southwark she blamed on the council’s past and ongoing estate demolitions. 

She added: “Almost 4,000 council homes will be lost by the demolition of these two estates [Heygate and Aylesbury] – that’s more than the number of households there are in temporary accommodation.

“Southwark could have become the first London borough to end homelessness if it had chosen to invest in its council homes rather than demolish them – but instead, the council decided to try to become property developers by selling off these estates for fancy private flats.”

Councillor Emily Tester, housing spokesperson for Southwark’s Liberal Democrat opposition, said the Labour-led council needed to do more to free-up existing council homes by helping people to downsize and providing more accommodation for older people, as well as reducing the number of empty homes in the borough. 

Cllr Helen Dennis, cabinet member for new homes, said: “In Southwark and across London, the housing crisis deepens as landlords take back their properties and more households are being priced out by exorbitant rents.

"This forces people to turn to their council for help who are similarly struggling to find alternative housing options in a broken private sector. It is an absolute tragedy and scandal that across England there is now the highest number of households in temporary accommodation ever recorded.

“We have 200-300 households approaching us as homeless each month and we wish we could offer everyone a home in the borough. But the sad reality is that our housing teams have never seen such a chronic shortage of suitable homes in all their working careers, meaning we have to look further afield.

"Research by London Councils now shows that only 2.3 per cent of properties listed in the whole of London are covered by housing benefit.

“We urgently need to see drastic reform by the government to fix the broken private rented sector, and an immediate decision to increase the Local Housing Allowance so that it is pegged to local rents.

"Of course the government also needs to get serious about funding and building homes for social rent, but in the meantime, we will continue to do everything we can to find everyone a suitable home even where we have been unable to secure something in or near Southwark.”