Imagine going to bed every night knowing that there’s a killer in your home.
A dark, insidious destroyer that creeps up the walls, fills the air with poison and traps you in its icy grasp.
An invisible enemy that attacks your child and chokes him to death as your screams for help go unheard.
Faisal Abdullah and Aisha Amin lived out that nightmare in Rochdale in 2020.
Because their two-year-old son, Awaab Ishak, was killed by the spores of a filthy black mould that had blighted the family’s one bedroom housing association flat throughout his tragically short life.
Faisal and Aisha say their toddler developed breathing problems and coughing fits that would last for three days. They felt “trapped, anxious and fearful” of what the mould was doing to him.
“We shouted out as loudly as we could, but despite making all of those efforts, every night we would be coming back to the same problem.”
This week an inquest found that Awaab died as a result of a severe respiratory condition caused by prolonged exposure to the mould and that “action to treat and prevent the mould was not taken”.
The coroner, Joanne Kearsley, concluded the hearing by asking: “How does this happen? How in the UK in 2020 does a two-year-old child die due to exposure to mould in his home? The tragic death of Awaab will, and should, be a defining moment for the housing sector.”
Of course it should, but how long will it take? RHB chief executive Gareth Swarbrick claims he’s “truly devastated about Awaab’s death and the things we got wrong”. “We didn’t recognise the level of risk to a little boy’s health from the mould in the family’s home,” he said. Although the Housing Ombudsman is investigating multiple complaints against RBH.
Housing Secretary Michael Gove accused the association of “a terrible dereliction of duty” and has vowed to hold ALL failing landlords to account through the long-awaited Social Housing Regulation Bill.
But Awaab’s death could have been prevented – had the Government acted years ago to improve Britain’s housing stock. Some 839,000 homes are affected by damp and mould and 2.3 million fail to meet the Decent Homes Standard.
The insidious killer already has other potential victims in its clutches.
And as the cost-of-living crisis condemns them to a winter without heating, its icy grip will tighten.
