A single mother living in a cockroach-infested, mould-covered new-build property with her young children has said she feels suicidal after enduring the poor housing conditions for a year.
Video footage posted on social media reveals a social housing flat in Lewisham with a front door that is so swollen it barely closes, dozens of cockroaches in a child’s bedroom and black mould across the walls.
On entering the property, social housing activist Kwajo Tweneboa, who posted the footage, visibly struggles to open the door. “I don’t know what counts as a fire risk but I think this would. There are young kids here expected to open this door and to shut it. It’s almost impossible,” he says.
He later films a leak in the boiler caused by a punctured water pipe, which is seen dripping close to an electricity socket surrounded by black mould as a cockroach floats in a bucket placed there to collect the leaking water.
In another clip, dozens of cockroaches can be seen on the carpet of one of the children’s bedrooms. “It’s just completely out of order. It’s unacceptable,” Mr Tweneboa can be heard saying.
Moussokoa, the woman living in the property, who only wanted her first name used, said that her children – aged 12, 10 and four – were afraid to sleep at night and that her mental health is severely suffering as a result of the situation. The 41-year-old tells Mr Tweneboa that her youngest child has slipped over due to leaking in the property.
“[The cockroaches] are under my son’s bed so he has to come and sleep in my bed. I keep cleaning but they keep coming back. Pest control came but refused to do the bedrooms,” she says in the footage.
“My mental health is completely damaged. I don’t even want to say anything because I don’t want anyone to come and take my kids away from me. I can’t sleep, I can’t do anything, I’m suicidal.”
Housing association L&Q, which owns the property, apologised for the “unacceptable conditions” in the home and confirmed that the family was moved into temporary accommodation last week so that the property can be repaired.
“We’ve already apologised to the resident and have been working closely with them and the heating supplier to ensure we put things right […] We apologise unreservedly for the upset and disruption that this has caused,” a spokesperson added.
Mr Tweneboa told The Independent he was “horrified” to see the condition of the property, but that the family was “one of many” social housing tenants with similar problems in their homes.
He added: “It shouldn’t take me coming along to shake up L&Q. It’s a disgrace that the whole new build is infested with cockroaches and mice. The tenant has made it clear they don’t want to return. Her mental health has been destroyed.”
A Lewisham Council spokesperson said the conditions highlighted in the property were “completely unacceptable” and that it expected all housing providers to take “swift action to respond to their tenants’ concerns and carry out repairs when required”.
It comes as the social housing sector has come under increased scrutiny for the conditions of its homes following a rapid increase in the number of disrepair claims being issued against providers in recent years.
The Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (LUHC) Committee announced last November that it was going to launch its own investigation into regulation and conditions within the sector.
