Housing in Hammersmith

Elsayed Ward faces an uncertain future. Like most people, the 50-year-old father of three must buy food for his family and pay for rent and electricity. But, from April next year, he will no longer be able to afford all three.

There are no available social homes big enough to house Mr Ward and his family so the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham is trying to find him a home in the private sector which will see him claim local housing allowance in addition to disability allowance.



Mr Ward is desperate to move out of his one-bedroom flat, which he has rented from Octavia Housing Association since 2002. He lived alone initially but his children moved in three years ago. The outside is cheery and well-tended but inside the flat is crammed with the belongings of three growing children, who sleep in both the bedroom and the living room, and cram around the table in the tiny kitchen.


When he shuts the front door, Mr Ward reveals the other reason his family needs to leave the flat in Shepherd’s Bush: a damp problem yawns across the woodwork. The black mould is present in the bathroom, his bedroom and the living room.


Mr Ward has a thick sheaf of letters from the doctors at Charing Cross, and Chelsea and Westminster hospitals and his GP, who say the damp and cold conditions in the ground floor flat are aggravating two health conditions: chronic back pain, and circulatory problem Raynaud’s Syndrome. He and his three children, aged 11, 14 and 19, need to move.
Inside Housing Magazine has a profile of a family in what looks like pretty dire housing need, an our Council's response to that. In fairness the Council seems to be doing all they can but the plight of this family, and the obvious health dangers their current situation poses to them, as no fewer than three consultants point out, capture the bleak future faced by those in housing need.

Read the full article here.