A 64-year-old woman, who was originally ‘evicted’ from the demolished Heygate Estate ended up having to sleep rough in the Old Kent Road McDonald’s.
Amele Getaneh’s story stretches back over ten years to when the sprawling estate in Elephant & Castle was bulldozed to make way for one of the borough’s largest regeneration projects.
Nowadays, she lives in a ‘damp, mouldy, mice-infested flat’ which surveyors say is “unfit for human habitation”.
After the 2010 Heygate demolition, Amele was decanted to an apartment on Beckway Street, Walworth, where she lives now.
She claims she tried to reject the property because of its poor condition, but Southwark obtained a warrant for her forcible eviction.
Amele suffers from asthma and arthritis but says she was still made to move into a property she knew was unsafe.
“I am distressed and depressed. I clean the mould with bleach every week but every time it rises up again”, she said.
She lived at the mould-ridden property, with damp so severe she says it caused the electrics to malfunction, until a horrified solicitor took her case on in 2019.
That same year, Southwark moved her to a Catford flat while they repaired the Walworth address, but she was evicted due to a council error, she says.
For several days McDonald’s staff kindly allowed her to stay in the restaurant every night until closing at 5am, she told the News.
“I had nowhere to go. I tried to stay warm but my feet and and hands were freezing cold. My body was shaking”, she said.
McDonald’s, Old Kent Road.
But with her medicine for various conditions locked in the flat she was evicted from, she was hospitalised on December 15, 2019.
She says once out of hospital the council put her into a noisy Streatham hostel, full of “drunk people”, with no central heating, until June 2020.
She moved back into her Walworth flat once maintenance was complete in June 2020. She says the repairs were shoddy and the mould soon returned.
A recent surveyor’s report concluded that the house is “unfit for human habitation” under the Homes Act 2018.
Bathroom waste pipes are cracked and the property is “extremely humid”, according to the report.
The report also says the “extensive mould growth” is “prejudicial to health”. A letter from Amele’s GP also said the mould could be contributing to her asthma.
Amele has now reopened a legal case with Southwark, with the help of her solicitor, to try get repairs done on her property.
Councillor Darren Merrill, cabinet member for council homes and homelessness, said: “I am very saddened that Ms Getanah has suffered so much over the years, nobody should have to live in a home which is not warm, dry or safe. Her housing case has been referred for legal consideration.
“As such, we cannot comment in detail about her situation or what led to it. However, I can say that we will be listening very closely to whatever comes out of that process in order to see what went wrong and make sure we fully support her in every way that we can going forward.”