A 66-year-old man suffering from cancer says he was placed in temporary accommodation without heating for three months.
John Cole, (pictured) who still lives in Bew Court, Dulwich, doesn’t have a working kitchen, and the bath and sink are often full of yellow liquid due to blocked pipes.
There is also extensive mould growth on windows and inside cupboards. A doctor said: “It is clear that his housing situation has a detrimental impact on his well-being.”
John was put in temporary accommodation in May after his mental health deteriorated following the death of his partner of 35 years, Bernard.
Having battled cancer for a decade, John had hoped for a clean, comfortable home, but he said: “In this weather, the flat is just freezing cold. They just throw us in there and forget about us.
“The sheets are so damp and most of the time when I get dressed in the morning my clothes are damp as anything.
“I think I’m quite a strong person but it makes me want to break down sometimes.”
John says that, in October, his heating stopped working and despite repeatedly calling Property Placebook, nobody fixed it.
Furious, John’s sister and niece went to Property Placebook’s Peckham office on Friday, December 16, only to find it was closed.
The family says they eventually got in touch with the company which finally sent two men to fix the heating. John’s family say Property Placebook forgot to top up the gas metre.
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Property Placebook did not respond to requests for comment.
Astonishingly, John is being charged £190.38 per week to live in the flat and is in £5,000 rent arrears, according to an email from Southwark Council.
He claims nobody ever explained to him how he should pay rent. Southwark Council has said the arrears will be “partially addressed” when he submits some documents to receive housing benefit.
Despite the flat’s alleged issues, Southwark Council claims inspectors checked the property on October 21 and again last week, finding “no sign of mould or anything of that nature”.
A council spokesperson said: “Temporary accommodation in London – not just Southwark, is very hard to come by at the moment and this is going to become an increasing pressure.
“We’re seeing a lack of availability, high costs and standards that are not acceptable to us. We do what we can to ensure the accommodation is suitable and we ask tenants to confirm conditions at the outset.”
Between April 2021 and March 2022, UK local authorities spent £1.6bn on temporary accommodation.
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Polly Neate, chief executive of Shelter, said: “When successive governments cut funding for social housing, they fired the starting gun on the housing emergency we see today.
“Had the supply of social homes not dried up, fewer people would be homeless and we would not be wasting over a billion pounds a year on temporary accommodation.”
Earlier this month, it was reported that tenants at temporary accommodation on Walworth Road were plagued by rats, bedbugs and leaks.
Southwark Council said: “We’ve seen inspections of the property from earlier this year which include videos and show no issues, but we will of course re-inspect.
“We won’t be using this property for much longer anyway as the owner is ending its use as temporary accommodation.