Family told ‘it’ll be 20 years’ before they can leave cramped London flat

An east London family who have been crammed into a too-small flat have been told it’ll be another 20 years before they can move.

Belinder Soman lives with her husband and four children in Hackney in a three-bedroom flat – and because of the lack of space her 17-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son have to share a room while she sleeps on the floor.

Belinder, 46, is a full-time carer for her husband Yusuf Kaya, 61 and her children, who between them have physical disabilities, autism, ADHD, sensory processing difficulties and oppositional defiance disorder.

She claims the flat is covered in mould, and her children have been the victim of racist attacks from neighbours, being told to ‘go back to Syria’ or ‘go and join ISIS’.

Belinder says the multiple complaints made to the police and housing association have fallen on deaf ears.

She explained: ‘We have to live in this property, it is a very cramped three-bedroom flat. I mean you can’t even move around.

‘We can’t move around anywhere. No adaptations can be sufficiently made for my husband.

‘My 17-year-old daughter has to share a room with her nearly 11-year-old brother. They are both disabled. They don’t have any space. It’s really not appropriate.

‘It’s not just the structure of the property, it is that since we have moved in we have faced harassment, physical attacks – I mean this whole place, antisocial behaviour, disrepair, you name it. Everything dating back to 2007.

‘Each time we’ve called the police, we did what we had to do. With the disrepair and everything, it reached a point where it’s not habitable anymore.’

Belinder says the family has requested to be moved to more appropriate accommodation multiple times – but their family file has been closed three times, in 2011, 2013, and 2020.

When applying for a fourth time they were told they could wait 20 years for more suitable housing.

Belinder’s children are 19, 17, 13 and 10. In order to try and offer them their own rooms and spaces she sleeps on a mattress on the floor in the family’s living room.

Dragging the mattress back and forth each day aggravates her back which she claims she injured while defending her children in a confrontation with a neighbour.

Belinder added: ‘I feel very much exhausted, it’s taken its toll on my own health. When you’re in your 20s and 30s you don’t feel it but my own physical health has suffered.

‘I feel ill most of the time because of the draught and the mould and the structural unsuitability of this property. I think it’s lessened my life span by about 20 years, I’ll be honest.

‘I’ll be honest, I have to [stay positive] because with this property, you know how it is with young children with autism, they pick up on emotion so easily. And I am trying so hard because there is already a lot of trauma going on.

‘It’s so important to keep the spirits up for them. But inside it’s cutting, I’ll be honest with you. When you overcome one barrier another one is put before you. It is exhausting.’

Hackney Council has been contacted for a comment but has not yet responded.

A spokesperson for Southern Housing told MyLondon: ‘We’re here to support Ms Soman and her family, and we want to ensure the home we provide is suitable for them.

‘We carried out extensive work to treat damp and mould and other repairs identified in the home. This included cleaning and treating areas of mould, lagging pipes that were creating condensation, clearing blocked and broken gutters that were creating areas of damp and treating brickwork. We’ve also renewed a bathroom heater and other heaters in the home.

‘We completed the above repair work on December 23 2022. As we’ve no outstanding repairs, we’ve arranged for our specialist surveyor to visit the home on April 20 to assess if further work is required.

‘With regards to antisocial behaviour and noise nuisance, our team have offered support to the family and have explained we’re unable to take enforcement action against other residents without evidence.

‘We’ve offered the family the use of our Noise App to make a record of any incidents, but this has not been used to date. The family can also report incidents of noise to Hackney Council.

‘We understand the family are looking to move to a larger home, and although we’ve offered support with a house move, the housing register is managed by the local authority not by Southern Housing.

‘We understand from Hackney Council the number of larger homes is extremely limited, with only seven four-bed homes becoming available in the last year.

‘We’ve encouraged the family to register with the Home Swapper scheme to improve their move chances. We cover the fee for Home Swapper if they wish to explore a mutual exchange.’

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