More than 2,000 people living in short-term and emergency residences

The first time Maya entered her temporary accommodation she says she was pinned against a wall by another resident, who accused her of stealing her room.

She found her new hostel in Hounslow so hostile she barely left her room for two weeks, and said it was almost worse than being on the street.

With thousands of West Londoners in short-term and emergency accommodation, and councils forking out tens of millions to private landlords to house them there, Maya isn’t alone.

She remembers: “This woman was a bit twisted in the head.

“She sort of wedged herself into me and pushed me into a corner.

“She showed me a bunch of text messages she had sent to the building manager, saying: ‘this room was supposed to be my room – you took my room’.”

Maya, who the Local Democracy Service has chosen not to name to protect her from reprisals, said it was a sign of things to come. Within a couple of weeks Maya witnessed a police raid, seeing three people hauled away.

She regularly sees people smoking marijuana in the corridors, and has had possessions stolen after leaving them for a moment in the communal areas.

She said: “You can’t confront those people, because you don’t know what you’re dealing with. The biggest rule of a hostel is keep yourself to yourself.”

Maya, now 27, said many of the residents leave first thing in the morning and only return late at night to avoid the people they live around.  Maya first became homeless in April last year after suffering side effects from medication for epilepsy.

She had suffered with migraines for years, but the medication left her with symptoms of depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety and light sensitivity.

Before that she said she was a “normal person”, and about to start her PHD, but before long she was taking 17 pills a day and sleeping in parks.

It took until October, roughly five months after losing any kind of steady accommodation, for Maya to be housed.

“Every time I went in by myself in the council my case was rejected. They tried to get me into YMCA – it was rejected.”

She said it wasn’t until she found a solicitor that she was taken seriously.

While the temporary digs have given her much-needed shelter, Maya said it didn’t offer any security or a base to work from.

“You don’t have a way to move forward from a hostel back into a normal lifestyle.”

This has been Rayma’s experience as well.

She has been in the same hostel as Maya for almost a year, and was threatened with  homelessness after her marriage broke down.

Rayma, 28, remembers the night she spent in Ealing Underground Station before the Council found her a room.

“I was sitting there all night, and I just wanted to jump in front of the train… Somehow I just got a text reminder for one of my appointments.”

“It was a Friday morning, and I thought maybe – maybe I’ll try one more time and they’ll be able to help me.”

At that appointment, her therapist called an ambulance and Rayma found a bed at a hospital for a few days before being moved into the hostel.

Before that, Rayma said, the council didn’t really take notice of her situation.

She says the hostel is always dirty, loud music pumps into the night, and she’s too nervous to cook in the communal kitchen, instead surviving on corn flakes and takeaway sandwiches.

She said: “Till today I have never said anything, at least I’ve got these walls and this roof. If I’m fussy, they would probably throw me out.”

According to homeless advocate Quddous Ahmed, Maya’s and Rayma’s experiences are not unusual.

Mr Ahmed runs the Hounslow Soup Kitchen, and has heard similar stories from the people he helps.

He said the system today lacked humanity, treating the needy as cases not people, and said there needed to be a new focus on helping people rebuild themselves.

Mr Ahmed said temporary accommodation often became a hub for the homeless, and more effort should be taken to use these for outreach.

“What I would say to local authorities is to have more of a presence in the places they are managing.”

There are thousands of people across Hillingdon, Hounslow and Ealing currently in temporary accommodation.

According to figures provided under the Freedom of Information Act, Ealing was housing 2,173 residents in temporary accommodation at the end of March.

Of these, 302 were housed in B&Bs, 114 were in Hostels, 1,279 were in other private sector properties, 305 were in licensed annexes to the council and 173 were in their own homes.

At the same time, Hillingdon recorded 460 households in temporary accommodation, and Hounslow reported having 643 households at the start of June.

Council payments to private landlords to house residents also stretches into the tens of millions.

Ealing paid out over £37 million to private providers to house those in need of emergency accommodation in the 2018/19 year.

Hillingdon spent over £3.6 million, and Hounslow says it spent £439,481 in 2017/18 – after the recovery of some costs.

However, this last figure does not take into account other types of emergency accommodation – which the council classes separately.

With accommodation such as bed and breakfasts, private sector leases and private license agreement taken into account Hounslow’s spending jumps to over £8 million.

For all three boroughs, spending to private landlords has dropped in recent years, with Hillingdon cutting their payments almost in half.

Hounslow Council claims in their draft Housing Strategy 2019-2024 to have reduced rough sleeping from 32 in the 2014 rough sleeping count to 18 in November last year.

Mr Ahmed however said these figures were not accurate,  and that they down-played the problem.

A recent report from the Combined Homelessness and Information Network (CHAIN) also paints a far grimmer picture.

The report, focused on Ealing, said 382 people were seen rough sleeping by outreach teams in the borough between April 2018 and March this year. This represented a 7% increase compared to the year before.

Over half of these people (57%) were new homeless, while 29% had been recorded as homeless before, and 14% were returners.

Of the new homeless, CHAIN reported 70% were seen rough sleeping just once.

The most common reason people gave for being made homeless included being asked to leave or evicted (27%), loss of job or failure to find work (18%), relationship breakdown (15%) or having short or medium term accommodation end (10%).

The CHAIN report recorded a total of 40 individuals departed from temporary accommodation from April 2018 to March 2019.

The report notes that all individuals recorded in this group had been seen rough sleeping in the past.

Ten of these made it into medium or long term accommodation, nine were transferred to other short term accommodation or rehab, 9 were classed as other – meaning they either died or found housing in a previous home, or stayed with friends or family.

Seventeen – or 38% – were classed as ‘negative’ outcomes, meaning they either committed suicide, their location was not known, they had returned to the street, or they had been taken into custody.

Under reasons for departure, the report notes that just over half (51%) were planned departures, while 20% reached the time limit of their stay.

Another 18% were evicted due to their behaviour, 7% abandoned their room, and the remaining 4% were simply classed as unplanned.

An Ealing Council spokesman said the council has invested in three modular housing sites (effectively movable homes built from shipping containers) which together will offer over 100 families self-contained temporary housing.

He said: “Three more modular sites are being planned at the moment and are likely to provide housing for another 60-100 families who are at risk of homelessness.

“In addition to this, our property purchase scheme has also seen us buy 85 traditionally built properties over recent years to use as temporary accommodation.”

The spokesman said there was also a strategic focus on supporting  households at risk from homelessness, to prevent it in the first place.

Hounslow council have just started consulting on their Housing Strategy 2019-24, with plans to deliver 5,000 new homes on either affordable rents or shared ownership schemes.

They also plan to implement the Hounslow definition of affordability for new developments, requiring rents to be no greater than 70% of the market value.

The plan also says the council will continue to reduce the use of temporary accommodation; which fell from over 1100 households in 2014 to less than 600 in March 2019, with council staff often acting to prevent homelessness of residents by talking or negotiating with landlords or amily.

Hillingdon Council, the only council to respond directly to questions for this article, said  it had a rolling programme of inspections to ensure properties are clean, safe and meet current health and safety, and fire standards.

It said in a statement: “Our Counter Fraud team also carries out announced and unannounced visits to verify applicants, check their housing needs and ensure that we are helping people in genuine housing need.  

“We do not tolerate drug use in our properties, or any illegal or antisocial activity that causes harm to individuals or families. We give full support to the police in pursuing perpetrators.

The council said it understand being in temporary accommodation could be unsettling for esidents and only use it as a last resort and to prevent homelessness.

“We maintain regular contact with those placed in temporary accommodation to ensure their health and wellbeing.

“We are successfully reducing the use of temporary accommodation in Hillingdon, with 77 fewer individuals or families placed in temporary accommodation at end of 2018/19, than there had been at the end of 2017/18.”  

Maya and Rayma’s experience of spending months in a hostel is not unusual – in fact it’s the norm.

In Hounslow, the average stay is 15 months and 11 days. In Hillingdon this figure sits at around two and a half years. In Ealing, it jumps up to approximately four and a half years.

For Maya, there is hope on the horizon.

She has recently been told she is a priority case for receiving a 12-month-tenure home.

She says this will allow her to begin thinking about the future, increasing her involvement as a mental health advocate, and she hopes to begin training to be a video editor.

For Rayma, her case remains under review.

She said: “When I’m in a more permanent place and I know I won’t be moving I can probably get more things for myself, maybe start cooking at home, feel at home, have a bit of a relaxed mind.”

“A home is where you feel safe and where you know you won’t be leaving.”

Spending by borough on private temporary accommodation:

Ealing: £37,337,200.00 (2018/19)

Hillingdon: £3,621,591.39 (2018/19)

Hounslow: £8,053,255.83 (2017/18) when including emergency accommodation

Ged Cann - Local Democracy Reporter

4th July 2019