Grenfell family face removal from home. RBKC deny this. Then POLICE knocked on the door.

[HelenaDove]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-47898652

Grenfell family 'face removal from home'

A family who survived the Grenfell Tower fire has said they are set to be moved out of their temporary home, as the council will no longer pay for it.

Mahad Egal and Jamie Murray and their two young children want to stay in the property, but Kensington and Chelsea Council has said it is "no longer suitable" and will not renew it.

It has offered the family alternative temporary housing instead.

The council says that it has not threatened anyone with eviction.

The couple has previously been offered a permanent home, but declined it over fears about the use of aluminium, although the council said that all its homes for survivors were safe

The couple and their two children, aged three and five, escaped from the fourth floor of Grenfell Tower during the fire in June 2017, in which 72 people died.

They moved into a permanent home last month, but within three weeks had returned to their temporary accommodation - which they first entered in August 2017.

Ms Murray told the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire programme that the permanent home had been connected to a building with aluminium decorative casing around the windows.

They could see this through the living room window and it made them feel unsafe following their experiences of the fire.

The council said the material was not flammable and was "one of the safest forms of rain-screening building material available in the industry".

But Ms Murray said: "We were given similar reassurances when we lived in Grenfell Tower.

"[The council] are talking about physical safety, [but] you telling me that I am safe does not make me feel safe.

Ms Murray added that the stress of their present situation had caused her to experience vomit-inducing anxiety and made her flashbacks worse.

In the last two weeks she said she has also suffered a miscarriage.

The family added that moving from one property to another with two children would be "stressful and unnecessary" and Mr Egal was reporting symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

They said the next time they move, they want it to be their permanent "forever" home.
'No culture change'

The couple said they were now effectively being evicted from their current temporary accommodation.

In a legal letter seen by the Victoria Derbyshire programme, Kensington and Chelsea Council state that it was "no longer suitable".

The family now say they fear leaving the home in case they are not allowed back in.

Mr Egal told the BBC that "every day from now on is a potential eviction day" and he feared the effect it would have on their children.

He added that the council has paid the rent for last week and the weekend just gone, but that is it.

Local Labour MP Emma Dent Coad said the council saw some Grenfell survivors as "troublesome" and wanted to "clear the decks" before the second anniversary of the tragedy on 14 June.

She said there was "no culture change" at the council, and she could see no justification "at all" for wanting to move the family from their temporary accommodation.

Kensington and Chelsea Council said in a statement: "We have worked with more than 180 households from Grenfell Tower to find them a suitable, permanent home.

"A small number of families find they have trouble settling into their new property and if they wish to move, we will find them suitable temporary housing while they consider what they want for the long term.

"All our homes for Grenfell [survivors] are safe and secure.

"We have not threatened any Grenfell survivor with eviction from their property."

In the week of the fire i remember a survivor telling Alok Sharma that he wasnt prepared to keep moving his young daughter from here to here to here to here. They KNEW that it was going to be like this, And they have been proved right.

twitter.com/vicderbyshire/status/1117761835623747586

Victoria Derbyshire
‏Verified account @vicderbyshire
4h4 hours ago

Exclusive: a Grenfell family says they’re facing eviction from their temporary home. *@RBKC say they aren’t evicting any Grenfell survivors. Yet a legal letter I’ve seen from ⁦**@RBKC*⁩ says Mahad Egal’s temp home is ‘no longer suitable’. Then police knocked on his door.

In the twitter link there is a recording of the police visit.

@PookieDo @Brilliantidiot

So what are they holding out for? They have been offered both permanent and temporary accommodation.

What’s happened is utterly dreadful, we all recognise that but the article doesn’t say what they want (apart from to stay where they are which isn’t an option)

why are the police in attendance at what is a civil matter

I have no idea, but the police go to civil matters to keep the peace frequently.

They've been offered permanent housing and different temporary accommodation? But have declined both?

Is there a chance that the first temp accommodation is just nicer?

www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/17575211.what-has-changed-cumbrian-health-chief-compares-hillsborough-disaster-to-grenfell/

@PortiaCastis

I googled the story and was faced with just how bloody weird the internet can be ! Accusations he is a crisis actor; letters he wrote re:Grenfell; some weird conspiracy about floor 4 - nothing on the accuracy of this or whether it's reasonable to refuse the permanent housing just a weird view inside other people's heads.

Sorry to hijack Helena.

No apology necessary. I know what you mean.

@HelenaDove
Why is the temp accomodation unsuitable? What's making it unsuitable?

If it's because it's become unsafe in some way, then I can understand the urgency.
However I can fully understand the lack of trust in the council 72 people died in a building that they were told was safe. 72.
They have tried to move the family into a home that is attached (and therefore vulnerable in case of fire) thst has the same cladding that caused that fire to spread so terribly, with tragic concequences, and wonder why they don't want to live there? People seriously can't see a problem with that?

They are moving from temp accomodation to temp accomodation. And i think that is part of the issue almost two years on. Part of the objection is being moved around like chess pieces which is the very thing they said would happen on the very same show (Victoria Derbyshire) the week of the fire.

One resident told Alok Sharma that he wasnt going to keep moving his daughter from here to here to here to here. Sharmas response was "E mail me"

I have also noticed that there are people saying that prosecuting the man over the burning of the Grenfell effigy is a waste of resources. Yet are strangely silent over the resources used to go to where this man lives as shown in the recording.

Well I read that it isn't the same cladding. That it's safe aluminium.

That's what the council spokesperson said in the article I read?

Must be true then especially considering their great track record.

Well, helena Where will that leave them long term if they aren’t going to consider properties suitable if it is offered to them by the housing association? They can’t stay where they are.

twitter.com/VictoriaLIVE/status/1117726623262920704

Sadly I think they will be “encouraged” to move north, like many londeners are.

NicoAndTheNiners

They were also told that the cladding on Grenfell was safe, and had safety concerns dismissed by the same council. I don't think I'd want to stake my families lives on them telling the truth, or even if they are, on that cladding being any safer than the one on Grenfell. I totally understand their mistrust.

Isn't aluminium safe? I could understand if it was asbestos, but aluminium? Sorry, I just don't know.

www.24housing.co.uk/news/government-to-drop-plans-to-create-a-national-tenant-voice/

Singlenotsingle

Aluminum is flammable, it is a ingredient in rocket fuel. However it’s extremely difficult to light under any normal circumstances.

How do they expect to receive a detached house in RKBC? There is more than meets the eye in this story.

There is no evidence that solid or liquid aluminium catches fire by itself in a fire [7]. and this has been confirmed by experience and by numerous laboratory tests.

www.almet-marine.com/images/clients/EN/Aluminium-users-guide/Ch09-fire-resistance-of-aluminium.pdf

@pinegreen the TMO/council should have thought of that before deciding to ignore and threaten tenants into keeping quiet when they spoke up about what was going on re. cladding and refurb. Perhaps you are one of those who thinks that taking responsibility for your actions should only apply to poorer ppl and/or tenants. 67 families are still waiting for permanent accomodation two years on.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/apr/09/grenfell-survivor-mariko-toyoshima-lewis-kensington-chelsea-council?CMP=share_btn_tw

Grenfell survivor was housed in hotel with no accessible bathroom

Mariko Toyoshima-Lewis says Kensington and Chelsea council robbed her of dignity

A disabled Grenfell Tower survivor has accused Kensington and Chelsea council of robbing her of her dignity and making her trauma worse by putting her up in accommodation where she was unable to use the bathroom.

In her first interview since the fire, Mariko Toyoshima-Lewis, 43, said she had had to leave the hotel where she lived with her three young children for 16 months, every time she needed to use the toilet or have a shower, because her wheelchair would not fit into the bathroom.

When she was unable to make the journey to an accessible bathroom in another hotel five minutes away, she had to use a commode, which her children Kohana, 11, Taiyou, 9, and Aozora, 7, had to empty for her. Because she was unable to get into the bathroom she was forced to wash her son in a bucket.

“The council do not care about human dignity,” said Toyoshima-Lewis, a former teacher from Japan. “The way they have treated me and my children has made our trauma from the fire so much worse.”

Toyoshima-Lewis’s account of her treatment comes almost two years after the Grenfell Tower fire, which left 202 households in need of rehousing. She and her children are among the 19 that are still in temporary accommodation, hotels or serviced apartments

Their wait for a permanent home has been beset with problems. The children have multiple food allergies and have had hospital treatment on several occasions after having an adverse reaction to the hotel food.

Toyoshima-Lewis struggled to transfer from her wheelchair to the hotel bed as it was too narrow and she could not reach the keyhole of the hotel room door. Kohana used the bathroom to do her homework in as there was no other quiet space available. She obtained a microwave and said she had to survive on Pot Noodles with the water boiled in the microwave as she was unable to reach the kettle.

After the fire the council promised the family permanent accessible accommodation, but almost two years on she is still waiting for it to be completed. After spending 18 months in hotel accommodation, Toyoshima-Lewis in desperation accepted some temporary accommodation in Ladbroke Grove last December that it is not fully adapted for a wheelchair user

There is a gleaming kitchen that she is unable to use because she cannot reach the sink, stove or cupboards in her wheelchair. Instead the council has installed a table for her to use. The council is understood to now be working to further adapt the accommodation and providing two housing occupational therapists and a personal assistant.

Toyoshima-Lewis and her children moved into Grenfell Tower in July 2016. She is confined to a wheelchair because of a degenerative disc problem and has other health problems.
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Toyoshima-Lewis and her family lived in flat 9 on the third floor of Grenfell Tower. Like the hotel bathroom, her Grenfell front door was too narrow to fit a wheelchair into and she had to leave her electric wheelchair and scooter outside and transfer to a smaller manual wheelchair inside the flat.

On the night of the fire her children and her ex-husband, who was with the family at the time, were rescued first. The children did not want to be separated from their mother but she persuaded them to go with the firefighters. She was terrified she would never see them again.

“I kept smiling at my children,” she said. “I didn’t want them to panic. I told them: ‘Mummy is coming later.’” She demonstrated how she forced herself to smile through her terror to try to keep her children calm. Then she became overwhelmed by vivid memories of that horrific night. “It was so hot, I prayed for my children and for their future,” she said.

For months afterwards her children were too scared to sleep in case they were separated from her again. All are still deeply traumatised and are desperate to move into safe, permanent accommodation.

“The council don’t care about human dignity. I was too ashamed to speak out before about what has been happening to me since the fire but now I want people to know what is going on. Enough is enough

Her solicitor, Albert Harwood of Howe+Co solicitors, said: “Despite assurances from the council that the family would be provided with a fully disabled-adapted permanent home, 22 months later they are still waiting. Mariko is a very private and dignified woman and was very reluctant to share her story publicly. But she felt that for the sake of her children and other disabled people facing similar problems, she had no choice but to speak out.”

A Kensington and Chelsea council spokesperson said: “Our council continues to do all we can to make sure those affected by the Grenfell tragedy receive the care and support they need and that they are rehoused at a pace that suits them. We tried every route to secure more homes quickly. Alongside the home-buying programme, we have been working hard to make the properties we have bought into places that meet families’ needs and that they can call home. We have been working with them to do so in incredibly complex circumstances. We are nearly there, but we will not be rushing the last few families to meet artificial deadlines.”