Carol You have absolutely no idea. None what-so-ever. We have a council house. Which I remain very grateful for, But if you knew half of the difficulties we have been through, it would take a very long post to detail them all. Black mould in a bathroom with sealed windows and no vents is just one of the things we have been living with. I cannot tell you the amount of times I have cried on the phone to the repairs team. We have had housing officers in, technical officers in, and gone through arbitration twice. All incredibly stressful and taxing. At one point, we had no bathing facilities at all save the bathroom sink. It took 3 months yes 3 months, to get an old broken down shower taken out and replaced. I have felt literally powerless, uncared for and yes hurt.
How do you think it feels when you have walls so damp you have furry fungus growing on it, and water dripping from your hallway ceiling, and you take your 'people power' and you go through all the channels, patiently, you call in your housing officer, you call in technical surveyors, you call the repair team and they all omm and ah and say xyz will be done and then nothing is done. You feel like you mean shit. You know what one technical surveyor told me after I mentioned the mould in the bathroom and hallway? He said 'just run the cold water before using hot' his entire tone was 'stop making a fuss, you should be grateful I've even come to have a look'.
You feel even shittier when your neighbours who own their flats talk to the same housing officers about some vanity project and they get the ball rolling and 'community' funds unlocked for unimportant crap like hanging baskets on the walls more or less straight away, all Whilst your roof needs fixing, your kitchen is so old it no longer complies with modern safety standards (and you are told it is 'acceptable' by an expert on behalf of the council, and find out later it needs 'complete reconfiguring' because its so dangerous) your drains are constantly blocking and your guttering doubles as a water sprinkler and money can't be found?
After years of complaints we are now having major works. But in estates like mine with mixed council and shared ownership we have a conflict of interest. The home owners resent the bill (which I sympathise with to a point) and have opposed most of it, paying for independent assessments (the estate shares a communal roof) which has held up the work. I do not feel I have the clout they do. I have no doubt the council, in trying to please them has taken the cheapest contractor possible using the most 'cost effective' materials. Now after complaints, drains and guttering are not included in this initial refurb and have been put off to 'further consultation later'.
It really can be a struggle and very intimidating to get things done, to get things moving to talk to professionals who insist things are fine when they are not. And I am reasonably articulate, able to write letters etc.
I am absolutely livid over what has happened to those poor people in Grenfel. I was ready to march with them yesterday but had concerns about possible violence which I would not have blamed them for. And there are hundreds of thousands of people I'm sure who can identify. I can honestly say had any of my family or friends been caught up in that I'd be ready to commit murder. They have been so failed.
And of course its political. RTB and the reduction of affordable council stock, no incentive to replace them, is why homes cannot even be guaranteed in a borough like KC for the residents who are homeless! Ridiculous!
Plus the media narrative of renters as losers in life, takers, and benefit free loading scum. It has been out of hand for some time now. Yet broadly tolerated, absorbed regurgitated as truth. How many programs on people on benefits has channel 5 and channel 4 and the BBC run in the past two years? I think channel 5 had 'benefits by the fucking sea' or some shite at one point.
Really something like this was always just a matter of time. And yes I mostly hold the Tories accountable, despite not wanting to actually, politics is never black and white, I know that. However, it is not a coincidence that the party has embraced a leader incapable of at least pretending empathy for those with lives less blessed than hers, and hasn't until now, had a problem with it. Because it cannot see a problem with it. It hasn't been deemed important or necessary.