We’re being evicted from our tower block homes but we WON’T budge… it’s a derelict ghost town but we love it here
FURIOUS tenants are refusing to leave their homes after their Labour council landlord served them no-fault eviction notices.
Hundreds of people - including those who are vulnerable and disabled - say they will soon be homeless after being ordered to leave their flats.
Those in Fenwick, Central Hill, Cressingham Gardens, South Lambeth and Westbury estates in London were told the sites are earmarked for regeneration and they have to leave.
Tenants said that 163 families are being kicked out and they estimate this amounts to around 500 people, "shattering" their close-knit community.
The local authority said 70 per cent of the flats have been taken back, and 46 of these are being rented out to those most in need.
The fuming residents hit out at Lambeth Council for being "hypocritical" as it voted to end no-fault evictions in 2019.
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The council said they can simply move elsewhere - but the residents say this isn't true.
They are living in the cheapest housing in the borough, which has a massive housing shortage, and have no where else to go.
It's like living in a ghost town.
'It's like living in a ghost town.'
Jules Zakolska
When The Sun visited the estates, it was easy to see why those who have stayed are calling it a "ghost town", with the doors and windows of empty flats boarded up with metal coverings.
The colourful children's playgrounds lay empty, and furniture is scattered about from those who have left.
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Residents said flowerbeds and benches in their green spaces have already been taken away.
Jules Zakolska, 26, and her partner July Kaliszewski, 23, have lived on Fenwick Estate for three years with their pet cat.
They told the estate agent they wanted a long-term home, and it was a relief to get the flat after living in a crowded, mouldy studio flat previously.
Fenwick Estate had "lovely" communal gardens with benches but the couple said the benches have been taken away.
July said: "It was such a nice community, one woman has lived here for 33 years."
When they moved in their rent was £1,200 but after a year this was put up to £1,300.
Then after another year, the couple were told they have to leave.
So far they have refused to go and are fighting the eviction - but even if they win the battle they are worried about further rent hikes.
Jules said: "I got my Section 21 last week. I’m disabled and right now I’m only a few minutes from a tube station.
"If I move I’ll be trapped inside all day even more than I am now.
"I used to be in an overcrowded studio with mould and no ventilation and it took me six months to find a place.
"The rent is sky high. This is the cheapest housing in the borough. Labour want to ban no fault evictions - but Labour is doing this to us."
'NO-FAULT' EVICTIONS BAN
Sir Keir Starmer promised to ban Section 21 "no-fault" evictions and this is expected to happen by the summer.
But the deadline has meant a flood of landlords are mass evicting people while they still can - including Labour-run Lambeth Council.
Tenants slammed this as "hypocritical" and said they face being made homeless because they can't afford to go anywhere else.
The council's housing developer Homes for Lambeth is Jules's landlord.
She said: "I didn’t know the council was behind this until I Googled it.
"That’s how I found out it was earmarked for regeneration. The council say renting to us was a short term solution - they didn’t tell us that.
"We told the estate agent we wanted somewhere long term and put it in our application."
After the months-long struggle to find her flat in Lambeth, she doesn't think she can find another place to live that she can afford.
"This is the cheapest housing in the borough," she said.
"They think if they evict us we can just go somewhere else but we can’t. There is no where else we can afford to go.
"They’re all on huge salaries and not even elected and they’re ruining hundreds of lives.
"It’s 500 people across five estates. It’s vulnerable people, people with families."
She said one flat was boarded up when she moved in and it has been renovated three times since - without anyone living there.
"It’s like living in a ghost town - we have no neighbours."
I don't blame people for moving out.
Jules Zakolska
Pointing down one dark alleyway with boarded up doors, she said: "Look at this, I don’t blame people for moving out.
"At first there were squatters going from flat to flat, but the council was very on it and did board them up very quickly after that."
Conor Crooks, 26, helped co-organise the campaign against the eviction.
He said many in his block have families and are worried about the disruption to their children's lives.
"They can’t be moving around disrupting them, trying to get into schools."
He said the estates were "perfectly fine" to live in until the council stopped investing in the upkeep.
"Now they’re rotting and falling into disrepair, it’s managed decline.
"The council have tried very hard to avoid legally evicting us. They told us our contract wasn’t being renewed and we needed to move.
"When we started to fight back we all got months and months of scary letters and some people were understandably scared off by that.
"Now they’ve been forced to give us Section 21 notices this week. It’s been a ridiculous situation. We shouldn’t be in this situation."
The council said the estates are desperately needed to house homeless people in the borough - but those being evicted said that they will become homeless as a result of the Section 21s.
According to Freedom of Information requests, the council has 700 empty properties in the borough.
The tenants being kicked out of their homes are frustrated, asking why those houses can't be used instead.
RESIDENTS FACE HOMELESSNESSS
Last year, Joanna Krawczyk, 45, was evicted from one of the estates by Lambeth Council and found herself homeless.
Just days after unpacking their furniture and belongings, Joanna, her husband and three young children were sent an eviction email.
She rented her three-bedroom flat in Gipsy Hill, south London, for £1,700 a month.
Joanna, whose children are three, five and 17, said that her mental health took a severe turn and she lost clients and was unable to work.
She said that her family has "suddenly become a poor family" and she is on Universal Credit whilst searching for a new job.
Another resident, who is launching legal action against Lambeth Council, said: "The community we have built will be shattered by the council’s callous decision to evict them."
Their lawyer, PILC solicitor Alexandra Goldenberg, said: “Lambeth’s decision to rent these properties on the private market is unlawful and has created a devastating impact on hundreds of residents across the borough who have been evicted or are facing eviction.
"This is yet another chapter in a troubling history of estate ‘regeneration’ schemes that have disregarded the rights of residents and communities. It is time for Lambeth to take responsibility and do the right thing, starting with an immediate halt to all evictions."
A Lambeth Council spokesperson said: “The council has more than 4,700 homeless households in often unsuitable and expensive temporary accommodation. This is unacceptable and unsustainable, with the cost resulting in financial pressure impacting on all council services. We need to use all means at our disposal to provide the most disadvantaged and vulnerable families in Lambeth with a safe, decent home.
“These properties were rented to private tenants, at market rents, on a fixed-term basis. This was only ever intended to be for the short term. We now need to use these properties for those with most urgent need for housing.
“So far, 70 per cent of the properties have been returned to the council, and we are working as quickly as we can to relet them to households in most need; 46 properties have already been relet to residents who had been waiting for a home on the housing waiting list or in unsuitable temporary accommodation.
“We are committed to helping Assured Shorthold Tenancy (AST) tenants whose circumstances require a statutory housing duty.
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"And where a household in one of these homes is owed a housing duty, we will assess their needs and will consider if they can continue to live at the same property as repurposed temporary accommodation, until suitable long-term accommodation is found for them.”
Have you been affected by this issue? Email emily.davies@mcb777.fun
