A DISABLED mum-of-four has revealed her family was left to live in a mouldy house with a raw sewage leak for six weeks.
Anaya Hinton, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, a compromised immune system and uses a wheelchair, was forced to live in squalor while her housing association looked for alternative adapted accommodation.
The 33-year-old has lived with her husband and four children in a townhouse in Stratford, east London, since 2014.
The layout of the house is adapted to suit her needs, and a lift was installed so that Anaya, who cannot stand or walk, could easily access all floors of her home.
But in early February, the Hintons were informed of a leak in a neighbouring house and huge wet patches began to form behind the furniture on the ground floor of their home, with greying damp developing in the corner of the rooms.
Anaya said she immediately contacted her landlord, housing association Triathlon Homes, but over the next few days the damp spread.
Water started coming through the floor in the hallway, and attempts to mop it up with towels did little to help.
Anaya said: "There was never a mention of a sewage leak at that time, everyone I spoke to just told me it was a 'leak' and that they would get it sorted.
"They told us to remove all of our furniture from downstairs and move it upstairs, and that they would rehouse us – but we were told we could be rehoused anywhere in London under Southern Housing's remit."
Once furniture was moved upstairs, Anaya could no longer access the first floor of her home so was essentially stuck in her bedroom on the ground floor of the house where the damp and mould was at its worst.
Meanwhile, Anaya's children, who were all home-schooling – with one studying for GCSEs – were sharing bedrooms upstairs.
Anaya said: "It wasn't until we left the house and went back in that we noticed the smell. It just hit me. It was so bad.
"The head of housing came round and when she walked through the door she was covering her nose because the smell was so horrendous, the mould and damp was halfway up the wall."
Triathlon Homes said it was a "complicated case" so it would take time to find them alternative housing, but Anaya said there was little help offered in the meantime.
She said the difficulties of lockdown as an immunocompromised person with four school-age children meant the mould problem hit the family hard.
They wanted to remain living in Stratford's East Village, where the children all go to school, and it took almost six weeks for Triathlon Homes to find them a new house.
'HORRENDOUS'
In mid-March, the Hinton family were "forcefully" offered another temporary home within East Village, which is managed by Get Living.
Anaya said Triathlon Homes told her if they didn't take it they could be moved to the other side of London.
The association also "went quiet" when Anaya questioned them about whether the house was adapted for wheelchair users, she claimed.
"We'd been through my health problems, the fact that I am a wheelchair user and need adaptations in my property like a hoist to get into my bed," she said.
"We understand that it's difficult to place a family of six, especially during the pandemic, so I said that if they don't have an adapted property then a home on one floor would be fine, a hotel room, anything just so that we were out of the mouldy house.
"We were just told again that if we don't take the property there was nowhere else they can put us, so we just had to take it."
The head of housing came round and when she walked through the door she was covering her nose because the smell was so horrendous, the mould and damp was halfway up the wall.
Despite not being adapted for Anaya's mobility needs, on March 15 Anaya and her family settled into their temporary new home.
She explained that since there is no lift or stairlift in the property, to access the first floor she has to go out of the front door, enter the adjacent apartment block, use the lift in the block to go into the courtyard which her garden backs onto, and enter through the back door.
And with no accessible bathroom or hoist to get into bed, Anaya is fully reliant on her husband to care for her which limits the hours he can work.
She also has no access to the second floor, where her children's bedrooms are, which she says is a huge concern for her.
Anaya has been told that it will take nine to 12 months for the raw sewage leak in her old home to be fixed and the property refurbished.
In the meantime, she hopes to get a stairlift installed through her insurance company so that she can access all floors of the new property.
Anaya said: "We all still pay rent, we all still pay bills, just because we're housing association tenants doesn't mean we don't deserve a suitable place to live."
Richard Clogg, head of resident experience for Get Living at East Village, said: "We are working with Triathlon Homes to understand how we can facilitate any changes that are needed for the resident to help make her and her family feel more comfortable and at home in their temporary accommodation."
Kath King, managing director at Triathlon Homes, said: "We were first alerted to the situation at the end of February after contractors working on the estate identified a problem with damp in one of the properties in the East Village estate.
"The estate management company responded with investigation and work to remedy the situation. Unfortunately, a damaged waste pipe was discovered as the cause and residents were asked to temporarily move out. This only became clear in March.
"We completely understand and sympathise with all those people who were affected by this situation. We know that to having to relocate, even temporarily, is hugely disruptive, especially if there are school age children in the household.
"As a responsible landlord and housing provider, we always do everything we can to minimise the disruption and inconvenience and we try to ensure the temporary accommodation is suitable for the households involved. Finding somewhere suitable for our residents’ needs can take time and some situations take longer than others to resolve.
"Nevertheless, we are pleased to confirm that in this instance, the resident was able to move into a temporary new home elsewhere in East Village on March 20."
A fundraiser has been set up to help replace furniture ruined by the leak, which also damaged irreplaceable photographs and documents.
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