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Desperate fundraiser as 15 families face eviction
A mother creates a fundraiser for families facing eviction in Stonebridge.
A “desperate” NHS worker Claudia Hayles has launched a mortgage fundraiser as she and 15 neighbours face mass eviction from their homes in Stonebridge.
Nurse Claudia is one of 15 households facing eviction from Prospect House in May after receiving notice in November. Eighteen adults and 18 children and babies currently live in the block and have no idea where they are going next.
The flats are let to homeless families on a five-year lease arrangement, according to council documents and managed by Shepherd’s Bush Housing Association.
Claudia has a 15-year-old daughter and a son aged nine, said it is a “desperate situation”: “Brent Council told us to look for private accommodation and they will pay the deposit but I work for the NHS full time and I just don’t earn enough to meet the criteria for renting a private property.”
Brent Council approved a planning application in 2019 to build four additional floors containing a further 28 self-contained flats.
However, they face eviction because the buildings’ owner is now redeveloping the site. SBHA said all tenants had been referred back to Brent Council.
Claudia said, “we were all taken off the bidding system the day we accepted the property”. She currently pays £1,308 a month for her two-bed flat and receives a benefit ‘top-up’ as she says many of the other families do.
She has had no luck with estate agents; those she has spoken to say she needs a guarantor: “I was shocked when I initially started looking [to buy a property]. They asked me what my annual income was and said I don’t qualify unless I have savings of £20,000 or £30,000 to buy a property and I will need two guarantors and I don’t know anybody.”
She has launched a GoFundMe page to try and raise the deposit needed, having been on Brent’s housing register since 2013 and moved twice in that time. She said. ”A lot of people are going through this and are not brave enough to come forward. It’s a mother’s cry for help.”
https://www.gofundme.com/f/nhs-nurse-in-desperate-need
Darren said “We know this is worrying and, as a social landlord, we never want people to be worried about where they live.
“We lease Prospect House from a private landlord who, after five years, does not want to renew the lease.
“This, unfortunately, means we needed to start a legal process to hand back their building.
“Even after the six-month notice expires in May, there will be further legal steps which could take many months to complete so there is no risk of imminent eviction.”
SBHA says they contacted Ms. Hayles about key worker accommodation which she may be eligible for.
The research, conducted by the LSE for the Trust for London charitable foundation, says the areas could affect as many as 700,000 tenants and their landlords. The current number of private tenants in rent arrears in England in the next 12 months.
These arrears could be expected to lead to at least three times the number of formal evictions as before the crisis, resulting in around 50,000 over the coming year.
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