London Family forced into bedsit where 13 share a bathroom

A homeless mother with a disabled daughter and three other children has been allocated to a bedsit house in which she says up to 13 people share one bathroom.

- Robert Booth

The London borough of Waltham Forest assigned the family two rooms in the private rented house even though it is not licensed as a house of multiple occupation (HMO) and appears to breach its own overcrowding limits. She is being forced to live there because she cannot find anywhere affordable to rent.

The mother and her two youngest children occupy one ground-floor room and her teenage son and daughter are in an upstairs room.

Her youngest daughter has epilepsy, is doubly incontinent and has learning disabilities. There is no space for her to relax other than on her bed and getting her to the toilet is difficult. Getting enough sleep for her youngest son to concentrate at school, never mind finding somewhere quiet for homework, is impossible, she said. He keeps falling asleep in class.

Recently a new family moved in and soon there were police in the house. She said the front door was sometimes left open and her room was damp.