A young, single mother was left in a mould-ridden flat with a broken front door for months by her council.
Phoebe Smith, 21, and her one-year-old daughter Isabella have lived in temporary accommodation in Lee Road, Lewisham, for a year.
The 21-year-old was offered the property by Southwark council in January 2024, after she applied for housing support to move out of her mother’s severely overcrowded flat.
She said: “As soon as I arrived it looked like someone had kicked the door in. It was completely smashed.
“There was mould over the walls and furniture and rubbish up the stairs and outside my flat.
“I felt so depressed. I’m a young single mum and they sent me to a place like this, how can they do that?”
Ms Smith said her front door was left broken for months after she moved into the flat with her daughter (Picture: Phoebe Smith)
Ms Smith, who works in a private hospital, said she complained “immediately” to the council about the state of the building.
She said: “It took them five months to fix the front door, nothing else was sorted.
“The building is falling apart.”
Over the past year Ms Smith has faced a series of disrepair issues which she claims pose a risk to her and her daughter’s safety.
She said: “My flat is on the top floor so I have to carry my baby, the buggy and my bags up and down the stairs every day.
“I can’t do it all at once so I have to leave my daughter by herself and then try to climb through all the rubbish that has been left everywhere.
“It’s dangerous for me and her, especially now she can crawl.”
Previously, Ms Smith said her front door had been blocked by other tenants leaving furniture and e-scooters in the hallway.
She said: “I’ve been stuck in the flat before because I couldn’t get the door open. It is a serious fire hazard.”
Furniture, including an e-scooter, piled in the hallway outside of Ms Smith’s flat (Picture: Phoebe Smith)
Having been bidding for a permanent home on the council’s housing list for a year now, Ms Smith says she is losing hope.
She said: “I just feel awful. I could be here for years.
“It feels like they don’t want to help me. They’ve given me a roof over my head and that’s that. But a home is so much more than that.”
When approached for comment, Councillor Helen Dennis said she was “very concerned” to hear about the issues of mould and damp in the private property the council uses for temporary accommodation.
The cabinet member for new homes and sustainable development, said: “We have arranged for Ms Smith to move to alternative accommodation in the next 24 hours and will follow up these concerns, including the rubbish left by previous tenants, with the landlord to ensure the property does not fall short of the standards we expect.
“Sadly there is a very short supply of available council homes given demand, with 18,000 households on our waiting list, meaning that there can be very long waits for suitable, permanent properties.
“The council is proactively building new homes and working with other social and council landlords across the country to raise the issue of the funding formula which supports the supply of council homes with the progress of its Future Council Housing report.”
Pictured top: Mould spread across the ceiling and walls of Phoebe Smith’s temporary accommodation, inset, Phoebe Smith (Picture: Phoebe Smith)