Please use this quick online tool to support our HASL member Sonia and her family who have been forced to live in severely overcrowded temporary accommodation for over a year. Hackney council must find them bigger temporary accommodation now!

Sonia explains:

“The conditions are really hard for all of us, especially my daughter. All this time she has not had her own space and it is really stressful for her. She doesn’t have a quiet space to study because the only space is a small table next to the kitchen where I am cooking. Because we are living on top of each other, my children fight when my son disturbs my daughter. We just need enough space so we can live in peace.

I feel like the council are using the legal process to keep us there as long as possible. Everything has taken so long even though I have done everything quickly, the council keep finding ways to drag it out.”

Back in September 2023, Hackney council housed Sonia and her 17 year old son and 12 year old daughter in a studio flat as temporary accommodation. After Sonia challenged this and threatened legal action, the family were moved in January 2024...to a small 1 bedroom flat!

The council's own rules describe this as being 'severely overcrowded', and yet they are insisting that it is ‘suitable’ for Sonia and her family. Sonia has been forced to take the council to court to fight for better housing conditions for her family and to stop Hackney lowering standards for all homeless families.

The severe overcrowding is having serious impacts on the family. Sonia and her daughter are stuck in the kitchen-living room all the time where they must eat, study, sleep and try to have some leisure time. Her daughter’s sleep is regularly disturbed by her brother sneaking into the kitchen for snacks and from other noises in the kitchen. And the usual tensions between siblings are harder to diffuse causing a stressful atmosphere for everyone.

Sonia’s 12 year old daughter explains:

“In the first temporary flat we lived in there were a lot of mice and no privacy for nobody. But when we moved, I thought it would be better, but it is still the same. We don’t have enough space. My older brother has his own room, but me and my mom don’t. Even though we are both girls, we want our privacy. We sleep right next to the kitchen area, and my brother always comes to get something when I’m trying to sleep and makes a lot of noise. And there’s an extractor fan right next to our beds that makes so much noise. It makes a “bomb” sound when the wind blows, and takes so long to stop.”

Let Hackney council know that this is not OK! Hackney council must find the family bigger temporary accommodation in their local community!