Single mother staying in a council hotel overlooking her son’s cemetery

There is little comfort for those struggling to pay the bills in London and Britain’s housing crisis. The sting of housing desperation was directed at Dorcas Micaba and her two boys, aged five and three.

While being bounced around temporary housing, she said she was placed in a hotel that overlooked the resting place of her third son, who died at birth triggering a wave of depression.

She said: “It was so depressing. Every time I had to go there I just thought about the past and it was really bad. It was awful”.

READ MORE: “Ealing council evicted me weeks after I was stabbed – now I’m sleeping in parks and fearing another attack”

It has now moved to a former office block in Slough called Grand Heights. Here, hundreds of people under the care of Council housing in Redbridge and Tower Hamlets have been shipped out of the capital and away from their homes and communities while they wait for permanent homes to become available.

Originally from Angola, Dorcas lived in Redbridge in 2018 with the father of her first son. They broke up, after which Dorcas said she began a new relationship with the father of her second son. Again, the relationship ended and Dorcas was left alone in a vulnerable position with her two boys.

“I was homeless,” she said, “I had nowhere to go.”

Dorcas became pregnant again during this time, but in December 2020, her son died during childbirth. She said: “I was very stressed. I was depressed. A lot of things were happening.”

Fortunately, the pastor at her church kindly rented a B&B for her for a short time, she said, but it wasn’t a permanent solution. Finally, in 2021, he appealed to Redbridge Council, who found him a shared property in Newham, where he stayed for almost two years. Here she was provided with family support workers but still felt “lonely” and “lonely”.

When she had to move in 2023, she said things had not improved as the family were put up in a hostel in Gants Hill, Ilford. “It was really horrible,” said Dorcas, “There was no fridge and no cooking space for me and my boys. Every time we had to eat out. Even when I tried to contact my housing officer, she did not answer me. “

After this, the Council moved her to another B&B in Aldersbrook, overlooking the City of London Cemetery – where Dorcas’ son was buried in December 2020. She said: “It was still devastating. Another depression set in which brought a lot of anxiety. Even when I wrote to them, they didn’t respond, I told the team I was passing through and that it depressed me again to forget the incident on me every time I pass by.”

After the help of the bereavement team, the Council offered Dorcas and her two boys to come to Grand Heights in Slough, where she now lives with her sons in a one-bedroom flat. “I have to sleep in the same room as my two boys, which is not convenient for me or them,” said Dorcas, “Sometimes they need their privacy and I need my privacy.”

Dorcas’s works are also kept in expensive warehouses or friends’ houses, as she cannot fit everything in their small apartment. “It was hard to move here because in London I have friends, I know people, but here I don’t know anyone,” said Dorcas.

Many people have found it very difficult to move out of London and away from their lives there, such as a 19-year-old single mother facing eviction from her block of flats after rejecting a new placement hundreds of miles north.

What did the board say?

Redbridge Council is battling a housing shortage which has seen more and more people being accommodated outside London in temporary accommodation provided by the Council, the Council said. Homelessness applications to Redbridge have risen by 49% from 2019/20 to 1,417 in 2022/23, according to their records. On average, the waiting list in Redbridge for a three-bedroom property is 16 years.

The lack of availability and affordability in the private rented housing market has increased considerably in 2022/2023 due to the increasing number of landlords leaving the private rented market entirely and the cost of living crisis, the Council said.

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