Housing: Damp, mold and rats plague tenants in Leeds

“I don’t feel happy and I don’t feel safe at home. My house has damp, mold, rats and cockroaches.”

Sarah, who has three children and did not want to give her real name, told the BBC about the reality of raising a family in poor quality housing.

She is one of many tenants who the charity People’s Health Trust says need more help from the next government.

The organization called on the party that wins the general election to do more to tackle housing inequality.

Sarah and her children, all aged under 10, have lived in their terraced house in Leeds for eight years but she is desperate to move.

She says the property, in the suburb of Harehills, is infested with damp, with black marks on the kitchen ceiling, the living room window sill and an upstairs bedroom.

He has asthma, chest infections and worries about the effect mold is having on his family’s health.

She says her landlord is doing “nothing” to combat the damp, which keeps coming back after cleaning up the mold. She repainted the house herself.

The rats in the house are impatient and have chewed up the stair carpet and eaten food from the kitchen. The owner did not replace the carpet or arrange for pest control.

The family of four all sleep in the same room because the children are scared by the noise the rats make.

Sarah said: “My landlord did not help me. The situation is not safe for me or my children. I need another safe and clean home.”

Sarah stayed in privately rented accommodation because she spent seven years on the public housing waiting list. It is currently in priority band B.

There are more than 27,000 households on the Leeds Homes Register, 5,000 of which are in the highest priority band A. Even these families face an average wait of two years for a property, says Leeds City Council.

Bhranti Naik is a project leader for Leeds Muslim Forum, which works with families in the city who need help with housing and other issues.

She said: “We hear a lot about these stories of housing that is substandard and there’s a lot of damp, there’s a lot of mold, there’s pests. These are all issues that need to be resolved sooner rather than later.”

She believes that renters are trapped in such situations because the demand for housing exceeds the supply and because they fear being evicted if they complain to the landlord.

National campaign group People’s Health Trust says Yorkshire and the Humber has the worst living conditions in England, with almost 40% of private rented homes failing to meet recognized standards.

The charity’s chief executive, John Hume, believes around 160,000 families in the region are in similar situations to Sarah’s.

He said: “Having good housing is a fundamental element of health. Dampness and mold produce spores and toxic substances that can lead to really serious respiratory conditions.”

Mr Hume says the People’s Health Trust wants the next party in power to tackle “no-fault evictions” and protect tenants who are afraid to complain about their living conditions.

The charity wants more regulation of standards in the private sector and funding for local councils to enforce the legislation.

Mr Hume added: “Without levels of legislation and enforcement, you will not see things change for people like Sarah and we will see another generation of people whose health is affected by this.”

The major parties have all pledged to reform the rental market and provide more protection for tenants.

Labor wants to scrap “no-fault” evictions and extend Awaab’s Law, which introduced deadlines for repairing social housing properties after Awaab Ishak’s death, to the private sector.

The Conservatives want to pass a bill for tenant reform, and the Liberal Democrats plan to extend leases and introduce controls on rent increases.

The Green Party supports long-term leases and rent controls so that local authorities can intervene in unaffordable housing markets.

The UK reform says it will step up the appeals and enforcement process for tenants with complaints, and the Yorkshire party has called for a regulated “good landlord” system.