Evicted single mum ‘feels hopeless’ after moving between west London hotels for 6 months

A single mother who works in an NHS hospital in London has been left hopeless and depressed after spending almost six months in temporary accommodation with her two children. Carleen Tsolu, 40, who is an NHS worker, has been moving around west London hotels since January with her two children, one of whom has special needs.

“All my life I have worked since I have been in this country. I went to my university, I worked, I never stopped working and I don’t understand how people work and don’t get the help they need,” she said.

“My daughter has to do her GCSEs living in a hotel room, that’s not good. And my son, who was also doing his SATs in May, has had to struggle to do that living in a hotel and has special needs too.

Read more: Desperate single mothers forced miles outside London in housing crisis

“They have to eat junk food just because they live here. It is very depressing and makes me feel very depressed. I went to my GP with constant headaches and was asked to have a CT scan, so there are so many little things going on.”

Ms Tsolu and her family were moved to different hotels in west London. She was in hotels in both Park Royal and Wembley for a month each before being told to move back to Park Royal for a few months. She was then moved back to Ealing for just a week, before being told to move to Kew Gardens at short notice, at just 5pm the day before.

“I work so hard as a single mother, my kids go to school here, I’ve been in the neighborhood for 16 years, I haven’t gotten any help and it’s very very hard and I’m very ashamed that there’s no communication. from them (the council),” she said.

“If this continues I will have to leave my job”

Kew Bridge, where Ms Tsolu and her family have recently moved, is further from her children’s school and her workplace. She added: “I have told the council that if this continues then I will have to leave my job. There’s no point coming to work and then having to go in the middle of work and move things to live somewhere else.”

Ms Tsolu was evicted from her private home by her landlord when they decided to sell the property. She then went to Ealing Council to ask for help, which offered her the option to stay in a shared unit. Mrs Tsolu felt this would be difficult given her youngest child has special needs, so they were moved to temporary hotel accommodation.

Ms Tsolu also had to pay high fees for parking at hotels. At her current hotel in Kew Bridge, she has to pay £9 a day. Also, she frequently has to pay for late check-out. “It’s very hard to live in a hotel where you can’t move anywhere, you’re only in one place. In a hotel you just sit on the bed without moving,” she said.

“Another appalling example of London’s housing crisis woes”

A spokesman for Ealing Council said: “We are sorry for Mrs Tsolu’s situation. We accepted Ms Tsolu’s homelessness claim in January this year and she is waiting to be placed in long-term accommodation. This is another appalling example of the personal hardships now faced by people in Ealing, London and the country as a direct result of the national housing crisis.

“Ealing is at the brunt of this crisis, with mortgage rates rising, landlords raising rents and many more landlords selling up and leaving the rental market altogether. This forces families to become homeless for the first time in their lives, giving them no choice but to turn to us for help.

“In the past year, more than 4,500 local households approached us as homeless – the highest rate in the region – and we have a legal duty to support almost 3,200 of them. Given the dramatic decline in the number of suitable rental properties available and historically high levels of demand, there are simply no homes to put people into. All we can do is put people in an expensive, inappropriate hotel.

“We urge Ms Tsolu to contact us so that we can ensure that together we do everything we can to find more suitable accommodation.”

Don’t miss the biggest news from West London. Sign up to our MyWestLondon newsletter HERE for all the latest daily news and more.