'Filthy' temporary housing issues 'will not happen again'

When Damon was shown his new room in Oldham, he claims the building’s manager put his head in his hands and apologised.

It was in a state.

An unhinged door was propped up in the middle of the room surrounded by piles of sawdust, the walls were ‘smeared in red and brown stains’ and, according to Damon, there was unflushed human faeces left in the bathroom toilet bowl.

“It’s disgusting. It made me feel like I was the bottom of the barrel,” he told the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

The 30-year-old, whose name has been changed, has fallen on hard times.

After a long-term relationship fell apart and a struggle with mental health caused the man from Oldham to lose his job, Damon ended up homeless.

This room was the latest in a string of temporary lodgings, most of which he’d not stayed in for longer than six weeks before being moved to somewhere new by the council.

“But I never experienced anything like this. The others were pretty basic – one was a hotel without a kitchen. But with this place – it was so bad I had to go sleep in my car for a week,” Damon said.

“When you’re already having a hard time, it makes you feel like you’re nothing.

"You’re made to feel like you should be happy for whatever they give you.

"But we shouldn’t have to live like this.”

The state of the temporary housing, whose address we have decided not to publish due to a number of vulnerable residents living there, left Damon feeling ‘crushed’ – at a time when he is already at the most uncertain part of his life.

“They tell you to hold on and it’ll get better, but you’re left asking yourself – when?” Damon said.

“It just gets worse and worse. I’ll always try my best with the circumstances I’m in.

"But I do need some help. And this feels like the opposite.”

The diabetes sufferer said he also felt physically ‘at risk’ after he was unable to heat up a meal in the ‘rusty and mouldy’ microwave in his room.

“I was put in a situation where my blood sugar levels dropped low.

"I’d bought a microwave meal thinking I could use the microwave in the room.

"But it was so horrible, I couldn’t put my food in there.

"I can’t drive when my levels are low, so I had to walk to the nearest shop, which is a good five to ten minutes.

“By the time I got there I was feeling really light-headed.

"My legs just weren’t underneath me.

"I was scared I was going to pass out. It made me panic.

"It could have ended really badly and I shouldn’t have been in that situation.

"I also had to bin the meal in the end, which when money is tight, you know, that’s money I could have saved.”

Though there is a shared kitchen for the ten residents, Damon says he ‘was never shown where it is’.

He claims he made several complaints to the temporary housing provider, Howarth Housing, and to the council but ‘no real action was taken’.

The building’s owner Ben Howarth told the LDRS candidly that the room was handed to Damon in a poor state after a ‘series of cock-ups’.

Several weeks prior, police officers broke down the door to the room to arrest a man in relation to a firearms incident, GMP have confirmed.

Contractors, which Howarth claims were arranged by GMP, came to fix the door, and once the work was completed, the room was accidentally marked as ‘ready’, even though no other maintenance and cleaning work had been completed in the room.

Since being contacted by the LDRS, Howarth Housing has replaced the microwave and moved Damon into new accommodation.

Howarth said: “As part of a scheduled move a resident was allocated to a new property moving from his original property at another building in the same area.

“These moves happen frequently due to changes in demand, requirements and the shortage of available property.

"In this instance an administrative error had occurred whereby a property had been changed to show as ready when it was still under refurbishment.

“When staff attended the property with the resident it was clear that an error had occurred, the resident was immediately offered to return to his original property while this issue was rectified however this was rejected with the resident telling staff that he was going to stay with friends for a few nights.

“Cleaners attended the property the next day and removed the items and conducted a clean.

“Unfortunately as the property was due for refurbishment, but now under occupation we were not able to conduct any redecoration as we are not permitted to conduct refurbishments when residents are in placement due to Health and Safety instructions.

"The walls had scuff marks and signs of age present which was one of the reasons it was scheduled for refurbishment.

“The resident was not happy with this resolution so cleaners attended again and conducted another clean, and a new Microwave was provided.

“Due to the significant pressure of providing homeless accommodation especially at the moment and severe shortages of available property, unfortunately the resident did have to wait two weeks for a new property with us became available.

“As a smaller not for profit provider we provide accommodation for local authorities.

"We take the safety and wellbeing of our residents very seriously and is part of our core values, however in this instance a mistake occurred and we failed to live up to the standards we expect in all of our properties.

“The resident was moved to one of our larger properties that had been more recently refurbished, a full written and personal apology was provided with the Managing Director delivering the apology in person.

"A financial request was agreed, however the resident refused to move to his new property until this had been finalised.

“Additionally our internal software has been updated to prevent this type of admin error occurring again.

"All issues have now been resolved and this sort of mistake will not happen again.”

---

Do you have a story for us? Want to tell us about something going on in and around Oldham? Let us know by emailing news@oldham-chronicle.co.uk , calling our Oldham-based newsroom on 0161 633 2121 , tweeting us @oldhamchronicle or messaging us through our Facebook page. All contact will be treated in confidence.