Grenfell Tower Survivors Sleeping Rough, Claims MP

Some of the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire have been sleeping in their cars and in parks, the MP for Kensington, Emma Dent Coad, has claimed. She said there is “total chaos” in the borough following the fire that left at least 79 people dead and dozens more injured.

Speaking at a Justice for Grenfell march on Monday night, Ms. Coad told Sky News: “People have been sleeping in cars and in parks because they don’t know where to go and they aren’t being looked after. Secondly, they need to be re-housed permanently and thirdly they need a long-term care package – people who’ll always be there for them.”

The government has so far handed out a total of £202,000 to 180 families who were directly affected by the Grenfell Tower fire. It is part of the newly set up Grenfell Response Team that is managing the official response and support operation following the tragedy. The payments are being split between £500 cash and £5,000, which will go directly into bank accounts.

So far, 126 hotel places have been found for residents while 78 families have been assessed and are due to be placed in properties that are local or in the neighbouring borough. The Grenfell Response Team said in a statement: “Work is taking place to assess the housing needs of all Grenfell Tower and Grenfell Walk families to identify suitable accommodation in Kensington and Chelsea and neighbouring boroughs.” They added: “We have endeavoured to keep accommodation as local as possible, and we completely accept residents’ wishes to remain close to the community.”

But David Lammy, MP, has received an email from a local councillor who claims that victims, who don’t want to be re-housed in other high rises or far out of London, face being deemed intentionally homeless. It suggests survivors of the blaze are being offered places as far away as Preston and those who refuse are threatened with being put at the bottom of the housing list because “they are making themselves voluntarily homeless”.

The email also said part of the reason it was so hard to confirm the numbers who had died was residents had been subletting their flats. The councillor called this “a direct function of housing crisis. This is why the death toll is unknown. Nobody even knows their names.”

Social housing lawyer Jayesh Kunwardia said the Royal Borough of Kensington And Chelsea (RBKC) should revoke its housing policy for the Grenfell Tower survivors and commit to finding each of them suitable accommodation. He said the council’s existing policy left him concerned that even people who refused accommodation for personal reasons, such as they were staying with family instead, could be designated “intentionally homeless”.

Kunwardia, a partner at London law firm Hodge Jones & Allen, said: “I’ve already spoken to a number of former Grenfell Tower residents who have refused the offer of temporary accommodation outside of the borough and have opted to stay with family or friends instead. I’m worried that former Grenfell Tower residents, who have very good reasons for refusing an offer of accommodation, because of potential difficulties with work, schooling, medical appointments or their social network, may be penalised as a result. It seems to me that there is a lack of transparency by RBKC on the legal rights available to the victims of this tragic disaster.”

He added: “No resident should be at risk of losing their right to be housed if they refuse accommodation that is unsuitable.”