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HOUSING CRISISHow many times is too many times for a one-year-old baby to be hospitalised due to a damp and mould-ridden home?
It’s been more than three years since the death of two-year-old Awaab Ishak from a respiratory condition caused by damp and mould in the flat where he lived – and yet the state of the housing crisis continues to throw up shocking stories of children living in horror homes.
Dareen Nuru turned one this month but has already been hospitalised six times due to the mould-infested and overcrowded one-bedroom home she shares with six other members of her family in the London borough of Lambeth.
Medical professionals linked breathing difficulties that have hospitalised Dareen to the conditions in her family home and have warned of a “disaster waiting to happen”. Dareen’s twin sister Haneen has also suffered respiratory problems, while seven-year-old Lujian has allergies linked to the damp condition of the flat.
The story has parallels to the death of the two-year-old Awaab – whose story shocked the nation after he died in December 2020.
Dareen’s dad Amin Nuru told The Big Issue that comparisons between the two cases are “scary” and “very dangerous”.
The situation has sparked anger. Around 60 campaigners from Housing Action Southwark and Lambeth (HASL) occupied Lambeth Council’s offices on 12 January, singing happy birthday to Dareen and brandishing banners reading ‘no more overcrowding’.
HASL’s Elizabeth Wyatt said: “What are the family supposed to do? They cannot simply wait for their baby daughter to be hospitalised again.”
Homes and health
The health implications of poor-quality homes are extensive. The Building Research Establishment estimates that leaving people in the poorest housing in England costs the NHS an estimated £1.4 billion annually.
Meanwhile new research from the End Fuel Poverty Coalition showed nearly 5,000 excess deaths last winter were caused by cold and damp homes. Georgia Whitaker, Greenpeace UK’s climate campaigner, described the figure as a “national scandal”.
The Westminster government has promised action to implement Awaab’s Law – which could mean new legal requirements for social landlords to investigate hazards within 14 days, start fixing within a further seven days and make emergency repairs within 24 hours.
It will bolster the protections social housing tenants receive under the Decent Homes Standard, which crea
