Enfield Council has told the family of seven – who are victims of domestic abuse – that it will be “discharging its duty” to house them, reports James Cracknell

A homeless family with five children stuck living in a hotel for over a year fear they could be thrown out on to the streets at any moment.

The family – a grandmother, mother and five children aged between seven and 15 – were made homeless after they fled domestic abuse in December 2022 and have now spent two successive Christmases living in an East London hotel.

Because of the threats to their safety, they cannot be named, but the Dispatch met the family this week to hear their story.

Like hundreds of Enfield families over the last 18 months, the family has spent far longer than the six-week legal limit holed up in what is called emergency ‘bed and breakfast’ accommodation, which is seen as a last resort but has become increasingly relied upon by Enfield Council following a collapse in the availability of affordable private rented housing in the borough since late 2022.

After 14 months spent in living in hotels, the mother told the Dispatch why she now fears their situation is about to get even worse. “In January the council offered us a house in Redbridge – they put pressure on us and threatened us with eviction [from the hotel] if we didn’t accept.

“Even though it would be a two-hour journey for my daughter to get to school, we accepted it.”

Since last summer, in a bid to slash its enormous spending on temporary accommodation – which at one point hit £850,000 per month – the council has begun enacting a new policy in which families in hotels are made only one offer of housing before discharging its legal duty to put a roof over their heads.

The family in East London took “a few days” to consider the offer they were made last month because of the implications it would have for the daughter, who is about to take her GCSE exams. The offer was also sent to them at a time when the daughter was in hospital being treated for complications with a long-term health condition and this made it difficult to respond quickly.

But despite their concerns, they decided to accept the Redbridge offer as a way to leave the hotel. “Then they said it was too late and they told us no other offer will be made to us,” the mother said. “We sent the tenancy agreement to everyone and we got a response it was successfully sent but after that they wrote to us that it was too late.

“The council is very threatening to us – they said they will not make any more offers to us. We were told we would be thrown out on to the street.”

Describing what it has been like to live in a hotel for over a year, she said her seven-person family was being forced to share two three-person rooms. “There is not enough sleeping space for us, the kids are too big to share beds and they are falling off the bed because there is no space,” she said.

“My daughter is going through puberty and shouldn’t have to share with her younger brothers, she shouldn’t have to put up with this.”

As well as the daughter’s condition, one of the sons has a health problem that requires surgery to fix. The grandmother in the family was also recently taken to hospital by ambulance after falling seriously ill at the hotel.

Despite this, the grandmother continues to work at a restaurant as it’s the only income the family has. The mother said: “I am living with this stress while trying to be a mother for my children and look after my mum.

“All the time they [the council] make you feel guilty and they put blame on us that it is our fault we are here and it is our choice – that we deserve it. They said we should be grateful.”

In response a council spokesperson said the offer of temporary accommodation in Redbridge was made on 12th January, although the family disputes this and say they did not receive it until the 15th.

The spokesperson added: “We made contact again on 17th January explaining if the offer of temporary accommodation was not accepted by 2pm on 18th January, we would have no choice other than to end our duty to the family.

“We have many residents who urgently need a home. Our single offer policy has been in place for some months and has been widely communicated. We encourage all residents to be ready to accept their offer as we have very limited options that come through.”

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