HACKNEY Council paid a private hostel almost £1 million to provide temporary accommodation in 2019, despite concerns about the building’s safety and condition, Hackney Post can reveal.
Residents of the Ridley Villas complex on Ridley Road have described mould, damp, cramped rooms and bedbugs at the hostel, which serves as temporary accommodation for those who would otherwise be homeless.
Council accounts show that Hackney paid Ridley Villas Limited an average of £75,000 per month to provide temporary accommodation for some Hackney’s most vulnerable.
Left to rot
“A lot of people feel like they’ve been left to rot in here,” said Alex Armitage, a local activist and Green Party campaigner.
“While the council needs this kind of temporary accommodation, it’s being administered so badly here that it’s actually causing harm to people.”
He continued: “It feels like the council should be taking some bold radical action on this and looking into a compulsory purchase order, but politicians like Diane Abbott don’t have to campaign in Hackney and deal with the concerns of residents because it’s such a safe seat.”
According to the Ministry for Housing, Hackney Council spent £208 per head on temporary accommodation last year – the most of any council and 10 times the national average. The vast majority of the £58 million annual spend goes to private landlords.
Ridley Villas Limited is majority-owned and operated by East End property tycoon Henry Smith.
Payday loan company
Previously, Mr Smith was majority stakeholder of payday loan company CFO lending, a company that in 2016 was ordered by the Financial Conduct Authority to pay back more than £34m to customers it overcharged and plagued with threatening texts.
Tyrone Scott, a local Green Party organiser, said “It is an absolute scandal that the people who own these hostels are taking the full amount of housing benefit off the council and Hackney’s council tax payers, when conditions in these hostels are far below what most people would want to live in”.
“Whilst Ridley Villas passed the minimum legal requirements for habitation at its last inspection, as someone who has worked in this field I’d be the first to say those requirements need to be raised,” said Peter Snell, a Labour councillor for Dalston.
High crime rate
Crime has been another difficulty in the building; according to a freedom of information request police were called to the site some 528 times, making 42 arrests, between 2011 and 2017.
One resident with terminal lung cancer told local activists he carried a knife in order to defend himself in the building.
Ray Forbes, an adviser to Ridley Villas Limited speaking on behalf of the company, told Hackney Post that the building was “constantly maintained and reviewed” and suggested problems like mould arose from the age of the building or were caused by the tenants leaving out washing. He also stressed the company’s “independent” complaints procedure and added: “we do everything we can to make sure these vulnerable people can live normal lives”.
Hackney Council criticised
A recent report by Healthwatch Hackney and City and Hackney Mind criticised Hackney Council’s use of private hostels for temporary accommodation.
A focus group member cited in the report said hostels like Ridley Villas left them feeling “alienated, vulnerable, unsupported and scared, most of the time”. Another suggested such hostels were “pressure cookers” for vulnerable people with mental health problems.
A spokesperson for Hackney Council didn’t comment on Ridley Villas specifically but said the council had “no choice but to work with private providers,” due to the scale of homelessness and the cost of housing in the area.
The council stressed they are working to improve homeless accomodation in the area and Hackney’s problems are part of a wider crisis across the country.
They added: “These companies only operate because of the Government’s failure to address the root causes of these issues […] the continued lack of investment in social housing and failure to match housing benefit with real living costs.”
Andrew Kersley is a freelance journalist and student at City University. His previous work has been published in The Times and The i Paper.