Diane Taylor writes:
A
woman working for a council-owned organisation helping to alleviate
homelessness has been suspended for sleeping rough in a council garage.
Arleen Matthews, 48, has worked for almost a decade for
Homes for Haringey – an arms-length management organisation that looks after
the council’s housing stock and manages its assessment of homelessness applications.
Its
website states: “We want to prevent homelessness
whenever possible.”
Matthews’s job is to ensure that the council’s housing
estates, where there are 16,000 tenants and 4,500 leasehold properties, are
properly maintained.
She had been living in private rented accommodation with
her son, Kishur Williams, 18, but she fell behind with the rent and was
evicted.
In
desperation and with nowhere else to go she and Kishur started sleeping in a
garage on one of the estates she managed.
When Homes for Haringey discovered
what she was doing, it suspended her and she is facing a disciplinary hearing
for sleeping in the garage on Friday.
She has received a letter from her
employers stating that she has breached health and safety rules by sleeping and
storing her belongings in the garage.
She has also been accused of misusing a
Homes for Haringey property for personal use.
Her appalling living conditions came to light when
Matthews and her son presented themselves as homeless to the council’s housing
officials.
“We were just using the garage as a stopgap,” she said.
“I kept looking for alternative, cheaper accommodation. But every door we
knocked on to try to get a place to stay they refused us.
“They told us that
they only wanted tenants who were earning at least £30,000. There’s nothing out
there for the helpless.”
In desperation Matthews and her son presented themselves
to Haringey council’s homelessness team.
“The housing official who interviewed
me wanted to know absolutely everything about me. She even asked me: ‘Where do
you wee?’ I said ‘I’m not going to answer that’.”
Matthews
has a family history of deep vein thrombosis (DVT)
and says her health has deteriorated as a result of becoming homeless and being
suspended from her job.
“I have had five DVTs in my right leg,” she said.
“My mum
died of thrombosis at 48. I’m now 48 and I’m under so much stress because of
all this that I’m terrified I’m going to die at the same age my mum did.
“My
blood pressure has gone sky high because of everything I’m going through.”
She said her take home pay was £1,352 a month,
supplemented by £320 working tax credit and £82.50 child benefit for Kishur
because he is still in full-time education.
The rent in the place she was
evicted from was £1,200 a month, leaving her with little money left for
essentials.
“I ran up rent arrears of £5,000,” she said.
“I offered
to pay off £3,000 but the landlord said I had to pay off everything in one go.
“I tried to do everything I could to resolve the situation but in the end we
were evicted on 1 November and my son and I had nowhere to go.
“My husband died
five years ago but I’m still paying off the cost of the funeral and the other
debts he left.”
A few days before she and her son were due to be evicted
Matthews spoke to a woman who rented out garages on one of the housing estates
Matthews looked after.
She asked if she could rent one of the garages and the
woman agreed. The rent was £15 a week.
She said the woman handed her a key and
told her that they could sort out the paperwork later.
“We
slept on a sofa and a mattress from our previous accommodation. It was
horrible.
“Water came in when it rained and we found mouse droppings. There was
no heating or water.”
Matthews and her son stayed in the garage until the
beginning of December.
She had a plastic bowl that she carried with her and
washed wherever she could.
“All the time we were living in the garage we continued
to look for alternative cheap accommodation.
“It was a terrible experience
living there, something I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy.
“We would get up
between 5 and 6am to avoid being seen by anyone on the estate.”
“When I went to the council and declared myself homeless
I was made to feel so worthless by the member of staff who dealt with me.
“She
forced me to tell her where we were sleeping.
“A couple of days later I was
called in to see my manager and was told I was being suspended because I was
sleeping in a council estate garage.
“The
whole thing has made me really ill. I have been getting terrible headaches.
“I
came back to work in March of this year, although my doctor felt I wasn’t
really fit to work.
“We have been treated worse than animals.”
Matthews and her son are currently living together in a
tiny room in a hostel in Tottenham, which is infested by cockroaches.
Matthews
is paying £159 a week for this.
“I just don’t know what’s going to happen to us,” she
said.
Her son is at college studying sport and accountancy and
hopes to pursue these studies at university but says it is a struggle to study
because he and his mother are homeless.
“I’m so depressed,” he said. “I feel
like I’m living in a prison.”
A Homes for Haringey spokesperson said:
“All our staff
are paid at least the London living
wage and our most junior positions offer salaries of £18,324 to £19,374,
depending on length of service.
“We at Homes for Haringey know as well as anyone the
challenges of the private rental market in London.
“We will help anyone who
comes to us with applying for housing benefit or other financial assistance
should they need it – for example, those on lower incomes.
“We cannot comment on
the details of any ongoing internal investigations.”
A
woman who was suspended by a council-owned organisation dealing with
homelessness after she was found to be sleeping rough in a council garage has
said Guardian readers who helped her and her son after reading about their
plight had “made our Christmas”.
Readers offered to donate money and one had already paid
a lump sum to clear Arleen Matthews’ debts.
A company had offered her
18-year-old son an internship, a supporter had set up an online
donations page and
another had started a petition calling for Matthews’ reinstatement.
Until her suspension, Matthews, 48, was working for Homes
for Haringey, an arms-length management organisation owned by Haringey council
in north London that looks after the local authority’s housing stock and
manages its assessment of homelessness applications.
Matthews’
job is to ensure that the council’s estates, which house 16,000 tenants in
4,500 leasehold properties, are properly maintained.
She had been living in
private rented accommodation with her son, Kishur, but fell behind with rent
and was evicted.
“I’m overwhelmed by the support I have received,” she
said.
“People still have hearts and still have compassion. I woke up this
morning with so much strength.
“Someone has granted me my dearest wish: to pay
off my outstanding debts. That alone has made our Christmas.”
She said when she and her son had nowhere else to go,
they started sleeping in a garage on one of the estates she managed.
When her
employers discovered what she was doing, they suspended her while they investigated
possible breaches of
health and safety codes for sleeping and storing personal belongings in the
garage, and misusing Homes for Haringey property.
Matthews
had been due to face an investigatory meeting on Friday as part of Homes For
Haringey’s disciplinary process, but it did not go ahead.
Her situation came to light when she and her son
presented themselves as homeless to the council’s housing officials.
“I ran up rent arrears of £5,000,” she said.
“I offered
to pay off £3,000, but the landlord said I had to pay off everything in one go.
“I tried to do everything I could to resolve the situation, but in the end we
were evicted on 1 November and my son and I had nowhere to go.
“My husband died
five years ago, but I’m still paying off the cost of that and other debts he
left.”
She said the offers of assistance had included an
internship for Kishur with a Haringey employer.
A Homes for Haringey spokesperson said:
“When Matthews
presented as homeless to us, we placed her and her son in emergency, temporary
accommodation, where she is still living.
“We are continuing to try and help
Matthews resolve her homeless situation.”
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