News
Family left homeless after council failure
Friday, 09 January 2009
The Hubbard family
A FIVE-YEAR-OLD and her parents were forced to sleep rough in a park in sub-zero temperatures after buck-passing council bureaucrats failed them.
The young family – who were made homeless through no fault of their own – had to shelter in a playground at night as temperatures fell to -3C – terrified of what could happen before dawn.
Their dreadful ordeal should never have happened and once again it was only at the intervention of this newspaper – and the risk of negative publicity – that the council finally decided to act.
The Hubbards made homeless in December and forced to shelter in Kennington Park as darkness fell and temperatures plunged to below freezing – because Labour-run Lambeth failed to provide them with emergency accommodation.
Daniel and Sarah Hubbard shivered sleepless as they huddled over their five-year-old daughter to protect her from the cold, terrified of what could happen.
The frightened young parents were so scared of who they might encounter in the night that on one occasion they attempted to walk and hitch to Reading where a friend could give them shelter.
The Hubbards’ ordeal began in December when the police instructed them to leave their council home in Waterloo because threats of violence had been made against them after they stood up to antisocial behaviour.
Lambeth council was made aware of the situation on December 8 and given a report from the police supporting the family’s request for emergency accommodation.
At first the Hubbards were able to sleep at the homes of a relative and friends but as the weeks passed without a response from the council their situation became worse and they found themselves forced to sleep on the streets with their daughter.
Lambeth claimed it was not made aware that the family needed urgent accommodation until Monday – a claim disputed by the Hubbards.
But even then the council has still failed in its lawful duty to provide emergency accommodation despite knowing a five-year-old and her parents were sleeping rough in the park.
Sarah said: “It has been so frightening. We have been in the park trying to keep our daughter warm and unable to sleep so that we can protect her if anyone comes along in the night.
“In the day we have just been walking around to keep warm.
"Each time we have tried to speak to someone at Lambeth we have been told we need to speak to another person or come back the next day.
“When we tried to get into hostels they said we had to be referred by the council.
“Council workers have palmed us off from one department to another – no one seemed to want to take any responsibility and help us.
“When a council worker told us to ‘come back tomorrow’, I asked where we should sleep and they said, ‘I’m sure you can manage another night in the park’.”
A Lambeth spokeswoman said: “We sincerely apologise to the family and we will check the details of this case so we can improve our processes where necessary.
“We don’t want any family to be sleeping out on the streets and we’ve already tried to contact the family to offer them emergency B&B accommodation.
“We’ll continue to contact the family to make sure they have somewhere to stay.
“The family had told us that they were staying with other family members when they applied for an accommodation transfer last December.
“In the last few days they have approached us for temporary accommodation, which we are dealing with urgently.”
Email: greg.truscott@slp.co.uk
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