Residents deal with mold, flooding and stings inside London mansion, but landlord runs out £100m surplus

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When Erica’s daughter wants to go to the movies to meet friends, she can’t just walk out the front door like a normal 14-year-old.

Erika Figueiredo, 42, has to escort her up to the fifth floor of a municipal housing tower, preparing to fend off any threats she might encounter on the stairs. She explains that her concerns are justified because last month eight people entered the building wearing balaclavas and carrying knives looking for someone on the floor.

This is life in one of London’s most desolate and dangerous estates.

Milford Towers, a 276-unit housing complex in Catford, was scheduled for demolition in 2012. But more than a decade later, the tower still shows signs of deterioration throughout.

Six of the eight elevators are out of order, there is graffiti on the hallway walls, the outside door cannot be locked, and one apartment is completely destroyed by the fire.

Residents say there have been at least three stabbings at the complex in the past year, with reports that gangs have attacked rivals inside the complex, which is less exposed than on the streets outside.

Housing association Notting Hill Genesis is responsible for maintaining the majority of the flats, while Lewisham City Council is responsible for the common areas, but residents complain their concerns are being ignored.

Notting Hill Genesis Group, a not-for-profit social housing provider, has made a pre-tax surplus of more than £100m in each of the last three years, with its highest paid staff earning £296,000. It was a pound.

The housing association, which manages more than 60,000 properties in London, made an operating surplus of £97.2m from renting social housing last financial year.

Housing associations are pumping money into affordable new-build and market-rent homes in Hackney Wick and Newham, but Milford Tower residents claim they are being left behind.

Lewisham City Council has outsourced the management of around 200 of the apartments to Notting Hill Genesis, but the company remains responsible for the remaining apartments and common areas.

Last summer, Figueiredo was forced to vacate her Notting Hill Genesis apartment after a leak spread and caused an electrical fire on the eighth floor. She explained: “I live on the 6th floor and there was a water leak on the 8th floor that was reported several times but was never fixed. As a result of the water leak, water went into the electrical panel where the fuses for several apartments were installed. That led to a fire and as a result we had to shut off the water. So we had no electricity and no water.”

Maintenance workers who came to fix the problem found it impossible to just turn off the water in a few apartments. Instead, water had to be cut off to about 70 apartments, she said. With no water or electricity, Figueiredo found himself decanted to a hotel in Morden.

She decided it was best for her daughter to temporarily stay with a friend, and it took her two weeks to move back to another apartment on the property. Her new apartment has a mold problem, which she explained is a common problem.

“Over Christmas I had to clean up the mold in my bedroom myself. I can’t wait for them to do something about it because I couldn’t leave it like this.”

When asked if mold affected her or her child’s breathing, she said it was always a problem.

“My child had to take antibiotics in December and January due to respiratory issues. He always has some kind of allergy symptoms. I hope it’s related to this. It’s always difficult to say 100 percent, but it definitely contributes to worsening health symptoms.”

In another fifth-floor apartment at Notting Hill Genesis, a young family was putting on a show. independent person The bathroom sink had long cracks and had not been repaired for about five years. Black mold was starting to grow in the corner of the shower, and when I flushed the toilet, water came out from the bottom.

“It really stinks,” Jose Antonio said. “We have lived in this apartment for 6 years and the sink has been broken for 5 years now. We complained to the housing manager about the problem but it was not resolved. The water coming out stinks.”

Safety is also a concern, especially for my 6-year-old son. he said: “We don’t let our children go out alone because it’s dangerous, especially at night. Sometimes people come in here because there are knives and stabbings here and the door can be pried open.” They say they’re going to fix the doors and elevator, so I’d really like them to do that.

“The elevator closest to this apartment has been out of order for three years.”

Tenants at Milford Tower are paying below-market rents for short-term rentals. However, some residents have lived here for more than 10 years.

Simone Ahiaku from the London Tenants’ Union explained that Lewisham City Council and Notting Hill Genesis sometimes disagree about who pays for renovating a property.

“The council says security belongs to Notting Hill Genesis, and Notting Hill Genesis says it belongs to Lewisham City Council. “The situation has been in disrepair for years, especially as the two sides fight over who controls common areas. It has been left as it is.”

Broken elevators are a big problem. Ingrid, a single mother of a four-year-old son with albinism, explained how the devastation had affected her. “Recently, I had an emergency situation. I was not feeling well and had to call an ambulance, but it was not easy for the paramedics to come and help me. A few days ago, I called for more paramedics. I saw them struggling to carry all their luggage up the stairs, which was really bad.”

Her son is also visually impaired and has a hard time navigating discarded soda cans, leftover food and other trash when the stairs aren’t clean. In addition to this, she explained, her lack of security means she is afraid to take her son outside of the apartment. “Anything can happen. I’m scared and I’m keeping him inside the house, and I want to keep him by my side.”

Kelly McCone, 45, said paramedics struggled to save her husband when he had an emergency last year. She said her health care workers were initially unable to reach her because her intercom was not working, which led to further delays. Paramedics then had to find a way to help her husband to the other side of the high-rise building and allow her to use one of the working elevators. “It took a long time and I was having trouble breathing,” she explained.

Later, her husband contracted an infection and died in the hospital. McCone said there was a recent death of a resident who encountered a similar problem.

Climbing the stairs to her apartment is “scary,” she said, adding, “There are drug addicts and drunks on the stairs, so it affects me mentally. You never know what you’re going to find on the stairs. We walk around the corner.” We fought hard to install mirrors on the stairs so we could see what’s ahead, but addicts and drunks keep breaking them.”

She said she had to move to her current apartment on the property after her first apartment leaked and flooded.

Viviana, who lives on the fifth floor, explained that the elevator closest to her apartment only goes to the seventh or third floor, so she has to walk up and down the stairs to the fifth floor while shopping and carrying her stroller.

She has a 1-year-old son, and she explained that his son developed bronchitis two months ago, and she thinks mold in the apartment may have been to blame. she said: “Crackheads gather near the entrance to my apartment because there are no other apartments nearby and it’s a little out of the way. I also have mold and I have to clean it all the time because of my son. You never know what you’re going to find on the stairs, but you might find a drug needle.”

Milford Towers has a history of violent crimes occurring on its premises. Last July, a man in his 40s was found with stab wounds in a stairwell. A few days later, a man in his 20s was found with stab wounds on the property, and police were called again.

In November 2019, two men chased a man through an apartment block, cornered him in a bathroom and attacked him with a machete.

In 2005, a 15-year-old girl was found dismembered in a bag near a garbage dump. She was kidnapped and taken to her eighth-floor apartment, and her sexual assaulter was sentenced to life in prison for murdering her.

And in 2007, a 24-year-old man was chased up two flights of stairs before his assailant shot him in the chest with a sawed-off shotgun.

A Lewisham City Council spokesperson said: “We recognize that the management of the property has not been up to the standards we expect.” They said Milford Towers residents were “understandably dissatisfied with some of the current and historical issues at the site”.

They added: “We are committed to working with residents to address these issues and have invested over £14 million to support this work by delivering extensive improvements across the site. Construction is underway,” he added.

Recently, security patrols have been carried out to deter anti-social behavior.

Notting Hill Genesis said it is offering on-site repair services for residents to quickly address any issues with their apartments. Since November 2022, he has completed 441 jobs, including his 52 for damp and mold.

A spokesperson said: “We are only responsible for repairs within individual apartments and are not responsible for repairs to elevators, common areas or external doors. We will fulfill our responsibilities to the best of our ability.” They urged concerned families to contact the repair team and said: “We are working closely with Lewisham City Council and London Rentals Union to drive further improvements across the building. I know they are committed to making Ford Towers safer and more comfortable for everyone who lives there, and I look forward to supporting them in achieving that goal.”

Some residents believe the council’s ultimate aim is to demolish the entire building and are reluctant to spend any more money to do so. More than £8 million worth of repainting and roof repairs were recently carried out on the tower, but the broken lift and exterior doors were left in place.

Lewisham City Council has announced it will replace broken lifts and security doors and redecorate common areas. They also promised to listen to residents’ concerns and work with Notting Hill Genesis to ensure repairs proceed.

But residents are cynical about whether that will happen. “They want to say they’re spending a lot of money, but they’re not doing basic things like replacing the doors and keeping the elevators working,” Figueiredo said. “We raise these situations. “We continue to do so, but no action has been taken that has any real impact.”