You feel it as soon as you walk in. Outside, it might be a chilly winter afternoon, but inside the temperature is a couple of degrees colder still. Dampness hangs in the air and runs down the walls. Mould is spreading everywhere. The flat has been described as 'unfit for human habitation', but Paula Smith is stuck. This is home.

Bleak House: Victorian Squalor in 21st Century Liverpool

By Adam Ford

Liverpool Housing Trust offered Paula the flat in early 2002. She was delighted with the move because of an attachment to the Belvidere Road area in Toxteth and was looking forward to putting her troubled past behind her. In her previous accommodation, repeated violence and intimidation had made her life into "such hell". Paula described the relief as like "having a house full of bricks taken off my shoulders", but sadly her happiness was to be short-lived.

When she went to look at the new flat, Paula found that "there was nothing there at all, it was just filthy". There were big wet patches on the walls, and the floor was wet and muddy. Carpet tiles were glued down over the grimy surface, and Paula was told that the offer would be withdrawn if she complained. After being advised that sustained heating would dry the place out, she bought two electric radiators and waited. Hundreds of pounds in bills later, the walls were even wetter. Ice crept around the inside of the window, and there were huge patches of dampness everywhere, particularly around electric sockets. This - Paula was assured - was perfectly safe.

From that point on, relations with LHT became farcical. First Paula was told that getting mould all over your furniture and books was "normal" if she insisted on putting things against walls. "High soil levels" at the neighbouring church was the next 'explanation' offered. When that didn't seem to fit anymore, Property Manager Simon Brown claimed that damp works had been conducted before Paula had moved in, and that nothing more needed to be done. Abandoned, Paula became "desperate and zombified". She felt that "there was no way out. I was crumbling". She began attending clinics for stress-related intestinal cancer and heart arrhythmia - a condition that can be brought on by damp conditions. Environmental Health drew up a 'schedule of works' - which is a legally binding list of repairs for the housing trust to complete - but still there was no positive response from LHT to either this duty or repeated letters from Paula's solicitor. After month upon month of waiting, the group finally responded in summer last year. Plastering was ordered - literally covering-up the damp patches - but a letter shows that this work was ordered before LHT's surveyor had even seen the property. On 15th November 2004, Paula was forced to admit plasterers for the cover-up, but they told her it was "the worst job they'd ever had to do" and "couldn't look (her) in the eye".

According to their latest annual report - 'Making An Impact' - Liverpool Housing Trust owns around 12,000 homes, making it the city's largest social housing association. The Trust has annual turnover running into millions of pounds. In 2003, Chief Executive David Bebb's salary reached £115,000 excluding pensions. That's over £2,200 per week. With a big wage comes big responsibility.

Paula Smith is 59 years old. She is registered disabled, has arthritis, and sleeps in a friend's cellar. With her career perhaps irreparably damaged, she must make do with £55 per week in benefits. She spends much of her time trying to find things she can do for free - libraries, resource centres - anything to get out of the cold.

LHT continues to find excuses for delays, even in court. In the mean time Paula waits and waits. "They all stand together and say 'we said this', and there's only one of you saying 'no you didn't'. They hope you will just die or go away." But she's not going to give up. "Sometimes I feel like just taking it, but then they win, don't they? I'm not frightened anymore."

If you have suffered at the hands of a local housing association, we would like to hear from you.
Email: mail(at)catalystmedia.org.uk or phone 0151 709 9948.

If you wish to make a complaint you can contact the Housing Ombudsman Service:

Housing Ombudsman Service,
Norman House,
105 - 109 The Strand,
London, WC2R OAA
Tel: 0207 7836 3630
Lo call: 0845 7125 973
Minicom number: 0207- 240- 6776
Email: ombudsman@hos.org.uk