Residents of Nelson Road are furious with Haringey Council after a family council home that has been left derelict for almost a year has now been taken over by squatters. The home was taken over last week after the Council failed to act on promises to start renovating the house, at least 11 months after evicting the last tenants. One of the neighbours is an elderly lady in her eighties and I’m told she is quite upset by the situation, which will now probably take months more to resolve.
I’ve been demanding action from the Council for 3 months, ever since a local resident complained to local campaigner Katherine Reece about the state of the house back in November 2009 (see post from January). I was told that the house would be back in use by 26 March at the latest – but Haringey have failed to even start work on renovating the building, so this promise was clearly not going to be kept.
I’ve emailed the Labour cabinet member in charge of housing to express our anger at the Council’s incompatence and to demand action to sort out the squatter situation so the house can be used by a local family. There is such a long waiting list for larger council homes, and so many families trapped in overcrowded temporary accomodation, that this situation is a real scandal.