My name’s Mimi and I have been living in my council property for 31 years. Like most people, it’s been an absolute nightmare trying to get repairs reported, escalated and dealt with. My property fell in the regeneration area, and like most people in this situation, the council have left us living in shoddy properties, and paid no attention, leaving us living in homes with longstanding disrepair.
When I tried to report issues, I would always get the same answers: “Because you live in the regen we can’t replace the kitchens” “You have to mend it yourself, we dont fix those things”
One of my main issues in my home was the windows. They were over 50 years old, single glazed metal Crittall windows – half of the windows didn’t open, if you cooked they steamed up, winter was the most painful – they were constantly covered in condensation resulting in black mould, furry like mould growing on them. I threw away numerous curtains and blinds over the years, until I gave up and put nothing in the windows. It had such a bad effect on my mental health, I didn’t want people to come to my house because of the black mould, i was constantly cleaning it down, if you put the heating on instantly it would be dripping, there would always be puddles of water on the window sills, they were drafty, the instant you turned the heating off it would be freezing, there was black mould and damp on the walls because of them – it was awful. I had one of the inspectors come and look round and he insulted my intelligence and said it’s because you don’t ventilate your property. I said I can’t leave them open when I am not at work. I managed to convince him to change the living room windows 4 years ago, but he wouldn’t do the rest of the property.
Then I became a PEACH member, met one of the Community Organisers from PEACH, who asked me if there were any issues I was concerned about and I spoke to them about how I didnt think it was fair that the council wouldn’t listen to us and fix our issues, the windows and damp and mould being the most common issues, and invited them in to have a look. They asked if I would be interested in being involved in a zoom meeting with Peter Albert and members of the council. So I attended an online meeting during COVID with other PEACH members and was a spokesperson for myself and another neighbour and said how unacceptable it was to leave us in these conditions and the effect on us and our families. We asked for reasons why we couldn’t have them changed. By the end of the meeting he agreed to fix the issues of all 3 of us who had shared our stories at the meetings.
Then I went to a block meeting and shared the story to my neighbours, of what we had won. My neighbours nominated me as a rep for the block to escalate issues with the council. People had just given up on all hope of getting things fixed, so by me sharing my story it inspired others to do the same. We asked all our neighbours what repairs issues they had, collecting them on post it notes during the meeting, then put them in a spreadsheet and went door knocking to double check we had everything and took photos. When we went to the Council with this list they said it would be between 6 months and 3 years for other people to get their windows and emergency repairs done. So we organised a petition, got over 90% of residents to sign and that led to them agreeing to take on and do all the emergency repairs and change everyone’s windows. Then everyone on Burrard Road, Hands Walk & Russell Road got their windows changed to double glazed, and nearly all the emergency repairs have been done in Burrard Road, and we are making our way through the other blocks.
One of the biggest achievements I have had by becoming a block rep is to hear how happy it’s made people and changed their lives by achieving their refurbishment and repairs. For me that’s the biggest win, the effect on people, that’s what makes me carry on and do what I am doing.
I would highly recommend becoming part of groups like PEACH because you can definitely make changes together – there’s strength in numbers and everyone deserves to get their voices heard and to live in a clean, safe and healthy environment. Since we won these repairs I am now working at PEACH as a block reps organiser. Just being involved with my community and seeing all the positive changes gives me so much satisfaction, and that’s the reason why I took this job to make a difference.
Evidence of windows and mould:
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