Citizens UK - Tenants taking action

I had really bad damp and mould from the time I moved into my social housing four years ago and it went on and on. I was calling the social housing provider to ask for repairs every three days for six months. My mental health was absolutely crushed. Coming home to mould and damp doesn’t just affect your physical health, it’s your mental health too. It’s depressing. You want to give up.

It was excuse after excuse from the housing providers and they kept telling me someone will be in touch. In the end, I had to threaten them with legal action. I didn’t have the resources for any of that, but I didn’t know what else to do. And it still took them six months before they came to look at it and it was a further couple of months before anything was done.

By then, I’d been in hospital three times with a respiratory problem. The first time I literally couldn’t breathe and my temperature had gone ridiculously high. I was given intravenous steroids, intravenous antibiotics. It was very frightening. But then when you realise it is down to the conditions you’re living in, it was anger provoking. It’s hard when you want to do something but you can’t.

But it inspired me and now I’m able to talk about it and I’m able to do something as part of the tenant action team to get other people involved who are in that situation too, to come along.

The group has opened up workshops so that people understand their own rights and they know who to talk to about repairs and issues with housing. A lot of us come into social housing and we don’t know what we’re entitled to. We want to empower tenants to argue the case and fight for their rights.

We want to create more voices coming out and saying no, this isn’t right. It goes a heck of a long way when you hear the power of someone’s testimony, the heartbreaking stories that you hear. Kids that are suffering and parents that feel powerless to change it. These are the stories that will make that change. We know that by building power in our community, our community can make the change.

In my own personal life, it’s been a massive help for my mental health and confidence, even though I only started working in the group this year. I’ve witnessed people becoming empowered. And I’ve witnessed confidence building and I’ve About the project seen the change in just being heard just and taking action. The tenant action team was almost like a breath of fresh air for me and for everyone else because when people come along and they talk to other people they realise they can actually do something. What a change it makes.

The most positive thing about the group and this project is that they take us – everyday people – and they let our voices make a difference. It’s about everyday people making massive change. We can only do it when we come together.

About the project

The Homes for Health project in Ely, Cardiff is led by Citizens UK and works with social and private tenants. Using a community organising approach, the project is supporting a tenant action team to build knowledge, voice and power to influence landlords to improve local housing conditions in ways that can ultimately improve health outcomes for tenants.