Residents of a “shanty town” described as “not fit for human habitation” are charged more than £1,500 a month to live in shipping containers under a Labour council.
Erected in 2017 as a “ground-breaking and innovative” solution to homelessness by Ealing Council, the shipping containers house those in desperate need of accommodation, including many single mothers with children.
The costs for a container range from a one-bed at £324.40 per week, to a two-bed at £387.69 per week, adding up to around £1,500 a month for a two-bedroom shipping container.
The years have not been kind to Martson Court which was a development heralded as a “big achievement” by one councillor and even won a housing award in 2018.
Now far from being a safe haven for those most in need, worried residents say their lives are plagued with drugs gangs and the construction of the shipping containers means “in the summer it’s unbearably hot, in the winter it’s unbearably cold” one resident told MyLondon.
Resident mum-of-two Erin told the paper even with housing benefit reductions she still pays £600 a month.
She said: “The rent here is ridiculous.
“In the summer it’s unbearably hot, in the winter it’s unbearably cold, it’s freezing. If it rains it leaks, the whole living room is swimming with water and you are telling me that these are the conditions people should be living in?”
Another resident told the Mail Online the containers were “not fit for human habitation”, with another added that living in the box-like structures was like “a modern-day slum – like a shanty town”.
Another mum living in the hellish block, Paula, staged a one-woman protest at Ealing Council offices in June because she wanted to speak to someone about leaving.
She said: “I go in the laundry room and there are guys in there with drugs, there are girls who will be swearing at me showing me the middle finger and that they are going to beat me up and f*** my kids up.”
Another mum-of-two, Ranjana, said the police have attended but there is still a problem with drugs being sold on the estate.
Ealing Council, itself, has decided that Marston Court is unsuitable as temporary accommodation, and plans to decommission it.
The converted shipping containers were set up in order to provide fast and cheaply constructed homes for homeless people, and was designed to house individuals or families for a maximum of 6 months, but in reality, many have lived there much longer.
In July an Ealing Council spokesperson said: “It should be absolutely clear that the council is committed to decommissioning Marston Court and re-providing higher quality temporary accommodation.”
