NEW FIGURES SHOW THE SHOCKING EXTENT OF THE HOUSING CRISIS IN WALES
AROUND 819,000 PEOPLE HAVE DAMP OR MOULD ISSUES IN THEIR HOMES
1 IN 10 ALSO TOLD RESEARCHERS THAT THEIR HOUSING SITUATION WAS AFFECTING THEIR MENTAL HEALTH.
Mark S Redfern & SC Cook
Around 819,000 people in Wales are currently living in homes with significant damp, mould or condensation problems, and 13% of the population are living in homes that are not structurally sound or have hazards such as faulty wiring or fire risks.
The shocking revelation is part of new research released by Shelter Cymru, who are launching their fairer housing campaign.
The data covers both renters and homeowners, but the majority of mould issues are in the private rental sector, with landlords often refusing to address the issue.
The research by Shelter Cymru also reveals that one in three people (34%) in Wales have been impacted by the housing emergency and that over a million children and adults in Wales are living in unsafe or unaffordable housing.
These numbers include everything from families forced to choose between paying rent or buying food, to people living in homes riddled with damp, mould and in a state of disrepair.
“Our research shows the scale and seriousness of the housing emergency in Wales and shows that urgent action is needed,” said Ruth Power, of Shelter Cymru, adding that families were forgoing food just to keep a roof over their head.
The housing emergency is affecting people in different ways, with an estimated 315,000 people saying that their current housing situation is harming their mental health, or their family’s mental health.
The research also found that almost 1 in 10 people had to cut spending on household essentials, like food or heating in order to afford rent or mortgage payments and an estimated half a million people said they cannot keep their home warm in winter.
People from Black, Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds, those with disabilities and members of the LGBTQ+ community are also being negatively impacted.
Shelter Cymru found that an estimated 75,000 (3%) of adults said they had experienced discrimination when they tried to find their current home and felt it was because of their ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, religion or disability.
Revenge Eviction
So many of the problems people face in their homes are due to landlords in the private rental sector.
Merlin, from Newport, was evicted by his landlord just days before his partner was due to give birth.
“When we moved in to our flat during the pandemicwe faced at least 54 problems either with maintenance or repairs needing to be done in that time,” he said. Merlin, who was supported by Shelter Cymru, described the squalor-like conditions the couple were left to live in:
“The noise from the upstairs flat was intolerable at times when we first moved in. The carpet was filthy dirty, but the landlord wouldn’t clean it. There was water leaking in through the ceiling in our front room, the oven was broken, there was a mouse hole in the bathroom, and the list continued.”
After the couple responded to a request from their landlord asking for a full list of issues, they were asked to leave.
“This is simply the most blatant case of potential revenge eviction I think it could be possible to find,” Merlin said. “I feared that the stress on my girlfriend would affect the birth of our unborn child. I just think it’s outrageous that this is legal and revenge evictions like this are allowed to happen.”
“It’s really rare to get any enforcement action.”
In reality, the private rental sector is largely unregulated, with landlords allowed to get away with appalling treatment of tenants with little or no punishment from Welsh Government, who have ultimate responsibility for housing in Wales.
Even when an eviction ban was in place during the first lockdown, some landlords turned to illegal evictions instead.
“Some landlords try to bypass the legal process… [they] just try and change the locks, or send round the heavies.” Jennie Bibbings, campaigns manager for Shelter Cymru, told voice.wales at the time.
“It’s really rare to get any enforcement action…the police aren’t interested, local authorities haven’t got – they’re the ones who are supposed to prosecute, but they don’t, cos they haven’t got the capacity.”
The Welsh Labour Government has come under serious criticism for a failure to protect tenants. It took until September 2019 for agency fees to be banned in Wales, three months after the Tory government had done so in England.
In April, the tenants union ACORN revealed that out of 121 applications for Welsh Government loans, to help tenants pay their rent during the pandemic, only 29 were successful. Shockingly, Welsh Government said that over a third of rejected applications were due to a tenant’s credit history or financial or employment situation. “People with poor finances and bad credit histories are exactly those who are most vulnerable right now,” ACORN Cardiff said.
“Hundreds of thousands of people have been issued eviction notices. The situation is desperate.”
Commenting on the new research, Ruth Power of Shelter Cymru said that it highlighted “the challenges that so many people in Wales have faced during the pandemic.”
“But unfortunately these challenges are not new – they are longstanding problems that need bold and ambitious action to solve.”
The charity said that “good homes must be front and centre of the Government’s welcome commitment to build back better and fairer in the wake of the pandemic.”
However, the past few years in Wales has shown that Welsh Government cannot be relied upon to protect renters.
In response to the crisis, there has been a growth in renters organising amongst themselves. The first Welsh branch of housing union ACORN, ACORN Cardiff, celebrated its first birthday recently. An Acorn group has also been launched in Aberystwyth.
