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HOUSING chiefs have been accused of leaving tenants in damp-ridden
homes unfit for human habitation.
Tenants and housing campaigners claim Glasgow Housing Association
is treating damp homes with a spray of anti-fungicidal paint rather
than carrying out measures to eradicate the problem.
People in Ibrox and Govan say the city's promised housing
revolution is passing them by as no money is being spent on their flats.
They claim the damp and mould is only covered up for a few days by
the paint before it begins to show again.
And GHA admits some tenants may have to endure the damp for as
long as eight years before it is fixed.
Ian Fraser lives in a high-rise block in Ibroxholm Oval, one of
several across the city under review for demolition.
He said GHA's only solution to his damp problem, which has caused
large black patches and wallpaper peeling from the walls, was to
spray anti-fungicidal paint.
Mr Fraser said: "We have been living in a damp flat for
two-and-a-half years. It has brought about medical problems and the
flat is covered in mites.
"Mould grows on everything, even out of clothes if they are
left unused.
"We cannot keep food which is not refrigerated for any more
than two days before it goes mouldy, and all our cupboards are black
with damp.
"GHA painted the walls with anti-mould paint but the spores
are not killed off and it only lasts two days before it returns."
Housing lawyer Mike Dailly, of Govan Law Centre, said many people
in the area had called him with similar complaints.
Mr Dailly contacted GHA chief executive Michael Lennon with his
clients' concerns, telling the housing chief: "You have done
nothing for the most vulnerable of Glasgow's citizens after almost
two years as landlord to 82,000 houses in Glasgow.
"Your association needs to explain its failure to carry out
major repairs. The application of anti-fungicidal paint to squalid
living conditions is not a repair.
"Hundreds of families in Glasgow are living in conditions
unfit for human habitation, with many children developing asthma and
related illnesses due to your association's failure to carry out
major repairs."
Mr Lennon replied: "A reasonable person would conclude that
not only has GHA tried hard but it has achieved beyond expectations
in a short time."
Mr Dailly said today: "There was so much at stake with the
housing transfer and so much was promised to tenants.
"But two years on we are starting to see problems.
"People need to be decanted out of the home to enable
effective repairs to be carried out."
GHA said it carried out a range of remedies for damp houses,
including painting and offering de-humidifiers or heaters to tenants.
A spokesman said: "In an interim attempt to address the
problems faced by Mr Fraser, we have treated the dampness with
anti-fungal paint, installed additional heaters and improved the
ventilation. Further attempts to help have been refused."
He added that a wider regeneration plan for the Ibrox area meant
GHA could not commit to investment in the flats.
He said: "We have to be careful we don't put too much money
in and be accused of being wasteful.
"We cannot have tenants living in properties that are
unsuitable. Our commitment is to have every home warm and dry within
10 years and we only took over two years ago but we hope people will
not be suffering for that length of time." |
