9:07am Saturday 1st March 2008
By Caron Kemp
A Haringey teenager has been forced to move in to her cockroach-infested council flat, deemed "suitable living conditions" by authorities.
Melissa Lennox, 19, has been living in temporary accommodation in Ridge Road, Hornsey, for the past 18 months.
Three weeks ago she received a letter explaining the property was being refurbished and she was being rehoused at a flat in Russell Road, Seven Sisters.
Miss Lennox signed a tenancy agreement for her new home and was given the keys last week with an official moving date of Friday (February 29).
However, on visiting the property last week, Miss Lennox discovered the entire block of flats, a council-owned hostel, is infested with cockroaches.
Miss Lennox contacted Haringey Council and pest controllers were sent to the property twice, but have failed to eradicate the bugs.
Cockroaches walk the corridors and lifts as well as the flats, and leave their tiny egg sacks - which can each produce up to 30 cockroaches - around the building, but Miss Lennox has nowhere else to go.
She said: "Being there makes my skin crawl it's so nasty. I don't want my clothes there because the cockroaches could nest in them. I really don't know what I'm going to do.
"I feel disgusting knowing I share my home with something so horrible. It's not even my fault I'm being moved.
"It feels like the council's pushing me into this place and it doesn't care about anything it's doing. I'm a good tenant.
"Because it's temporary accommodation, I'm meant to put up with it. They keep saying it's suitable to live in but I wonder if they'd live here. "
If left untreated, a cockroach infestation can increase rapidly and turn into a major health and safety risk. The germs they carry can cause illnesses from dysentry to salmonella.
Experts suggest pest control treatment would be needed throughout the block of flats to stamp out the problem.
According to the council's housing needs survey last year, one in five households in the borough are living in "unsuitable" conditions.
But Haringey Council remains defiant.
A spokesman said: "The property has been treated twice since Miss Lennox reported her concerns. It is deemed suitable for her to move in. She is welcome to get in touch with us if she has further concerns."
Councillor Carolyn Baker, Liberal Democrat housing spokeswoman, said: "I am constantly amazed at the appalling standard of temporary accommodation in Haringey and the willingness of the council to turn a blind eye to the conditions people are subjected to live in for such long periods of time.
"It shows total disdain for people's personal and family life. Haringey Council needs to take responsibility for the situation of this tenant and ensure the source of the infestation is removed as soon as possible."
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