A mum and her two kids were left to live in a single room in a refuge for two years while a South London council dealt with their homelessness application.

Lewisham Council told the unnamed woman she would be moved down the housing waiting list if she left, even after another woman in the refuge threatened to hit one of her children.

The woman said she barely ate for 24 months because residents weren’t allowed to store food in the fridge in the house’s communal kitchen.

Her family had to share a bathroom with other women in the refuge, some of who were addicted to drugs and alcohol.

The shocking case was revealed in a report by legal charity Public Interest Law Centre [PILC] into housing for domestic abuse victims across London.

The victim told the PILC: “In that refuge environment, there was no space. You couldn’t escape.

"Maybe if we had been there for one month, two maybe even three it would have been fine.

"But being there for nearly two years with nowhere to go, it really affected me.

“It was women only, and there were about 15 of us there.

"There were women there with a lot of alcohol issues, and drug issues.

"A woman there actually threatened to hit my child and nothing was actioned. I didn’t feel safe there.

“The kitchens were shared, so I basically didn’t eat for two years because you couldn’t keep stuff in the shared fridge.

"[…] The bath was really dirty there, so we never used that bath. You couldn’t be happy or healthy in a place like that.”

The woman and her two children were finally given a new house after she rang Lewisham Council everyday for weeks at a time, demanding to be moved.

She also contacted her local MP, pleading for help.

The woman added: “I reported all this to the council loads of times. They just repeated every time, that this is just the process, you just have to bid.

"They said that if I move from the refuge, my priority will go down.

“My key worker chased the council about getting moved, and I would call them up daily.

"[…] In 2016 I got made one offer, only because I was continuously calling to complain, and after writing to the MP.”

In another incident, a Lewisham Council housing officer questioned whether a domestic abuse victim was telling the truth.

The employee made the remarks after the victim told them about their ex threatening to burn down the house with her kids inside.

The victim told the PILC: “I tried to explain why I left my previous property, and that my ex threatened to burn down the house with the kids inside.

"They just said to me ‘do you think maybe that is not really realistic?’”

While victims of domestic abuse have a legal right to emergency accommodation and secure long-term housing, many people can’t receive help because of barriers put in their way by councils, the PILC report published on September 23 warned.

It said councils across the capital had put more obstacles in the way of support over the last decade, as a result of austerity and a lack of social housing in London.

Lewisham Council said it was giving staff extra training to make sure they were equipped to deal with domestic abuse victims.

A Lewisham Council spokesperson said: “We are committed to supporting survivors of domestic abuse, with our Domestic Abuse and Violence against Women and Girls Strategy setting out action in a range of areas to tackle domestic abuse, support survivors and hold abusers to account.

“We have carried out additional training for staff to ensure they are better prepared to deal with domestic abuse cases and have put new systems in place to help survivors of domestic abuse move out of our local refuge and into secure, permanent accommodation.

“We will also be working to become an accredited housing provider through the Domestic Abuse Housing Alliance, ensuring that our approach to providing housing support puts the needs of survivors first and helps them access the support they need.

“We will always investigate any issues raised by residents who come to the council for housing support and look to see how we can improve our processes going forward.”

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