‘I considered placing my child in care’: a London family’s battle against mold

PLate sized mushrooms are growing from the living room wall of Natasha La’Bow’s flat in Lewisham, south London. She and her son have been living with mold for years, but the problem is getting worse. One day last week she stood in the damp-smelling room and cried. “I have considered putting my child in care, but I just can’t,” she said as tears rolled down her cheeks.

Her six-year-old son was recently diagnosed with breathing difficulties and was prescribed inhalers. He runs around in a superhero costume, but she won’t let him into the living room without a surgical mask.

The doctor suspected his symptoms were “related to living with the mold,” La’Bow said, adding: “He’s not quite at the stage where he can’t breathe.”

It’s a frightening prospect for any parent living in a moldy house with a child. Awareness of the serious risks soared after a coroner found mold had caused the death of two-year-old Awaab Ishak in a council flat in Rochdale. In November, his father urged families in moldy homes to simply “get out.” But it is not that simple, given the chronic shortage of social housing.

Doctors warn that people who regularly breathe in air that smells like mold are likely to inhale mycotoxins that can lead to poor health.

The problem La’Bow, 45, is experiencing appears to be worsening nationally. In the ten months since March, the housing ombudsman for England, Richard Blakeway, has made 721 findings relating to damp, mold and leaks, more than in the previous twelve months and several times more than in 2020-2001.

Last monthBlakeway launched special investigations into Camden Council, Hackney Council and the Hyde Group, one of the country’s largest social landlords, after files showed all three were struggling with damp and mould, repairs and complaints handling. In recent months, municipalities have Stoking, Nieuwham, Barking and Dagenham have been found guilty of serious mismanagement in the handling of mold.

At her home, La’Bow insists on wearing a mask “because I was hospitalized twice with pneumonia – in March and May of last year.” One attack led to sepsis, a potentially fatal disease. She said she had fungal skin conditions and problems with her sinuses that may also be related to the fungus.

The limp brown mold is possible Peziza domiciliana, or house fungus, which is known to live on very damp wood and plaster, but also in caves. Workers have cut out the specimens of La Bow and the plaster from which they grow, but despite repeated complaints to the city’s landlord, the mold continues to spread.

“When the contractor came to do it, he said it was absolutely disgusting,” she said. “They washed it with mold many times. They came to plaster it, but they can’t because it’s too waterlogged.”

The first-floor house in a converted Victorian terraced house is one of more than 1,800 homes managed for the council by a private consortium that includes Rydon, the main contractor of the disastrous Grenfell Tower renovation.

The consortium was contracted in 2007 under a twenty-year private financing agreement. The management company, Regenter B3, made a profit after tax of £1.8m in 2022, according to the latest accounts. Last year, the Housing Ombudsman found “serious mismanagement by the landlord in the handling of a resident’s damp and mold complaint”, municipal papers show.

Lewisham Council said Regenter B3 repair contractor had previously carried out work to tackle damp and mold at La’Bow’s flat, including repairing a gutter leak, and further work would take place this week.

A spokesperson said follow-up action would be taken “to ensure the works are completed to the tenant’s satisfaction”.

La’Bow’s teenage daughter recently moved to live with her grandmother. One room in the flat is uninhabitable and she sleeps in the same bed as her son.

Most of all, the family needs a non-toxic home. After this reporter left the property last week, heavy rain fell and La’Bow texted, “More rain coming down. More moisture, more mold, more stench, more disease.”

The social housing regulator estimates that approximately 88,000 households suffer from serious damp and mold problems. The situation is worse in the private rental sector, but conditions in social housing have received increased attention from the government following the death of Awaab from respiratory problems caused by mold in December 2020.

In September the Ministry of Levelling, Housing and Communities issued accompaniment to landlords who stated that they must “always respond quickly and address this issue as a matter of urgency where there is significant damp and mold and/or where there are major concerns about tenant health”.

But while the government has promised to introduce the Awaab law, which imposes strict deadlines on social landlords to tackle mold, it has yet to put it into effect and says it will only do so if parliamentary time allows.

Meanwhile, the Nottingham coroner last month warned of “a risk that future deaths could occur” when he ordered Mansfield District Council to take action to tackle mold in its 6,500 social homes. The move came after a tenant, Jane Bennett, 52, died last year from respiratory problems that doctors said may have been caused by mold exposure.