‘Are you not worried we might die?’ Social housing tenants on living with mould

Nicola Calvert and her son Tristan, who has asthma, have lived with damp in their basement flat in Hastings for three years. Photograph: Jill Mead/The Guardian

Nicola Calvert and her five-year-old son, Tristan, have lived with damp in a basement flat in Hastings for three years. The mould spreads across walls and ceilings, and weevils that feed off moist plaster fall into their beds, she tells the Guardian.

There are rats, too, but it’s the damp that scares Calvert, because it worsens her son’s asthma.