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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Andrew Kersley

‘Chaos’: Tower Hamlets housing service ‘near collapse’ with families housed in B&Bs

A man leans on a bike, wearing a Deliveroo backpack,  while a woman and man walk past shops and a man in a robe crosses the street in Whitechapel, east London
Whitechapel High Street in Tower Hamlets, east London: there are 166,000 homeless Londoners living in temporary accommodation. Photograph: Mike Kemp/In Pictures/Getty Images

An east London council has left homeless families living in hotels for six months because its housing service is “near collapse”, according to a number of staff members who work there.

The Observer understands from multiple employees that Tower Hamlets council employs inadequately trained staff to work in the department, and that these workers have been issued with scripts to use on the phone to try to put homeless people off seeking council help.

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