A dad and his four children have been left in despair after being forced to live in a hotel room where they wash plates in the bathroom.
Stephen Jones, 42, and his four kids have been living in a hotel with no cooking or washing facilities while they wait for Kensington and Chelsea council to sort out their housing.
Stephen had been living in a hostel for single homeless people with complex needs but, when he got a court order in June, he found out his children would be living with him throughout the summer.
It meant the dad needed to find alternative housing, but the family says the hotel where they are staying isn't equipped for their daily needs, MyLondon reports.
"The two eldest have got beds," he said.
"My six-year-old sleeps with me on the double bed and my youngest of four sleeps on a blow-up bed.”
One of his children has autism, so the change and uncertainty has also been causing him distress and his other children are struggling to adapt.
"My son will sit here until four o'clock in the morning because he won't sleep because it's change. Any change has him in," he added.
"They’re starting to get restless now. At first it was like a little holiday, but now it's getting to them.
"It’s boiling and we can’t go out, it’s too hot. So they’re trying to entertain themselves, and I'm telling them off because the hotel moans at us for noise.”
Without proper housing, everyday tasks such as making food and doing the washing are a struggle.
Currently, the family are having to wash cutlery and plates in the bathroom sink as they don't have access to proper kitchen facilities.
"Washing clothes [is a problem]," he said.
"There's nothing here at all. So what I've has to do is speak to my ex-wife, tomorrow we've arranged to take all our washing there and get it washed over the weekend.”
Stephen added that it will be especially difficult lugging all their washing on public transport to be washed as temperatures soared across the capital.
The family say they were first placed in a hotel in Fulham but found out on the morning of August 8 that they would be moving that same day.
Stephen said: "We couldn't check in until three and had to check out of another one at 12. [The council] wouldn’t pay the £10 surcharge and they wouldn't let me pay that either [as my name wasn't on the booking]. We had to wait in the foyer.
"The four-year-old just runs around. The 13-year-old is being assessed with autism and he can't sit still for long and the noise gets him worried.”
While Stephen has said his main concern is finding somewhere settled and secure for the sake of his four children, he also has his own issues that make it vital for him too.
Stephen said he has even had to have his medication increased due to the stress of his situation.
He added: "I suffer from agoraphobia. Going on buses is a no no unless I really have to do it, and while I'm away from the borough that I know I'm really anxious.
"My medications been upped to cope with this change.”
Since being moved from the Kensington and Chelsea borough he says it's been particularly difficult as his support system is far away.
"Everything is in that borough, all my mental health is in that borough," he went on.
"I need to keep updating mental health people of address change in case of emergency.
"Everything is in that borough. I've lived there since I was born. Everything is there. That's where I'm familiar with."
Stephen also suffers from a personality disorder and says he finds it frustrating how difficult it is to get answers from the council, adding: "They don’t get back to me. That's what's frustrating.
"I suffer from a personality disorder, if I send an email it gets frustrating. Okay, they're busy, [but] I’m just sitting here all day watching my emails because it gets more and more frustrating.
"It’s frustrating, I will search Google until I can’t read anymore more. I know there's a bit of rights that I have.
"I know there's a housing shortage for everybody but I have to fight for my kids, and I’ll do anything to make them pick up my case properly and assess it."
A Kensington and Chelsea Council spokesperson told the Mirror: “This is a unique situation and the Council has responded swiftly to a sudden change in circumstances to find the family involved a safe place to live while we carry out a full assessment.
“Housing, particularly larger family-sized homes, is in very short supply across London and we feel that shortage keenly in Kensington and Chelsea, which is a small, densely packed and expensive borough.
"We are taking steps to improve the situation, including by building 600 new homes, at least half of which will be available at social rent, addressing cases of housing fraud and by tackling the number of empty properties.”
