A traumatised young mum and her autistic son have been told they have to go back to live in Twinnell House, despite doctors telling council housing chiefs the prospect would damage their health.
And Selma Muuse said the way Bristol City Council has dealt with her and her six-year-old son since the fatal fire in the tower block in Easton has ‘added more trauma after trauma’, with police being called to evict her from a hotel room, and she and her son being moved around between five different hotels.
She said she asked Bristol Mayor Marvin Rees in person to help her eight days ago and she said after she described what had happened to her since the fire, he told her the way the council had treated her was ‘disgusting’, but since then the treatment has continued.
The young mum said she and her son had to escape through a burning door on the night of the fire which claimed the life of her neighbour on the top floor, Abdul Jabar Oryakhel. She said both her and her son have been left traumatised by the incident and she could not physically go back to the building when the Mayor made his visit there five days after the fire in September.
Now Bristol City Council has given her an ultimatum with three choices. The first is the offer of a permanent new home in one of two flats available in two tower blocks in Hartcliffe. The second is that she returns to her flat in Twinnell House and waits for housing officers to find a different home in the local area, or the third is that she is on the streets.
Since the fire in the early hours of September 25, Selma and her son, who has special education needs and a place at City Academy in Easton, have been put up in a hotel by Bristol City Council. They have been moved around a lot - between five different hotels in the city centre and Temple Meads area, and city council housing chiefs have changed their decision on Selma’s future four times. The issue is whether, by refusing to return to Twinnell House, Selma would making herself intentionally homeless, or whether she has medical grounds to refuse.
“The first week in the hotel, they said me and my son would be rehoused. Then they said no house, it would be temporary accommodation, then they said no I would have to go back to Twinnell House, and then they said I would have to go and present myself as homeless at the council offices at Temple Meads,” she said. "They said they wanted to see more medical evidence, so I provided this. Then they made a decision that I would be rehoused, then said they had 'unmade' that decision - that was the word they used, 'unmade' - and I would have to go back to Twinnell House," she added.
On October 13, she attended a meeting of tower block residents in BS5 to ask questions of the council about fire safety, and told the meeting in detail what happened to her and her son when they realised there was smoke coming in under the door of their top floor flat. She said she wanted to ask council officials and the Mayor of Bristol about her situation - then almost three weeks after the fire which left her homeless, but neither the Mayor or anyone from Bristol City Council turned up to the meeting.
A week later, as she was moved around between hotels, and still trying to sort out her situation without success, another fire in a block of flats happened in Barton Hill last week. Residents were again evacuated and looked after in a church hall nearby, and that morning, Thursday, October 20, Selma said she went to help.
“I went over there to help out looking after them because I know what it is like to be in their situation. Some of the council officers who were there recognised me from Twinnell House and asked how I was doing and when I explained that I was still in a hotel, they told me to wait and see the Mayor when he came to visit later.
“I spoke to the mayor. I told him I had sent him emails and emails over the past few weeks and he had not responded. I told him that I couldn’t go back to Twinnell House, that I woke up in the middle of the night because I could smell smoke, I went to open my front door and the door handle was too hot to touch. I got the door open and the other side of my front door was on fire, the home opposite was on fire and the door wasn’t there, and it was just flames. I told the Mayor that I was being moved around hotels and all the problems I was having.
“The Mayor said to me: ‘This is disgusting that you’ve been treated like this, and we will sort it out’. He put me in touch with a senior council housing officer and I began communicating with him,” she said.
But five days later, on Tuesday this week, she was still in a hotel, the Holiday Inn, and the booking at the hotel was coming to an end. “The hotel manager knocked on my door and said I had to leave," said Selma. "I told her I had nowhere to go. She said that the council’s booking was over and they had not extended it, and I was trespassing. She said they had called the council and they said they were not paying any more. She went and got another manager and a bigger security guy. They told me ‘you are leaving, whether we remove you or the police do’, and they said they would call the police.
“This was more trauma for me and my son. He was hiding. If someone knocks on the door now, he’ll hide under the bed because he thinks the police are coming to arrest his mother,” Selma told Bristol Live. Eventually that day, the room stay was extended and the following day Selma was moved to another hotel - the fifth she has stayed at since the fire on September.
On Wednesday this week, she was given an ultimatum - the choice of two flats in Hartcliffe, permanently - or move back to Twinnell House while the search for a more suitable property continues.
“I don’t know Hartcliffe, I have never been there, but it is a long way from Easton and I don’t know how I would be able to get my son to school every day,” Selma said. “His autism means he struggles with long journeys - we have a special card which means that if I have to get off a bus with him because he is not coping with it, I can get on another bus and continue my journey. I don’t know what would happen if we had to go from Hartcliffe to Easton to go to school.”
“I was advised to think carefully before taking this offer by the council housing manager who made it, who said it would be ‘a culture shock’ for me to move there.
“I do know that I can’t go back to Twinnell House, I am traumatised by what happened. My son is traumatised. He has autism and since the fire and all the moving around, his wellbeing and his emotional state have not been good,” she added.
Selma has been told she must decide by Monday when her hotel booking runs out again, and either go to Twinnell House to her former home there, or accept a flat in Hartcliffe. Bristol Live has approached Bristol City Council for a comment on their handling of her case, and a response is awaited.
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