In 2022 I was contacted by a friend of a friend – let’s call her Tiana – who was distraught. Her mum had become sick a few months earlier, so Tiana, who was her mum’s only child, had moved out of her own house and into her mum’s flat in south London, to care for her. Then, in March 2022, her mum died suddenly. Before Tiana even had the chance to arrange her funeral, she received an eviction notice from the council, giving her only a few days to move out. Her mum had lived there for 20 years. Tiana asked them for a two-week extension on compassionate grounds, to give her time to sort through her mum’s stuff and figure out where she was going to live. They wouldn’t give it to her.
I met Tiana at the top-floor flat a week after her mum’s funeral. The council had told her she had to be out that day, and they were coming to change the locks at 2pm. All her mum’s medical equipment was piled up outside on the landing; the district nurses hadn’t had a chance to come and collect it yet. Tiana didn’t know what to do with the rest of her mum’s stuff, or her own. She couldn’t afford to pay for storage; she was on benefits.
