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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Andrew Kersley

‘They treat us like animals’: families waiting years for housing to take legal action against London council

Somali families who allege they were mistreated by Tower Hamlets housing and council, outside Tower Hamlets town hall in Whitechapel, London.
Somali families who allege they were mistreated by Tower Hamlets housing and council, outside Tower Hamlets town hall in Whitechapel, London. Photograph: Sophia Evans/The Observer

Dozens of families who have been waiting for social housing for several years, sometimes even decades, are set to take legal action against a London council, accusing it of corruption and racism.

The families, all of whom are Somali, claim they have been systemically removed from housing waiting lists by Tower Hamlets council due to their race, and some have been placed in severely unfit and unsafe homes that doctors say posed a major risk to their health.

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