Families experiencing homelessness in South London are stranded in a mouldy former office complex where their children are asleep at night due to broken fire alarms. Lewisham Council has temporarily housed a pregnant woman, a patient with stage four breast cancer, and parents with small children at the dilapidated Eros House in Catford, South East London.

Some of the 3,000 families in temporary housing in the borough are housed in individual apartments leased by Lewisham in the eight-story building on Brownhill Road. Families the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) spoke to claimed that the council had consistently failed to address problems such excessive damp, malfunctioning lifts, and temperamental alarms, despite the fact that the local authority's offices was less than a five-minute walk away.

One of the residents, Cherisse Waterman, 26, said the damp was so bad in her bedroom she had resorted to moving her bed and other furniture into her more spacious living room so she can keep furniture away from condensation on the walls. Ms Waterman, who has lived in the building since 2022 and is pregnant with her unborn daughter, added: "I've got my baby's belongings stored at other people's houses because I don't want mould on them. It's a very scary situation because of the mould and damp.

"I think of the child who passed away [two-year-old Awaab Ishak who died in 2020 after being exposed to mould in his flat in Rochdale, Greater Manchester]. And I don't want that to be me with my child.

"This is the last place in the world I would want to be living in. The problem with this building is that it was an office block. It's made with such cheap materials and it's past its sell-by date."

Ms Waterman also complained that she could only put the electric heater in the flat's bedroom on a low setting because if she turned it up higher it set off a heat alarm fitted above the radiator.

Another resident, mum Danielle McConville, said she'd had to throw away photo frames which had been damaged by mould in the five months since she moved into her eighth floor flat in the block in June.

The 35-year-old, who has stage four breast cancer, said: "I'm starting to have the window in my bedroom open because of the damp. I don't want mould in my bedroom, but why should I be cold? I've had to take everything off the windowsill and some of the stuff has been damaged."

She continued: "When the lift breaks, I'm having security carry my son up the stairs because I can't physically do it. It's a joke. It's the last stress I need and I feel like every week I'm on the phone because there are issues."

Her neighbour, mum Kia-Louise Simpson, 32, who has been living in the block since September, said the lifts were so unreliable they had broken down four times in her first week of living in Eros House.

Speaking on November 11, she said: "The fire brigade has been called out multiple times because there are faulty alarms. Two nights ago, the fire alarm went off and my kids were woken up.

"I've got mould on the windowsills and in me and my children's bedroom. This morning I left with the kids and we couldn't step through the double doors [in the corridor] because of rubbish. The people who run the building need to be more on top of it. It's horrible."

Dad Emmanuel Marshall, 41, who has lived in the block since November 2023 with his two-year-old son, added: "One of the flats had flooding in it. That's over a month now and my flat is [still] suffering. My next door neighbour bought a humidifier [following the flat flood] and put it on the floor but the floor is still wet.

"The flood made the carpet stink. There's mould on the carpets and mould on the ceiling. No matter how I try to heat the house up, it's not stopping it. My son has been coughing and he has a lung infection. I email the council and they say they will email you back. But they don't email back. It's frustrating."

Councillor Will Cooper, Lewisham's Cabinet Member for Better Homes, Neighbourhoods and Homelessness, said: "Our residents have a right to a properly maintained home, whether it is managed directly by us or leased from the private sector. We have recently inspected the building and spoken to residents, and we are engaging with the building's managing agent to address problems with the state of repair of the building in some areas.

"Like many other London councils, Lewisham is facing an acute and worsening housing crisis. We have 3,000 households in temporary accommodation and although we strive to ensure everyone is placed in suitable accommodation, spiralling housing costs and demand have made this extremely difficult.

"Local authorities like Lewisham need urgent assistance from central government to build new homes and tackle the rapid increase in numbers of residents needing temporary accommodation. Without additional help the crisis facing local authorities like ours is only likely to worsen."