Family of six stuck in a tiny flat highlights 'tragic reality of the housing emergency'

A family with four young children have been living, sleeping and cooking in one small room for more than a year – costing them £1,436 a month – in a damning example of London’s overcrowding crisis.

- HOLLY BANCROFT

Rania Issa and Roshdi Basheer Ali have been living with their children, aged 13, 12, nine and two, in the cramped room in Brent for a year and eight months.

Rania said the conditions are making her eldest and youngest sons sick, one with a dry skin condition and the other with asthma. The property’s landlord has described the situation as “ridiculous”, and the council, which has offered the family temporary accommodation outside the borough, said it was an example of the “tragic reality of the housing emergency” in the capital.

When The Independent went to visit the family, the front door to the building – which is made up of six flats – could be forced open and the communal stairs were dirty, with paint peeling off the wall.

Rania said the children are only able to play on the small landing at the top of the stairs, which was also being used to dry and store clothes. A shared wardrobe on the landing is full of clothes that they cannot store inside their tiny flat.

With the help of translation from a friend, Rania said: “My youngest child has asthma and my eldest child has a skin condition, with dry skin. There are lots of bugs and there is no space for us to live.