We were recently contacted by an autistic mum who had seen our support of another vulnerable mum and her two children here:
This mum has a young baby and two autistic sons aged 6 and 8. She is a Greenwich Council resident, and after becoming homeless she and her children were placed in temporary accomodation above a busy pub in Walworth Road down near Elephant and Castle.
This was the first support letter we sent for her to Greenwich Council:
Dear __________
I'm contacting you from Autistic Inclusive Meets, we are an autistic led organisation based in Woolwich SE London. We are currently supporting your client _______ and her three children:
___________ ___________ and _________.
_________ and her children have been placed in temporary accomodation by your Royal
Greenwich Council out of borough at:
______________.
__________ is a vulnerable single mother with an autistic son, ________. Her other son ______ is also due to be referred to the Community Paediatricians to get onto the diagnostic pathway for autism as soon as the family has stable accommodation.
_____ and _____ have no awareness of danger, neither can pre empt consequences and
both have no fear of strangers. Both of them run out into the road if startled in any way, they are housed on a busy main road above a busy bustling pub.
Neither child possess the awareness of danger to ignore people that are approaching the
little family when they go out, they have been asked where they are going by strangers
hanging around outside the pub doors.
The children have also been questioned regarding what their names are and what their
address is; this is extremely concerning; and ________ is quite rightly finding this scary and unsettling.
Many of the residents of the temporary accommodation you have placed them in are
regularly drunk and appear to be under the influence of drugs.
________ has to leave her children unattended in the room to be able to use the toilet, the
room has a lock that is very easy to open, and _____ and ______ are both elopement risks.
They have tried repeatedly to get out of the room.
It's a miracle nothing tragic has befallen these two children, as it is; _______ has to barricade
the door at night to protect them and stop them from escaping. This is affecting ______
sleep and placing her into a constant state of panic with fight or flight reactions. This is an extremely dangerous situation for them all to be in.
One of the children has regressed in their toileting due to this placement and is now
suffering from incontinence at night. The owners only allow changes of sheets once a week and ________ is struggling to find places to wash and dry them. This is unhygienic, she
urgently needs access to laundering facilities.
________ has no support in the area she has been placed in. Both children find travelling on
public transport hard and its a long ride by bus up to where _______ family live in Charlton.
One of the children get travel sick and threw up on the bus last week to the extent that the
bus driver had to terminate the service and evacuate the bus.
There's also the matter of the family having to share a bathroom and toilet with many other
residents who do not leave the facilities clean. _______ cannot bathe the children there due
to the low cleanliness standards. She also cannot cook there as the kitchen is not for
resident's use.
This has led to her spending a lot of her money on takeaways which are not adequately
nutritious for her or the children.
We ask that you please, as a matter of urgency; get this family moved back up to Greenwich
borough and into a secure temporary flat where she can cook for her children, and they can
safely use the toilet and bathroom.
______ and her children also cannot access the social group sessions we run which her
children so badly need.
I stress again that ________ family including her sister and mother, both live in Charlton.
Please look into this matter immediately as there are multiple safeguarding risks at thei current accommodation.
Thank you
Emma Dalmayne
Unfortunately after an incident at the pub yesterday the police had to be called, I went along to support _______ with my husband, AIM Director Owen Liddle.
_________ was nervous and cautious about calling the police, so I did the call with her, and subsequently waited with her and her children until the police came. They were very helpful and were horrified to hear that ________ would have no choice but to go back with her children to stay the night again, as even if she could have stayed anywhere else, Greenwich Council would immediately take away her temporary accomodation if she had not stayed there the night and signed in.
The incident is outlined here in the letter we sent this morning:
Dear _________, _________ and ______,
Yesterday I went to support your client ________ in Hornfair Park in Charlton, to call the police concerning an incident that had happened at half past 12 at _______ pub.
_________ was distressed and terrified, and her children had been scared by three drunk men
at the pub that your Greenwich Council have placed them above in temporary housing.
One of the men had attempted to take _______ three month old daughter out of her car
seat. ________ had never seen these men before, and there would be no reason for this man to have done this.
The police attended the park and were very good, the CAD number for this incident is
______/19052024. They have also put this down as a safeguarding concern.
We ask that you move _________ and her children today. She desperately needs to be moved back up to the Greenwich borough where her family is, and where we are based so we can help them.
This is now an extremely dangerous situation for a young vulnerable mother to be in with
three children; one an infant and two are autistic.
________ family and us here at Autistic Inclusive Meets will be holding Greenwich Council
responsible if any harm comes to her or her children.
Yours sincerely,
Emma Dalmayne.
We will keep this post updated, this situation is extremely dangerous and concerning.
Photo posted for proof of situation and sent to housing. Consent obtained for posting.
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