A housing association has been forced to apologise after a film posted online exposed the rat-infested living conditions facing elderly residents in a residential home in Lewisham.
Entitled Life in St Mauritius House, the seven-minute long film is narrated by Maureen Bryan who said she has seen some "heartbreaking" things during her father's time as a resident.
Situated near Lewisham Park, St Mauritius House is a sheltered accommodation scheme for elderly residents which is managed by Hyde Housing.
In the film, produced by her son and professional film-maker Omari, Ms Bryan said: "My 86-year-old father has been resident her the last three years.
"Over the last few months I have seen and noticed some things that have been heartbreaking and appalling."
Residents explain how they've lived with leaking ceilings and a worsening rodent infestation, despite shelling out their own money on traps, while one tenant was left without lighting for 145 days.
One of the residents, who has seen conditions in St Mauritius House deteriorate over the last eight years, said "it appears as if we don't exist".
One of the residents who said "it appears as if we don't exist".
Tashema Jackson, whose grandfather is a resident, said they were shocked by the response from the video which has been viewed more than 21,000 times.
The 29-year-old from Lee said the benefit of sheltered accommodation rather than a care home is having relatives and loved ones come to stay, something that has been impossible for their family.
She told News Shopper: "They should feel independent, comfortable in that environment - right now it's sub-standard living "Any other landlord would be in a hell of a lot of trouble for this sort of thing."
As Hyde Housing begin to clean up the accommodation, Miss Jackson said she is pleased to finally see action.
She added: "There's definitely a sense of relief but there's some major, major questions that need to be answered before we can feel 100 per cent comfortable."
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Carol Carter, Hyde's group director of housing has apologised, admitting "this level of service is not acceptable".
She said: "There will be an investigation to understand how we failed in this instance to make sure it does not happen again."
Ms Carter said she visited St Mauritius House on Monday to give residents her "personal assurances" that Hyde will improve.
She added: "On Thursday morning (January 7) I directed senior housing staff to St Mauritius House to rectify the problems highlighted in the video.
"I issued a personal letter of apology to each resident later that day which included commitments on what would happen and when to quickly resolve the outstanding issues.
"Most of the repair issues mentioned in the film have now been fixed and we’re working to complete the few remaining repairs as soon as possible this week.
"Residents will be compensated for any reasonable costs incurred for vermin treatment in their homes during the time it has taken to resolve the current situation.
"We will investigate the reasons for the issues at St Mauritius taking too long to resolve to make sure such this situation doesn’t occur again."
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