Hala Kaizra, third from the left, joins the protest outside Islington’s housing office

HOUSING campaigners picketed the Town Hall’s offices to demand justice for a woman living with black mould and asbestos.

ACORN housing union picketed the Islington Access Hub in Upper Street, where the council’s housing officers work.

The group demanded to meet a member of the housing team to get Djazia Kaizra re-housed.

Her daughter, Hala, attended the protest on her behalf. She says that her mother has been forced to live with black mould and water leaking through light fittings for three years in her Seaforth Crescent flat in Highbury.

Although some repairs have taken place, her mother wants to be re-housed.

“My family doesn’t associate that house with home any more. I think it’s completely fair that my mum would get to start a new life somewhere else, and to be able to recover properly from all of the health issues and make a start fresh,” she said. “The council offered to put her in temporary accommodation, but I’m very wary of that because I’ve seen cases before where they put people in there and just forget about them.”

She added: “My mum was in an intensive care unit with Covid during lockdown.” The conditions of her home had affected her ability to recover. She said: “She’s been diagnosed with long Covid, has had breathing problems ever since, and been put on heart monitors from the hospital.

“My brothers have developed really bad coughs that could lead to asthma. I had health problems, but as soon as I moved out, the symptoms cleared up. I realised they were due to mould poisoning – my joints were always in pain, we had skin rashes all the time, allergies caused by the mould.”

Asbestos has been discovered in Ms Kaizra’s mother room and her brother’s. These rooms have now been sealed off and the family have all been forced to sleep in the living room.

A member of the Town Hall’s housing team met Ms Kaizra and promised to schedule a meeting with the council’s rehousing team by the end of the week. But Ms Kaizra says that the council did not begin to take her family’s complaints seriously until they involved ACORN.

“It seems this is the best way to get through to the council – just show up and be like ‘I’m not leaving until you deal with this,’ so I’m very glad we did this,” she said.

Islington’s housing lead councillor Una O’Halloran said: “We sympathise with the resident involved with this case, and we’re working with them to resolve the issues they have been experiencing.

“The council has already undertaken work at the property – this week we’ve been completing roofing works to address the root cause of the problem, and we have arranged for a qualified surveyor to visit the property again.

“In addition, we have reached out to the resident to discuss options for a potential transfer and we’re continuing to work with them to resolve this issue as quickly and effectively as possible.”