A tenant representative told housing officers that people affected by black mould in their homes feel that they are being blamed.
Coldean Independents rep Heather Hayes raised the issue at a Brighton and Hove City Council housing panel meeting where councillors and officials discuss issues with residents.
Last year, Ms Hayes’s organisation joined with Hollingdean Residents’ Association to highlight the problems with black mould in council homes.
The official policy now is not to blame residents but to give advice on how to reduce black mould risk by ventilating rooms.
But Ms Hayes told housing and maintenance managers that this was not the experience council tenants have when they ask for help tackling damp and black mould.
She told a panel meeting yesterday (Monday 4 December): “Some people are living in overcrowded conditions through no fault of their own. I think this is wrong to say to them ‘it’s your fault’.
“It’s come back to me when I’ve helped tenants and contacted the council on damp repairs: ‘Oh, they’re coming back again.’
“They’re overcrowded. There’s a shortage of properties for council tenants. They’re not all lucky enough to be rehoused.
“People coming to treat the repairs say it’s because you don’t open the windows, you don’t do this, you don’t do that.”
She said that some people also have to choose between heating their homes and eating at this time of year.
The council’s head of housing repairs and maintenance Grant Richie said that he understood the challenges facing families, adding that getting the message across in the right way was difficult.
He said: “There is a need to open windows periodically when you’re cooking (and) drying clothes but that shouldn’t be a blame thing. It should be an education thing.
“I don’t think we get that right. We will keep working on that. We have changed our publicity and had talks with our contractors and with our own staff about how the issue is approached and it should be advisory.
“If you’ve got five people in a property … there are a number of things that can contribute to damp and condensation.”
Mr Richie said that there was usually no one cause – although the lack of places to dry clothes in blocks of flats was also raised at the meeting for tenants and leaseholders in the northern part of Brighton and Hove.
The council’s assistant housing director Martin Reid said that the housing ombudsman had made it clear that tenants must not be blamed.
He said: “We don’t seek to do that. We can always improve. We recognise there will be structural and other issues that cause damp and condensation. There are different issues in different homes. There is not one size fits all.”
Heard from a friend today that their CEO of the company they work for has been told by BHCC that BHCC is about to go bankrupt and housing stock is to be sold
Problem is, and perhaps this answer was forgotten from before, is that the solution to black mould is to open a window and put heating on full – which of course, no-one can afford to do.
Treatment paints and cleaning affected walls can go quite a way, and I know BHCC have been looking at doing this for some of the worst issues.
I’m wondering if even some temporary loaning of machinery to treat the environment it is growing in could be moving towards a solution.