Tower-Hamlets-Citizens-Report-FINAL-use-this

OVERCROWDINGThe other effect of high rents in Tower Hamlets isovercrowding. 50% of the people we spoke to do notfeel that they have enough bedrooms or living spaceto meet the needs of their family. This means thathalf of the borough is living in overcrowdedconditions.‘My 6 year old daughter is always woken up whenher older sister turns the light on as she goes to bed.Her sleep is disturbed and she is tired everymorning’Mum of Four,Council Tenant, Cyril Jackson Primary School, 19.03.14Overcrowding has a major impact on our lives. We spoke to a mum at Cyril Jackson Primary School inLimehouse who shares her 2 bedroom flat with her husband and four children. Her kids all share a bedroom,and each night, when her oldest daughter goes to bed, her 6 year old daughter is woken up by the light beingswitched on. This mum went on to say that her youngest wakes up tired every morning because her sleep hasbeen disturbed at night. For this little girl, overcrowding means feeling exhausted at school and having lessenergy to get on with her work or play with her friends.Another mum, Rabia from Stepney, talked about the impact of overcrowding on her kids. Four of them, girlsand boys, share a bedroom, and so each morning when they get dressed they want their brothers and sisters toleave the room. Because of this, her youngest son gets changed in the bathroom, where people have alreadybeen showering. This boy gets changed in the wet bathroom and starts every day with damp socks. The nextchance he gets to change them is when he gets home from school at four in the afternoon. For a small child,having wet socks is a challenge to the day before school has even begun.‘The cramped conditions cause me so much stress;I cannot relax at home, I cannot rest’Lotifa, Council Tenant,Burdett Estate, 09/03/14For older kids this lack of space means that there is nowhere for them to do their homework. Many parents toldus that they cannot fit a desk in their homes because they have to prioritise room for beds. This leaves childrento do their homework on the floor, on their bed or at the kitchen table. Mums and Dads are worried that theirchildren do not have any quiet space to concentrate on their studies, and that this will harm their grades.On top of this, children have no space to play indoors so many of them spend hours outside with their friends.This is fine in the summer, but in the winter it is too cold to stay out for long and teenagers face being coopedup indoors, bored and restless.A lack of space is not good for our personal relationships and mental health. Everyone needs a space of theirown to recharge get away from the world for a while. But high rents mean that people are living on top of eachother in cramped conditions. Based on our survey, the average number of people per bedroom in TowerHamlets is 1.9, compared to the London average of between 0.5 and 1.‘My 13 year old daughter is having to sleepin the same room as her parents, whilst herbrothers share the other room. Everybodylacks the privacy that they deserve’Mum of Four,Council Tenant, Shadwell, 26.03.14This causes problems when brothers and sisters have toshare, as both lack the privacy that they need as they growolder and become their own person. For adults, parents feelthat they have no space of their own in their home to beaway from their children and have some ‘me time’. We haveno space to breathe.