FAMILIES facing eviction from RAF Uxbridge and homelessness heard little to ease their worries at a meeting to discuss their future.
The people living in the former RAF accommodation will be evicted next month, and at a crisis meeting on Tuesday last week they met Notting Hill Housing Association (NHHA) officials and Hillingdon Council officers to plead for help.
But Neil Stubbings, the council’s deputy director for housing, said they might have to leave the borough, and uproot their children from school.
“There are no council houses in Hillingdon so the best situation is to stay in the private rental section,” he said at the meeting. “There is up to a 14-year wait for permanent social housing.”
One mother, who did not wish to be named, said: “We have been moved eight times in the last 10 years. We can’t carry on living like this.”
NHHA secured some of the former service personnel flats for the period between the RAF vacating its former camp off Hillingdon Road, Uxbridge, and its redevelopment by VSM Estates.
Some of those present said they had felt rushed into signing their contract in 2011, and although it is a six month rolling lease, they were told they would be in the homes for at least three years.
It was put to NHHA that they must have known about the eviction and contingency plans should have been made for the families. Its representatives at the meeting told the families it is not unknown for such a situation to occur.
VSM wants the site to be vacant so its contractors can get on with clearing it. Large piles of rubble and debris from demolition sit yards from where the last remaining families live.
In a statement after the meeting, NHHA said: “We will be working closely with Hillingdon Council and local agents to help source suitable alternative accommodation.
“Regrettably, the decision not to renew the lease at the ex-RAF site is out of our control, as the site has been earmarked for development.”
Mr Stubbings said the council had a duty of care to people declaring themselves homeless and that they would be moved into bed and breakfast accommodation as a last resort, but did not confirm where that might be.
Families are unlikely to get help with storage and moving costs or compensation for home improvements made. Cases will be reviewed on an individual basis.
