Children living in rat infested homes as lockdown in Leeds adds to city's child poverty burden

Children in Leeds are living under lockdown in rat and mice infested homes, shocking new accounts from a local charity have revealed.
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Zarach, started last year to provide beds and pyjamas for children in the city that literally didn't have their own after a teacher noticed a pupil in her class had bed bugs.

Demand for the work Zarach was doing started to grow anyway but, since the outbreak of the cornavirus pandemic, the organisation has found itself paying for private properties to be fumigated as the usual system for arranging it has become too slow.

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Rebekah Wilson says since the end of March parents have been contacting the charity and sending her pictures of the bites on their children begging for help. There are also images of mice and rats running around in the kitchen. One fumigator said a house he cleaned in Leeds was the worst he had ever seen.

Children in Leeds are living in mice and rat infested accommodation.Children in Leeds are living in mice and rat infested accommodation.
Children in Leeds are living in mice and rat infested accommodation.

In this Yorkshire Evening Post series looking at how the fallout from coronavirus will impact even worse those that were already suffering from the effects of social inequality, we hear of how seven people are sleeping in a one bedroomed flat and how working families still can't make ends meet.

Mrs Wilson said: "Parents are sending photos of bites and videos of mice and rats in the kitchen. For fumigation you normally go through the system with private landlords but when they are spending all day every day at home, that is not okay. Rogue landlords and the system is slow enough as it is so we will just get it fumigated and pay for it ourselves."

So far Zarach has paid for nine properties to be fumigated with it costing up to £600 for each and families have literally been left out in the cold.

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Mrs Wilson added: "We get reports back from the fumigators and the technician said one of them was the worst he had ever seen. Bed bugs, mice and rats in the same house and they pay a fortune to live in that a month - it is ridiculous.

Teacher Rebekah Wilson set up the charity Zarach after a pupil turned up to class with bedbugs.Teacher Rebekah Wilson set up the charity Zarach after a pupil turned up to class with bedbugs.
Teacher Rebekah Wilson set up the charity Zarach after a pupil turned up to class with bedbugs.

"Families have had to sit upstairs while they do the downstairs and after two and a half hours they can come back. Some days were freezing and they had to be out for hours with young children but we had to do it."

The charity recently gave a sofa bed to a family that has seven people staying in a one bedroomed flat for two people to sleep on. It is an example of how the housing system has slowed down as bidding has stopped on council houses and more and more people are stuck in unsuitable accommodation.

It has provided games, jigsaws and crayons to a single dad living in a tower block with three children and struggling to keep them entertained. And, in another instance where Zarach was called upon, they put up a garden gate at a back to back property where a family with a deaf and autistic child were unable to go outside as he kept running into the road.

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Mrs Wilson said: "There are not the services that you would usually go to for these things. We are having to branch into other things we have not done before just to try and help. It might be a support act outside the remit but we know what makes a big impact and the biggest difference."

Since lockdown started on March 23, Zarach has also also helped to feed hundreds of people with the distribution of 250 food parcels, 200 food shops as well as paying to top up gas and electricity for families that are struggling to make ends meet even if they are still in work.

There is also a need to look beyond the one week emergency food parcel towards how the system is working to help families move forward and become more stable.

Mrs Wilson said: "A family might be eligible for universal credit but can't access it until they have got photo ID but can't go out to get it and haven't got any money. Some organisations say you can only have one food parcel and it is an emergency. If they needed a food parcel last week, they are going to need one this week and next week and then there is gas and electricity on top.

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"It is tricky for everyone but who is responsible for the well-being of these families. If they have no recourse to public funds we will take them on but I don't know how long we can afford to keep it up. It is about getting them into a better state and being able to move forward into the future.

"The support services that were there for families like ours will be suffering, the future of charities and support services is at risk. And there is the trauma of what they have been through, are going through and will continue to go through. Trying to re-build life is really difficult."

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