TENANTS facing eviction and already evicted tenants at Sweets Way housing estate in Barnet, north london, came together for a community ‘Fun Day’ yesterday.
They had music, a barbecue, games for the children, a football match and a singalong.
Hundreds of tenants have been evicted from the estate in just the past few weeks and there are only seven families left living there.
Enid Mutesi told News Line: ‘I moved out of here last Wednesday.
‘I’ve had a very traumatic time. I fell on the stairs on Tuesday afternoon at 3.30pm. I called an ambulance, I was bleeding.
‘I went to Barnet Hospital where they checked me out. I had a cut on my head, they put glue there.
‘Even up to now, walking and breathing is difficult.
‘On Wednesday morning, I was crawling downstairs for a cup of tea and there was a bang on the door.
‘It was the removal. I said “look at my face, I can’t walk, I’m in pain, maybe come another day.”
‘They drove off and called Barnet Homes. Then a man and a woman came. They thought I was lying and were still insisting I had to go.
‘They were there for more than two hours. They said that because they had rented the removals, and the storage, if I don’t go I’ll have to meet the costs myself.
‘After a long time of trying to convince them, they threw me out.’
She showed News Line a framed picture ‘this is a picture of my parents, I just found it in the bin’.
She continued: ‘So they moved me into this place with no chair to sit on, no TV, no saucepans.
‘I’ve got a 14-year-old son. My son wasn’t aware we were moving. After school he came back here and I had to get a minicab to come back and get him.’
Rejane Barbosa lives on the estate with her two young daughters.
She said: ‘I’ve lived here since 2009 on the private renting sector.
‘It’s building up on us, all the stress, all the fear, all the uncertainty about the future, about my children’s lives, who are at school here just five minutes away.
‘These are lovely homes that should not be demolished. It’s disgusting.’
Anna Kasperek told News Line: ‘What they are trying to do here is get rid of all the poor people and make it a rich borough.
‘They are demolishing our estate to build over-priced property for already-rich landlords to get even richer by over-pricing the rent.’
