Mariko Toyoshima-Lewis says Kensington and Chelsea council robbed her of dignity
Tue 9 Apr 2019 12.15 BST
Last modified on Tue 9 Apr 2019 19.00 BST
A disabled Grenfell Tower survivor has accused Kensington and Chelsea council of robbing her of her dignity and making her trauma worse by putting her up in accommodation where she was unable to use the bathroom.
In her first interview since the fire, Mariko Toyoshima-Lewis, 43, said she had had to leave the hotel where she lived with her three young children for 16 months, every time she needed to use the toilet or have a shower, because her wheelchair would not fit into the bathroom.
When she was unable to make the journey to an accessible bathroom in another hotel five minutes away, she had to use a commode, which her children Kohana, 11, Taiyou, 9, and Aozora, 7, had to empty for her. Because she was unable to get into the bathroom she was forced to wash her son in a bucket.
“The council do not care about human dignity,” said Toyoshima-Lewis, a former teacher from Japan. “The way they have treated me and my children has made our trauma from the fire so much worse.”
Toyoshima-Lewis’s account of her treatment comes almost two years after the Grenfell Tower fire, which left 202 households in need of rehousing. She and her children are among the 19 that are still in temporary accommodation, hotels or serviced apartments.
Their wait for a permanent home has been beset with problems. The children have multiple food allergies and have had hospital treatment on several occasions after having an adverse reaction to the hotel food.
Toyoshima-Lewis struggled to transfer from her wheelchair to the hotel bed as it was too narrow and she could not reach the keyhole of the hotel room door. Kohana used the bathroom to do her homework in as there was no other quiet space available. She obtained a microwave and said she had to survive on Pot Noodles with the water boiled in the microwave as she was unable to reach the kettle.
After the fire the council promised the family permanent accessible accommodation, but almost two years on she is still waiting for it to be completed. After spending 18 months in hotel accommodation, Toyoshima-Lewis in desperation accepted some temporary accommodation in Ladbroke Grove last December that it is not fully adapted for a wheelchair user.
There is a gleaming kitchen that she is unable to use because she cannot reach the sink, stove or cupboards in her wheelchair. Instead the council has installed a table for her to use. The council – currently working to remodel a new permanent property – is also understood to be providing a support package to her including carers to help her several hours a day.
Toyoshima-Lewis and her children moved into Grenfell Tower in July 2016. She is confined to a wheelchair because of a degenerative disc problem and has other health problems.
Toyoshima-Lewis and her family lived in flat 9 on the third floor of Grenfell Tower. Like the hotel bathroom, her Grenfell front door was too narrow to fit a wheelchair into and she had to leave her electric wheelchair and scooter outside and transfer to a smaller manual wheelchair inside the flat.
On the night of the fire her children and her ex-husband, who was with the family at the time, were rescued first. The children did not want to be separated from their mother but she persuaded them to go with the firefighters. She was terrified she would never see them again.
“I kept smiling at my children,” she said. “I didn’t want them to panic. I told them: ‘Mummy is coming later.’” She demonstrated how she forced herself to smile through her terror to try to keep her children calm. Then she became overwhelmed by vivid memories of that horrific night. “It was so hot, I prayed for my children and for their future,” she said.
For months afterwards her children were too scared to sleep in case they were separated from her again. All are still deeply traumatised and are desperate to move into safe, permanent accommodation.
“The council don’t care about human dignity. I was too ashamed to speak out before about what has been happening to me since the fire but now I want people to know what is going on. Enough is enough.”
Her solicitor, Albert Harwood of Howe+Co solicitors, said: “Despite assurances from the council that the family would be provided with a fully disabled-adapted permanent home, 22 months later they are still waiting. Mariko is a very private and dignified woman and was very reluctant to share her story publicly. But she felt that for the sake of her children and other disabled people facing similar problems, she had no choice but to speak out.”
A Kensington and Chelsea council spokesperson said: “Our council continues to do all we can to make sure those affected by the Grenfell tragedy receive the care and support they need and that they are rehoused at a pace that suits them. We tried every route to secure more homes quickly. Alongside the home-buying programme, we have been working hard to make the properties we have bought into places that meet families’ needs and that they can call home. We have been working with them to do so in incredibly complex circumstances. We are nearly there, but we will not be rushing the last few families to meet artificial deadlines.”
