Grenfell 100 days: More than 150 fire survivors still living in hotels over three months after inferno

Fiona Simpson22 September 2017

More than 150 survivors of the Grenfell Tower blaze are still living in hotels and hostels 100 days on from the inferno.

Kensington and Chelsea Council said they “recognised too many people were still living in temporary accommodation” as it emerged just five families had secured a permanent home.

More than three months since the fire, the Grenfell Response Team, set up specifically to deal with former residents of the 24-storey block and nearby Grenfell Walk, said 153 households were still living in hotels and 41 in temporary accommodation.

In the aftermath of the disaster the number of people needed to be rehoused grew, due to splits in existing households, a spokesman for Kensington and Chelsea Council added.

Devastating blaze: Flames ripped through the 24-storey tower block

Some 65 households have accepted offers of temporary accommodation, which had been made to 171 families.

And 48 out of 56 households made offers of a permanent place to live have accepted.

Prime Minister Theresa May speaks with firefighters after the deadly blaze

Of the five households given a permanent place to live, one person had been placed outside of the borough, the council said.

Grenfell in numbers

129        Total number of Grenfell flats

109        Number of flats with survivors

  20        Number of flats with no survivors

240        Total number of survivors

  80        Estimated deaths

  60        Number of dead identified so far

    1        Number of orphans

£6.2M    Total raised so far by Evening Standard Dispossessed Fund (ESDF)

£5.2M    Amount paid out so far to survivors and next of kin by ESDF

138        Number of families receiving grants from ESDF 

£25k       Amount paid so far by ESDF to each survivor family 

£60k       Amount paid to next of kin of those who died from all public donations (including ESDF)

£25k       Amount paid to people seriously in the fire from all public donations (including ESDF)

   8         Number of suspected cases of fraud

   2         Number of people charged by police

The figures were released just hours after it emerged all of the children among at least 80 people killed in the blaze had been identified.

The GRT said: "We have worked closely with bereaved families first and foremost to find them a permanent home.

"We will only work at the pace that each family feels comfortable with.

Elizabeth Campbell was heckled as she spoke with survivors and residents
Nigel Howard

“Bereaved families make up some of the 48 households who have accepted an offer and who we are now helping to move into their new homes."

As the 100th day since flames ripped through the block, the charred skeleton of which still looms over west London, approached a further £5.5 million was pledged to help rehome survivors.

New grants will be made available to the 165 households whose homes were rendered uninhabitable, and those bereaved and seriously injured will also receive more funding from the British Red Cross, the Kensington and Chelsea Foundation and the London Emergencies Trust.

Inside Grenfell Tower

1/13

Each Grenfell Tower household will receive £15,000, while each Grenfell Walk household will be given £8,000.

Some £3.2m from the British Red Cross will go to the next of kin of those who died in the fire, and survivors who were hospitalised for at least a week.

Prime Minister Theresa May had pledged to ensure that survivors would be rehomed within three weeks soon after the deadly blaze on June 14.

Mrs May initially said in the aftermath of the fire that she had "fixed a deadline of three weeks for everybody affected to be found a home nearby".

Her comments were later clarified by Communities Secretary Sajid Javid, who claimed the deadline was for every survivor to have received an offer for a temporary new home.

A spokesman for the Grenfell Response Team said: “We recognise that there are still too many residents in hotels, and we are offering to move them to more suitable temporary homes.

“We do not want to rush anyone to make a decision and multiple offers are being made until households are completely happy to move. These are important decisions for families still suffering such pain and loss.”

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