The English media have dubbed it “the nightmare of social landlords”. At 23, Kwajo Tweneboaa student, has been interviewed by all the TV channels, by all the biggest newspapers… and one of his videos has been viewed over a million times in 24 hours on Twitter.
UPDATE:
The tweet below has now been seen
1 Million+ times in under 24h– I’ve been in contact with the tenants MP
-I emailed the CEO stressing I wanted the family rehousedIt has been confirmed an hour later by the CEO of L&Q the family will now be permanently rehoused https://t.co/TE2DAHWwht
— KWAJO-Social Housing (@KwajoHousing) February 3, 2022
This video shows him in front of the door of a social housing building in London, a door he struggles to open because the humidity has swollen the wood. In the apartment, the same: a leak of water drops near an electrical outlet. In the child’s room, cockroaches are so comfortable that they look like the real occupants. And the apartment doesn’t even have the excuse of being in an old building: it’s almost brand new. To support his video, Kwajo Tweneboa sends an email to the social landlord who manages this apartment in Lewisham, a district in south east London. An hour later, the family who lived in the hovel was rehoused.
If the student now spends part of his time documenting and denouncing poor housing, it is because he has experienced it himself. From 2018 to 2020, Kwajo and his sisters watch over a father dying of cancer, in an apartment fought over by flies, cockroaches and mice. For a year, he alerts, battles and storms against the owner, who is none other than the largest social landlord in Europe, with little or no result. With him, nothing is up to standard. When his father dies, Kwajo Tweneboa is convinced that poor housing hastened the end. So the young man tweets and posts some pictures of the apartment. The photos then circulate at high speed, like virality.
Faced with the outcry, the lessor apologizes and comes to repair. The student then sets out to tour the neighborhood. And sometimes it’s worse than at home,”it wouldn’t even fit an animal“, he said in a London newspaper. Again, the landlord admits, and promises repairs. Then there are thousands of messages in the mailbox of Kwajo Tweneboa, from all over the country. In Great Britain, more than 200,000 people live in moldy housing.
Kwajo Tweneboa describes himself as a social housing activist.
He says his own experience of living with damp, mold and vermin has made him want to fight for others. He’s now trying to help social housing tenants get better living conditions.https://t.co/rFjxDnoezv pic.twitter.com/vaMytOIruY— BBC London (@BBCLondonNews) December 9, 2021
Kwajo Tweneboa is nicknamed the Marcus Rashford of poor housing. Rashford, Manchester United pro footballer, made the British government bend over the food insecurity of disadvantaged children. It was during confinement, and without school, no free meals for little Brits.
If the footballer has succeeded in making things happen on a national scale, Kwajo Tweneboa not yet. So, he apostrophes and hits the politicians: “It should be a national scandal, he saidbut it remains secret, hidden under the rug“. He notes: despite the stakes, it does not interest either power, or opposition, any party. No wonder, according to him: no politician – or almost – grew up in HLM.