The rodent problem in west London has become quite problematic, and so has the response from the Housing trusts when it comes to dealing with them, take for example Mrs I.
Mrs I is in her late 70's lives alone and, due to age and physical incapacity's including asthma is considered vulnerable. One morning last weekend Mrs I got up from bed, went to make herself tea and some breakfast and found Mice droppings all over her kitchen work surfaces, she became upset at the thought that mice may have been leaving droppings etc in her food and so out of fear decided not to eat anything in the house. Entering her bedroom to dress herself and tidy she found the mice droppings in her bed just half an hour after she had gotten up. Realising she had slept in the droppings and, Fighting to stay calm Mrs I phoned her Housing Trust and told them that her house had suddenly seemed to become infested with the prolific dung dumpers, the Housing trust listened, then told Mrs I that they would be sending round a pest control team to deal with the problem the following morning. the night that followed was for Mrs I a sleepless one, spent sitting in her sitting room armchair terrified of mice running all over her if she tried to sleep in her own bed. The sight of Mice running around her living room floor and the scurrying noises they made didn't help either.
By next morning Mrs I was a bundle of nerves, the only thing that kept her spirits up was the knowledge that the pest controllers would be around that day.
By the late afternoon Mrs I was becoming frantic and very upset waiting for the pest controllers, it was then that she called up a friend from a couple of streets away, a pensioner herself. Her friend phoned the Housing trust for the panicky Mrs I and tried to find out what time the pest controllers would be arriving "they're not coming" was the eventual nonchalant reply given by the trust, when asked why the appointment had been cancelled and why Mrs I hadn't been informed about the cancellation the friend was only told "you never know with that lot", the person from the Housing trust also flatly refused to make another appointment that day, he would not say why and told Mrs I's friend only to phone back the next day.
The next day came and after her second night in the armchair watching and listening to the rodents Mrs I was ragged at the seams, she had not eaten or drunk anything other than the takeaway sandwiches and couple of small bottles of water brought round for her because she was scared to drink anything at home in case rodents had done their business in her cups.
She again phoned her friend and asked her to contact the trust, the friend phoned half expecting the trust to say "what time today", but was instead told that they would not be sending anyone out today either and that tomorrow was the soonest someone would be sent, Mrs I would have to spend a third night in her armchair, the Mouse droppings were now spread about most of the house and were even on the hall near the front door, at night they were everywhere, leaving their signature droppings all over the floors, work surfaces, furniture and bedding. The trust eventually sent someone round the on the forth day, but by then Mrs I was an emotional mess and still found sleeping in bed an unpleasant experience.
It took days of calling the trust repeatedly before they took any action to help the elderly, vulnerable resident who had spent three nights and four days in an armchair terrified of the mice, she had endured days watching them run around the floors, cupboards, etc and became distressed that the thought that they had crawled and pooped all over her while she slept in her bed.
The housing trust knew that 'Mrs I' is a vulnerable tenant and yet they chose not to act to rectify the situation despite knowing the old lady was in distress. I don't think (at least i hope not) that this situation arose because the trust is tyrannical unemotional machine, but something went wrong.
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