Hackney Green Party campaigner Augusta Itua has been working with current and former residents of the hostel to improve conditions. Concerns have been raised about Ridley Villas for years and an investigation by the Hackney Gazette in 2018 with the help of Green Party campaigner Dr Alex Armitage found overcrowded, damp, rodent-infested and squalid conditions inside the building. Conditions haven’t improved. 

Currently dozens of people live in Ridley Villas and the owners collect an estimated £700,000 in public money every year for housing people in the £192 a week rooms. Hackney Green Party is calling on Hackney Council to take urgent action to tackle this issue and provide suitable and safe accommodation to the residents of Ridley Villas. 

We are putting pressure on the council to address this situation and we need your support. On 18 February 2021 we made additional Freedom of Information requests to Hackney Council and Hackney Police. Augusta is asking the following question at the next Full Council meeting on 24 February 2021: 

• What actions will Hackney Council take to address the concerns raised by current and former residents of Ridley Villas Hostel about the poor living conditions and unfit accommodation provided to them by the local authority? 

You can help by writing to your local councillor. We've drafted the below email template to make this a bit easier, but you can write your own email if you'd prefer. If you get a response, we'd love to see it, so please forward it to us by emailing [email protected]. 

We’ll post updates here. 

Email your councillor 

You can find your councillor here – you’ll need to know the ward you live in, click on the [+] on the photo to get the councillor’s email address.

To: @hackney.gov.uk

Subject line: IMPROVE THE CONDITIONS OF RIDLEY VILLAS HOSTEL 

Dear Councillor X 

I am writing to you as I am extremely concerned for the residents in Ridley Villas, Dalston.  

The council pays the Ridley Villas’ landlords hundreds of thousands of pounds in taxpayers’ money to house Hackney’s homeless in shocking conditions. 

The terrible conditions were reported in the Hackney Gazette in 2018 and, we know from current and former residents, that the situation has not improved. 

This is why I ask that the council: 

• take immediate action to demand that the landlords improve the conditions of Ridley Villas;

• confirm what actions it will take to address the concerns raised by current and former residents of Ridley Villas about the poor living conditions and unfit accommodation provided to them by the local authority.

Many thanks,

(Insert name and postcode)