A rare thing happened yesterday. (From Haringey Independent)

A rare thing happened yesterday.

9:31am Thursday 21st June 2007

• Print
• Email

A rare thing happened yesterday.

I received a letter of thank you from a reader of the newspaper. It's not rare that I was given a letter, or the sentiment; although that doesn't happen every day. But it was the reason why I was being thanked that was more surprising.

Last week I wrote a story about a disabled lady living in completely inappropriate council accommodation in Tottenham with her three children – one of which is also suffering with a disability that can render him wheelchair-bound. The long and the short of it is she shouldn't be living there and Haringey Council was either unable or unwilling to do more to help.

Unfortunately her story is not rare either and in the relatively short time I have been a journalist here I have heard what at least feels like a disproportionate number of these kinds of tales.

Often when you write a story with a real human angle you hope it can make a difference but usually it doesn't. And in a borough with a real housing crisis and 25,000 people on the waiting list to just find bricks and mortar, it’s going to take something inspirational to resolve this issue.

I don't know how much printing her story was the catalyst for the council to step up and take some serious action but if it did any good I am really happy. Sort of.

This isn’t a 'pat on the back' exercise. These are real people with real lives. It’s a sad situation that exposing a story is possibly what made the housing department contact this tenant.

More importantly this is a drop in the ocean and the borough is heading towards saturation point, with more people coming into Haringey all the time. I am not pointing the finger at any one person or department, and I clearly do not have the answers. But all the resources possible need to be ploughed into ending this genuine crisis as an absolute priority.

After all, charity does begin at home.