Security issues and mould: Challenges our guests face in accommodation

September 2025 Quarterly Frontline Snapshot  

Welcome to our fifth Quarterly Frontline Snapshot – this time spotlighting barriers our guests experience after they've been housed. 

Glass Door Homeless Charity’s year-round Casework Service operates out of partnering day centres in West and South West London, providing expert advice and support to people experiencing or at risk of homelessness in London. Our open access policy means that no matter who you are or where you are from, you can turn to us for support. 

Each year, our caseworkers support hundreds of people to move into stable, long-term housing. Because our goal is to break the cycle of homelessness for good, the support we offer often does not end once someone is housed. Caseworkers will keep in contact with guests to ensure their housing is right for them, or there might be a health of immigration matter that needs continued support.  

What are some of the biggest barriers our guests and caseworkers currently face? 

While our previous snapshots have focused on barriers that make it harder for people to make their way out of homelessness, this blog will instead look at some of the challenges our guests face when in housing, as shared by our frontline caseworkers. 

Damp and mould 

Damp and mould are prevalent across various types of accommodation. When our guests make a complaint about it, they are often told that it is their fault, even when there has been no proper assessment of the mould and what caused it. 

When damp and mould go unaddressed, they can continue to get worse, and for some of our guests this reaches dangerous levels. 

I have seen guests whose children were regularly ending up in A&E because the level of mould where they lived was affecting their health so much.

- Patricia, Glass Door Caseworker 

We have even had cases where a guest felt that they needed to go to our Emergency Winter Night Shelters because, despite repeated complaints over a long period of time, nothing was done about the mould in their house. 

Unsafe accommodation 

Our caseworkers often encounter guests who have been made to feel unsafe where they live. 

We see issues of safety occurring most often in Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs), where guests are living with people they don’t know. Or, there might be situations of unknown people frequenting shared spaces like hallways. There are also regular complaints made about the lack of secure locks on doors and even worse, doors being kicked in.  

When women guests are housed in HMOs full of men, safety concerns can be so great that they are actually forced to leave the house and sleep rough.

- Grace, Glass Door Caseworker 

Guests may also be placed with people who have unmet support needs, or may have unmet support needs themselves, which can lead to challenging living situations. Some people may be better suited to supported accommodation but are unable to access it due to the lack of options available, or because they don’t meet the specific requirements of those accommodation providers. 

“I have supported quite a few guests who have had their front doors kicked in, and when this happens it is often an incredibly long and complicated process to get a new door fitted.” - Alice, Glass Door Caseworker 

Among other things, we would advocate for clear rules with proper enforcement to ensure that doors are made from appropriately sturdy materials, that repairs and additional security measures are put in place within a reasonable timeframe, and that each tenant within an HMO has a secure entrance. 

Lack of appropriate flooring in social housing 

It is incredibly hard for guests to get social housing, but even when they do, there are issues that almost always come up. One such issue is related to flooring. 

When there is a change of tenancy in social housing, there is a widespread practice of the flooring being ripped out, even if it's in perfectly good condition.

- Rodrigo, Glass Door Caseworker 

Guests who have moved in must then apply for grants to have new flooring installed, but these can be especially difficult to access in London. Even when grants are awarded, they are sometimes not large enough to pay for new flooring across the entire property.  

This can lead to situations where people live for extended periods of time (in some cases, years) without appropriate flooring covering some or all of their accommodation, causing a great deal of unnecessary distress and making where they live feel much less like a home. 

In our view, it should be the landlord’s responsibility to ensure that there are suitable floor coverings in every room at the beginning of a tenancy, and the onus should not be placed on the tenant. 

While landlords have a legal responsibility to make sure that the accommodation they rent out is in a habitable state, right now, the systems meant to enforce standards are not functioning properly. There are various plans to introduce new rules and penalties which may be worthwhile, but the biggest problem currently is with the lack of effective enforcement, rather than a lack of regulations. To enforce standards, councils need qualified officers who can inspect properties, but a lack of resources means that they have nowhere near enough of them.  

One of the most significant steps that the government could take to improve conditions would be to increase councils’ funding to allow them to expand their enforcement teams, so that they can make sure that the rules currently in place are being followed. 

You can read our previous Quarterly Frontline Snapshots from June and March of this year, and December and September of last year, if you want to find out more about some of the other barriers our caseworkers regularly face when supporting all of our guests.