The emergency evacuation of people living in a Bristol tower block 15 months ago was a ‘mass-traumatising event’ and the residents are still suffering the trauma so should be prioritised for rehousing as soon as possible.
That is the findings of an in-depth report by doctors and psychologists who researched what happened in November 2023 at Barton House in Barton Hill, and what happened to the people living in the tower block during and after that chaotic evacuation.
There were emotional scenes as medical charity Medact presented their report at a public meeting today (Wednesday, February 26), alongside the tenants’ union Acorn, which represents around a third of the residents of the council tower block, and which commissioned the report.
The residents still traumatised by the emergency evacuation of Barton House on November 14, 2023, challenged council chiefs who attended the launch of the report. One council chief said the report was ‘hard reading’.
The Medact volunteers are all professionals – social workers, doctors, psychologists and occupational therapists – and they presented a 32-page report outlining how the evacuation, what followed for the rest of that winter of 2023-24, and the ongoing issues with the building and its residents, are a clear case of mass-trauma which the council’s housing chiefs need to recognise.
The Medact report, which is authored by a large group of people including nine doctors, described the treatment of the residents of Barton House as ‘an exceptional case of failure and neglect’, and the report has prompted renewed calls from the residents for them to be rehoused.
The residents of Barton House claim Bristol City Council has, in the 15 months since the evacuation, not taken medical reports from GPs and other health professionals seriously on an individual basis, when assessing applications to be rehoused out of Barton House. The residents said they hope the Medact report, which has been put together by a range of health professionals, will be taken seriously by the council.
One of the report’s key authors is Dr Nazanin Rassa. She said the city council’s housing chiefs needed to recognise the seriousness of the situation. “We are here today to strengthen the demands and the calls for justice that the Barton House residents have been asking for, for over a year now, to have safe and dignified housing after the evacuation and the systemic neglect that they have gone through,” she said.
Fadumo Farah, a mother-of-two who is the Acorn union rep for Barton House, said: “This report is the only place where the voices of these mothers, especially those who do not speak English, can finally be heard,” said Fadumo Farah, a mother-of-two who is the Acorn union rep for Barton House. “It is the only way to document the fear, the struggles, and the pain that have been ignored for too long. The only way to make those in power face the truth they have been avoiding,” she added.
“We cannot keep living like this,” said Fadumo. “We need to be rehoused – urgently – before another sleepless night, before another child wakes up in terror, before something terrible happens,” she added.
The Medact report calls on Bristol City Council to act. “This report brings together the powerful testimonies of Barton House residents alongside our own professional judgement, making it clear that the evacuation and its aftermath have had a profound and lasting impact on their physical and mental well-being,” it concluded.
“For many, these effects have been worsened by long-standing issues of poor-quality and unsafe housing, including cold, damp and overcrowding. In this report we have highlighted the dire neglect and systematic failures that Barton House residents have endured for over a year. This has had a tremendous impact on the health and lives of generations of people – a tragedy that should have been completely avoidable,” the report added.
“Given the current national housing crisis, and the poor-quality housing stock within Bristol, we acknowledge that evacuations are not uncommon. However it is clear that, compared to other similar cases, the actions of Bristol City Council have fallen woefully short. For example, when Southwark Council evacuated Ledbury Estate in 2017, they had a proper crisis management plan. This included a 24/7 satellite office, a daily newsletter, extra staff, a named point of contact for each block and the involvement of the Red Cross,” it added.
“For some households, living in Barton House will never feel safe again no matter how many internal repairs are carried out. Adults and children are triggered by the smallest reminder of the fragility of the building – cracks in the walls, fire alarms malfunctioning, broken lifts. Many households have spent years waiting for their turn to move through the council’s banding system. They have asked the council time and time again to be rehoused, but they have been ignored. The result has been generations of people forced to live in a building that they feel is a constant threat to their lives,” the doctors said.
“The treatment of Barton House residents constitutes an exceptional case of failure and neglect which must be addressed to avoid further harm and suffering,” the report said. “We call for urgent action by decision-makers including Bristol City Council and decision-makers in the housing department to finally afford the people living in Barton House their right to safe, dignified and high-quality housing,” it concluded.
In the final report, the health workers write: “We consider the council’s approach to medical evidence and rehousing of Barton House residents to be completely inappropriate and inequitable.”
The report details systemic failures by the previous Labour-run council to properly manage the evacuation, and support the residents while they were housed in hotels. But Acorn said it also highlights the failure of the new Green Party-led council, which took over in May 2024.
“The health professionals’ recommendations echo the demands made of the council by the ACORN members from Barton House since the first week of the evacuation in 2023: urgent rehousing, compensation, and an independent investigation,” said a spokesperson for ACORN.
“While these demands were ignored by the previous Labour administration, the Bristol Green Party, then in opposition, signed an open letter supporting the demands and asking the Labour mayor to agree to them. Since the Green Party came to lead Bristol City Council in the local elections of May 2024, ACORN members from Barton House have continued to press for action, but so far the Green-led council has refused to meet the demands they once supported,” he added.
Councillor Barry Parsons, Chair of the Homes and Housing Delivery Committee, said: “I was at Barton House during the evening of the evacuation and visited families who had to leave their homes in the weeks afterwards, so I saw first-hand some of the shock and distress that residents felt. That’s why I’ve commissioned the service to review the rehousing options for people who have been affected.”
“The council takes its duty of care to residents very seriously, and we endeavour to support the residents of Barton House where we can. Our priority remains to ensure that the health and wellbeing of all residents living in council housing is supported and we are living up to our promise to ensure they live in safe and decent homes.
“We acknowledge the report, and its contents, published today (26 February) and thank Medact Bristol for the work they have done with Barton House residents and ACORN,” he added. “Over the coming weeks we will take time to consider and reflect on the conclusions and recommendations of the report ahead of issuing a formal response by the end of March and updating residents on the actions we will take as a result.”