Rochdale: Mushrooms grow in home while mum waits for repairs

Shannon Hopley is scared of the effect of the mould on her children

A family has had to live with mushrooms growing out the skirting boards in their damp housing association home.

Shannon Hopley, 29, who lives on the Rochdale, Greater Manchester estate where two-year-old Awaab Ishak died after being exposed to mould, claimed her bath has leaked for three years.

Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH) apologised and said there was high demand for repairs.

It has now put the family in a hotel.

The mother-of-three said she had to plead to be put in temporary accommodation while the work was carried out.  

Ms Hopley discovered the fungus growth during work on the kitchen. 

She said she was incredulous that the social landlord had sent an electrician to look at the problem.

"He said he has never seen anything quite like it," she told the Local Democracy Reporting Service.  

Ms Hopley said she had no functioning kitchen or bathroom and felt she'd been left to "live in squalor for weeks".

She said the problems had meant the family had not been able to properly celebrate her six-year-old twins' birthdays.

She said her children - including the eldest, who is nine - were all born prematurely and have poorly chests.

"You can smell the damp and mould here.

"I am worried they are breathing all this in," she added.

Two-year-old Awaab Ishak died in December 2020on the same housing estate

Siobhan McCoy, RBH's director of property services, said it was sorry it had "failed to carry out the work sooner".

She said the work would be completed so that "the property is dry for their return".

A coroner concluded in November 2022 that two-year-old Awaab Ishak, who lived in a property on the Freehold Estate, died from a respiratory condition caused by exposure to mould in his home.

His father had repeatedly raised the issue with RBH but no action was taken.