A homeless family-of-three forced to live in a Travelodge for more than four months say they feel "abandoned" by their local council.

Russel Harland, 50, and Selma Agirgol-Harland, 45, were moved into Travelodge Chessington Tolworth with their 13-year-old daughter and dog by Kingston Council on 17 July after becoming homeless when their previous tenancy came to an end.

The family is living in one cramped room with three beds and no kitchen, while Russel and Selma hold down full-time jobs and their daughter goes to school.

They told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) they do not have enough space or privacy, weekends are "suffocating" and the situation is taking a toll on their physical and mental health. Russel said: "We are extremely stressed, as you can imagine. This is it… this is one room, that's it."

The family previously lived on the same street in Kingston for more than 13 years, after moving over from Belfast. They were served a Section 21, no-fault eviction notice in late 2022 for the two-bed flat they had been living in as their landlord wanted to sell it.

Despite both working full-time, the couple could not find anywhere affordable to rent. They had used up their savings while studying for Masters degrees and relied on their monthly income to survive.

Russel Harland and Selma Agirgol-Harland in the Travelodge London Chessington Tolworth. (Photo: Facundo Arrizabalaga/MyLondon)

The family left the flat at the end of their tenancy on 17 July 2023, after receiving advice from the council. The authority placed them in the Travelodge that evening and, the couple said, it has accepted the main housing duty towards them – meaning it needs to find them long-term temporary accommodation.

However, more than four months later, they are still living in the Travelodge. Although they work hard and try to stay positive, with Selma even managing to get a new job during this time, Russel said they feel "trapped" and that there is "no urgency" or "real manoeuvring" from the council to find them long-term temporary accommodation.

Since being contacted by the LDRS, Russel said the council has offered the family different interim accommodation in Mitcham.

"I'll spend my 50th birthday homeless and my wife will start a new job as a trainee solicitor the next day homeless," Russel said. "A lot of the things they say you should do, I've done them. I first experienced homelessness when I was 19 for a short period and I've come full circle 30 years later."

He told the LDRS: "We feel absolutely abandoned and we feel deeply let down by Kingston Council after working so hard… to be abandoned and left like this is deeply upsetting."

The council said it is working hard to find alternative accommodation for those in temporary housing in the face of increasing demand, and to keep them updated with any progress.

But the parents said they have struggled to get any communication from the council regarding their housing application. Selma said: "If they communicated with us properly, gave us basic information, basic updates regarding the status of our application, where we are, we would feel less stressed… but, for some reason, since we moved here we feel abandoned. There is no communication. We have to fight to reach someone."

Russel added council blunders had put extra stress on them – including over moving rooms, which they must do every 28 days due to Travelodge policy. He claimed the family was mistakenly told to leave the hotel around September as the council had not rebooked them into a room and that it later admitted this was an "oversight", before booking them into another room.

While Russel acknowledged the pressures people face in workplaces, being a trade unionist, he said: "You can give people advice in a correct way, you can be empathetic towards people, you can also [act] in a timely manner too. We've had none of that, none of it whatsoever, and it's deeply frustrating."

He said staff at the Travelodge have been "amazing" and expressed the family's "deep respect" for them.

Travelodge London Chessington Tolworth. (Photo: Facundo Arrizabalaga/MyLondon)

Russel also revealed they are spending a "fortune" on food as they do not have a kitchen, while paying to keep their belongings in storage and £212 a week to stay in the room on top of the council's contribution to the bill. He raised concerns about the cash the authority is spending on housing homeless people in hotels and that it had "neglected [its] responsibilities to invest in housing".

The council is expected to spend around £5.2million on temporary accommodation this year, which is almost double last year's cost of £2.7million.

The Local Government Association (LGA) has said temporary housing cost councils in England at least £1.74billion in 2022/23, while the number of households living in such accommodation had risen by 89% over the past decade to 104,000 at the end of March 2023.

It comes as London's rental crisis deepens with average advertised monthly rents rising to a record of £2,627 in the third quarter of 2023, according to Rightmove – up 12.1per cent on the previous year.

Russel described every step of the family's wait to be moved into more suitable housing as "uncertainty [and] anxiety". He said he feels homeless people in similar situations are being "pressured to leave the hotels because they're getting left there indefinitely".

The couple vowed to keep fighting for their dignity and to be housed in suitable accommodation. Russel said: "We feel strong, we are focussed and we know we will get through this difficult time by sticking together and supporting each other."

A Kingston Council spokesperson said: "We are committed to doing all we can to support households struggling and ensure residents have a safe place to live. The national housing crisis is a critical situation, with demand for properties increasingly outstripping supply.

"The cost-of-living crisis and spiralling rents mean more people are becoming homeless and in need of temporary accommodation provided by their local authority. We are currently providing close to 1,000 families and individuals with temporary accommodation, who we have a legal duty to support.

"Hotel accommodation is sometimes the only option due to the acute shortage of properties. We are very sorry that the Harland family are in this situation, we are working hard to find alternative options for all the families and individuals we are supporting in temporary accommodation and keep them updated with any progress.

"The cost of providing temporary accommodation is one of the key pressures on council finances across the country. This year it will cost us an estimated £5.2m – almost double last year's cost of £2.7m.

"To address the need for more affordable homes for local people in the longer term we are building the borough's first new council homes in a generation. The regeneration of Cambridge Road Estate is underway and will deliver 2,100 sustainable homes, including more than 750 council homes. Additionally the small sites programme will deliver 101 new council homes."

Travelodge was approached for comment, but declined the opportunity to provide a statement.