A family facing homelessness have finally been given a permanent home after spending more than a year in temporary accommodation in Slough, battling the council that put them there.

Janelle Clarke and her two children were placed in Grand Heights, a converted office block in Slough town centre, by east London’s Redbridge Borough Council in August 2023 after it moved her from her home of eight years.

But last month she won a legal battle after the council admitted the flat in Slough was unsuitable for her family. And now the council has finally found her a place to stay back in the east London Borough.

Ms Clarke said she was happy to have finally had her case resolved – but would be sad to leave the ‘amazing’ people she met in Slough.

READ MORE: Children rushed to hospital at Grand Heights flats in Slough

She said: “It’s bittersweet because I’ve met some amazing people in Slough who really helped me to fight my case. Without them I wouldn’t have been able to achieve what I achieved.”

Ms Clarke is housed by Redbridge Borough Council under its duty to accommodate families at risk of homelessness.

The council had placed her and her family for eight years in private rented accommodation in Harlesden, north London until November 2022 when she says she was subject to a no-fault by the landlord.

After that she and her family spent several months in different hotels before being moved to the Grand Heights tower block on Hatfield Road in Slough town centre. Ms Clarke says the move uprooted her and her family from the lives they had built.

But Ms Clarke says Redbridge Borough Council and her landlord didn’t take her family’s disabilities into account when moving her.

Ms Clarke has scoliosis, her son has autism and her daughter needs a back brace. The flat had only two bedrooms, meaning that Ms Clarke had to sleep in the living room so that her 14 year old daughter didn’t have to share with her son, who was ten at the time.

After she took legal action against the council for indirect discrimination, it agreed to pay her a settlement of £4,000. The council said it was important to stress that it didn’t evict her, but admitted the accommodation it placed her in was unsuitable.

dJanelle Clarke (Image: Janelle Clarke) Now Ms Clarke says Redbridge Borough Council has found a three bed home for her family, meaning her children don’t have to share a room as teenagers.

She’s also happy to be going back to east London, saying the environment around Grand Heights ‘was not good for me’ with people drinking and smoking cannabis outside.

Despite this, she said she’d come to ‘love Slough’ and will be said to leave the people she’s met – including people from her church, Slough Viva and the homelessness charity Slough Outreach. She also got her British citizenship at Slough Borough Council in April.

She said: “I’m very proud of what I’ve achieved and my children are very happy too. Our lives will be changed for the better.”