With most people back from holiday now, we're carrying on with the story about the Hammersmith and Fulham Tory Council's cutting of more than half of the Hammersmith and Fulham Community Law Centre's annual grant. The thousands of people in the borough who can't afford to pay for legal advice and representation will be most affected.
This site has been talking to Law Centre clients this year about the reasons why they sought legal advice and representation from the centre. There are more interviews with Law Centre clients under the Similar Entries heading in the right menu.
Sophia El-Kaddah, a 22-year-old who is severely disabled with cerebral palsy, is one of those people. The Law Centre is helping her take a case against the Acton Housing Association, which refused for a year to carry out promised accessibility modifications to Sophia's Acton Town flat.
Sophia is confined to a wheelchair, is unable to move on her own, and needs 24-hour care. She was studying for a national diploma in health and social care, but left, because her disability and health problems made the attendance requirements difficult for her.
She signed the contract for her flat in 2005. She says that feels like a while ago: the adjustments to the flat that the Association agreed to carry out before she moved in still haven't been finished. Acting on Sophia's behalf, the Law Centre managed to push the Housing Association to do some of the adjustments, so that Sophia could at least move into her flat:
'I signed a contract for my flat, but I couldn't move in for eight months, because they wouldn't carry out the adjustments. The occupational therapist [who assessed me before I moved in] said that I could move into this flat as long as the flat was adjusted for me. The Housing Association agreed to that. This flat was purposely built for a walking disabled person, so they needed to do a lot of extra work for me - things like lowering the toilet, and putting in the electric door-opener and hoists.
'They did not do the works. I was still living with my Mum then, because I couldn't move into my flat. We called [the Housing Association] by phone and wrote letters. We wrote to Director of Social Services at Ealing [Council].
'They did not respond. They never responded to me. I had already moved in my washing-machine and my dryer and my microwave. I didn't know what they were doing. The occupational therapist said I could move in as long as the flat was modified. A few months after the Law Centre started writing letters to them, they (the Housing Association) said to me that if they had known how disabled I was, they would not have let me move into the flat.
'The Law Centre tried to secure dates for the adaptations to be done. They were completed enough for me to move in, and we are taking them to court for the remainder of the works. There are still problems here which make it very hard for me. I have had to try and adapt to using a shower instead of a bath. They have said now that they will pay for half of the oustanding works, but that they won't look after the modifications, or maintain them. I don't know why they didn't say all of this at the start, when they said I could move into the flat. Why did they do it like this?'