Hackney’s Green-led council has conceded it cannot stop the eviction of an eight-year-old boy with severe autism and his mother from their council flat, despite a pre-election pledge to change the rules to let them stay.
Charity Oppong and her son Kayden, who is eight and has severe autism, face losing the home they have lived in for almost 20 years. Kayden is described as non-verbal, prone to meltdowns and as having no safety awareness.
Ms Oppong moved into the flat almost 20 years ago, when her sister-in-law, Janet Antwi, was named on the tenancy agreement. Ms Antwi later moved to America and was not able to return, but never formally transferred the tenancy. Ms Oppong stayed in the flat, and carried on paying rent and council tax.
The council learned of the arrangement in 2021, and continued to accept payments from Ms Oppong while triggering eviction proceedings on the grounds of tenancy fraud. The council maintains that what Ms Oppong paid was not rent and did not create a tenancy.
In 2025, a judge granted the council a legal warrant to remove the family. In March, a judge granted an eight-week suspension of the eviction warrant, which has since lapsed. The family were given a fresh notice of eviction on 17 August.
Officers gave the family three weeks to move, or else the council would relinquish its homelessness duty. The family had initially been given two weeks. The council said the family had been given sufficient time to decide on new accommodation.
The case has become a test of the promises the Greens made before winning control of the council in May, for the first time in the borough. Before his election, Deputy Mayor Dylan Law, who holds the cabinet portfolio for housing, said that if the Greens won control he would definitely amend the succession rules to let the family stay, and urged the then mayor, Caroline Woodley, to do the right thing.
Before her election, Mayor Zoë Garbett urged Ms Woodley to have the council withdraw the eviction notice, writing that it was about making sure children are safeguarded, harm is avoided and the council is acting in line with its statutory responsibilities. In February and March this year, two politicians who now sit as senior cabinet members joined activists in physically blocking bailiffs.
On Monday, campaigners marched from the Town Hall to the council’s corporate headquarters, demanding justice for the family. It was the third of three separate protests.
Addressing the crowd on Monday, Ms Garbett said: “We came into this administration wanting to do as much as we could about situations like this. We’ve done whatever we could – we’ve received independent legal advice on decision-making. We’ve challenged policies, we’ve got extensions, we’ve supported the family to have a place inside the borough.”
Mr Law said he had been on a steep learning curve since entering office. “This situation has been highly tenuous, extremely stressful […] and to be honest, I thought it would be an easier situation than it turned out to be. There is a lot of regulation, a lot of bureaucracy, a lot of rules which we have to adhere to, which may not be something which I necessarily understood when I first got in,” he said.
The council’s position is that elected politicians cannot legally overrule officers on the decision. Mayor Garbett commissioned an external barrister to advise on what the new administration could do, and the lawyer confirmed that elected politicians could not legally overrule officers. Housing officers argue they are legally bound to allocate social housing in line with statutory rules and national legislation.
Campaigners and the family’s lawyers argue the allocations policy allows a tenancy, a temporary licence or a “use and occupation” fee to be granted at the council’s discretion in exceptional circumstances. Officers maintain the Oppong family’s case is not exceptional.
The council has offered the family a temporary flat on the Woodberry Down estate, which is decaying and slated for eventual demolition. Following negotiations with Ms Garbett at Monday’s demonstration, the campaign group said politicians had put serious pressure on officers to grant an extension until December to move to Woodberry Down, and the council is understood to have agreed to this.
The council declined to offer a statement on the protest, but said officers had assessed the ground-floor property and designated it suitable, and safer than the current home, which has a balcony presenting a safety risk to autistic children. Officers gave careful consideration to medical letters of support, the council said.
Clinicians have warned against an abrupt move. Dr Hannah Caller, a paediatrician from Homerton Hospital, said clinicians and social workers explicitly warned against it, which can be deeply distressing for autistic children. NHS staff were said to have been gobsmacked by the deadline.
Ms Woodley had previously said an exception would be deeply unfair to the 7,900 residents on the borough’s housing waiting list. One campaigner described the Greens as naïve about what was possible.
The council is also connecting the first homes to a low-carbon heat network in Hackney, while permission has been granted for 359 homes in Sutton.
