A mum-of-two has told of the physical and emotional toll or poor living conditions and the endless fight with housing providers to get problems fixed.

For many tenants the physical impact of mould, damp and other structural issues is just part of an uphill battle to improve their situation.

“You start to feel like no one has your back,” said the South Yorkshire resident who asked not to be named. “Fighting these housing associations is exhausting.”

Her family has lived with holes in the roof since last summer, and the list of secondary problems in her home is endless, leaving her feeling defeated and exhausted.

“A lot of the time it just comes straight back to the tenant,” she said. “People often just ask ‘why don’t you move?’, but it’s never that easy. I get worried about complaining too, I’m scared of being evicted.

“It’s not just the feeling short of breath that I suffer with. It’s the mental toll. I feel like I’ve been chasing the housing association up for years. Why should I have to live like this?”

Many residents claim it is common for providers to say residents are at fault.

Kerry Prime, from Essex, who started a 3,500-member strong Facebook complaints group for Sanctuary Housing Association tenants in 2014, said: “It’s always ‘blame the tenant’.”

Kerry has been in a one-room flat in Chelmsford for ten years and says she has been living with black mould, some of it right next to her bed, and severe damp in her kitchen caused by condensation on her ceiling.

She said when she complained to Sanctuary, they told her it was her own fault for drying her clothes inside.

However, with no space for a tumble dryer and no outside area, Kerry says she doesn’t know what else she is supposed to do.

She said there was a cycle of Sanctuary painting over the mould each year and then it coming back, but the kitchen ceiling was re-plastered this March in a bid to solve the issue.

Many residents like Kerry say they are used to being blamed for problems within their home. They describe feeling powerless against a big housing association. Kerry said being told it is her fault so many times has made her question and doubt herself.

Another resident from Sheffield said there was a sense of isolation and hopelessness.

“It’s definitely affected mine and my partner’s mental health,” she explained.

“I’ve felt trapped here and there’s nowhere to go. When you’re ignored for so long, you start to feel worthless as a person, you feel like people don’t care about you. You’re never doing enough to do right by your property.”

For Kerry, the fight has become a part of everyday life.

“I’ve made it my mission for the last 11 years to help as many people as I can,” she said.

Though the struggle has worsened her own mental health, it has also fuelled her determination to hold housing associations accountable.

The introduction of Awaab’s Law this October, following the death of two-year-old Awaab Ishak in Rochdale from prolonged exposure to black mould, aims to force social housing landlords to fix dangerous damp and mould issues more quickly.

But Kerry said she believes this new law will not change anything for her.

“It’s tenant versus housing. If you would not live somewhere yourself, why would you expect someone else to? Nobody deserves to live like this.”

Sanctuary were approached for comment