Ep.24 Here’s What The Government Doesn’t Want You To Know: Kwajo Tweneboa On The Social Housing Crisis

Kwajo Tweneboa, known as the hero of social housing, is a remarkable 23-year-old campaigner demanding urgent reform in public-sector housing. Amid the housing crisis, Kwajo has emerged as an influential voice online for social housing tenants, known best for naming and shaming some of the largest accommodation associations in the UK.

Haunted by memories of his own housing hell, Kwajo joined the fight to improve conditions after his father, a care worker, died in their family home among a sea of cockroaches, mould and vermin. To make matters worse, just a week after his death Kwajo and his siblings were informed their tenancy contract had been evicted and therefore they must leave, in essence making them homeless. By some miracle, Kwajo and his family were allowed to stay, but for Kwajo this was understandably still not good enough - the conditions were still terrible.

Astounded by how he had been treated, Kwajo channelled his anguish and publicly exposed his landlord for breaching housing standards, ignoring calls and allowing his family to live in unimaginable filth. His first post went viral, reaching the attention of mainstream news and his housing association who eventually came to fix the problems. Kwajo now uses his online presence to help others share their housing horrors, becoming an active proponent for change in the UK - his campaign backed by nearly 62,000 followers on Twitter.

While a picture-perfect image for social housing still seems a world away, Kwajo's work on behalf of other tortured tenants has begun to make a real difference, his work sparking the conversation among significant journalists and MPs.

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