Shekou Kamara has been a employee of Westminster Council for more than 13 years, currently working as a technical support officer in its planning department.
And he’s homeless.
“It’s hard to believe, isn’t it,” he says, with a wry smile. “I’m working full-time for the council, but I don’t have anywhere to live. I don’t have enough money for a deposit on a rented flat, and even if I did I wouldn’t be able to afford the rent.”
Shekou, 39, has an experience that will resonate with thousands of working people, when a breakdown in a relationship turns out to be the last straw for their already-challenged finances. Having left the home he shared with his partner and three children, he has been unable to house himself, staying instead with family and friends.
“I would love to be able to rent a studio and have the kids around, but I can’t even afford a room,” he says. “It’s been pretty tough.”
He’s learned his lesson about pay day loan sharks, he admits, but is now experiencing the particular embarrassment of having to use a food bank. “People ask me why I’m there, when I’m in full-time employment. They ask, what do you have in reserve? I say, ‘nothing’. And the cost of just about everything these days is unbelievable.”
When he first started at the council, he says, pay rises and bonus schemes were common. “But that kind of incentive has gone, and so has the positive vibe. You’re busting a gut just to stay in your job – and then they hit you with a pay cut. They expect you to be happy with crumbs.”
He admits to having gone to his UNISON branch secretary sometimes in tears, and to feeling “disillusioned”.
But he’s not defeated.
Shekou is striking today, “because I need to make a difference. I really do. I need to make a stand, I need to be seen.
“My friends at the council have asked me why I’m striking when I will lose a day’s pay. I say I have not got any money anyway. And I’m doing it for you, for everyone I work with. I’m stronger than I thought I was. And I know this will change.”
