A single mother and her four children are the last remaining family on an east London housing estate that is being demolished around them, in a case described as “beyond shocking”. Demolition work on Marian Court, a council estate in Hackney, began in February, while the woman was home-schooling her children, aged five to 13, during lockdown. Residents have described severe noise and disruption, and claim the family’s water and broadband have regularly been cut off. Video footage shot during the early stages of demolition shows a bulldozer smashing into the block opposite the family’s flat while the woman was at home with her children. One neighbour described the area around the family’s home as looking like a “bomb site”. The family moved into Marian Court in 2014 along with a number of other residents, after a campaign by the group Sisters Uncut to use the then empty estate to rehouse vulnerable women and families from the borough. The residents were all placed in Marian Court temporarily as the estate had already been earmarked for demolition, and in March 2018, Hackney council committed to finding permanent social housing in the borough for the families remaining on the estate, but the resident says she has still not been offered a suitable alternative. This is “strongly refuted” by Hackney council, which found her intentionally homeless in 2019 after she turned down two properties in the area. The resident said she refused on the grounds that she had previously been racially abused outside one property, and the second had been vandalised and was unsafe. The council said it had offered “extensive support” to the resident over many years including “multiple offers of suitable alternative permanent accommodation”. The resident, who did not want to be named, did accept a tenancy at a property in Stoke Newington. She says she did so in the face of council pressure and on the understanding that a number of previously agreed repairs would be made prior to her moving in. The council maintains that, as she has the keys, she could move in at any time, but pictures seen by the Guardian show the property in a state of serious disrepair. “We’ve seen the pictures of the flat in Stoke Newington and it’s clear that she doesn’t have a choice,” said Hannah White, a neighbour. In a public statement, Hackney council said the work “does not impact the building where the last remaining family on the estate is still choosing to live”, but neighbours say conditions are unliveable and the work is deafening. “It’s hard to imagine someone is actually living there,” said Lawrence Leason, another neighbour. “It’s like a bomb site. Her block is the only one left now … You’d think they can’t start knocking it down while she’s still there. But the way they’ve handled this so far, you never know.” A spokesperson for Sisters Uncut said: “It is beyond shocking how Hackney council have treated this family. The council has repeatedly lied and continues to victim-blame to cover up for their own negligence. It’s appalling that the council is trying to blame the family when it is Hackney council that has failed to engage and caused delays and obstructions at every opportunity. The London Renters’ Union, which has supported the resident’s case, said: “Every family deserves the right to a safe, healthy and secure home from which they can flourish. This includes our member and her family, who deserve nothing less – especially in the midst of global pandemic. “We believe the council are aware of the serious disrepair issues at the Stoke Newington property as we have seen the independent surveyors’ reports for the property. The report found that the property had multiple hazards that would breach the habitability requirement. We ask that, if the family are expected to move in, the disrepair is dealt with urgently.” A Hackney council spokesperson said: “We have helped all the former council tenants at Marian Court to move into a brand new permanent council home in the local area, and have now started work on replacing the vacant buildings so that we can begin to build the much-needed new council homes planned for the site as soon as possible. “We strongly refute the reasons they have provided for remaining in Marian Court, which is now delaying the construction of new council homes for social rent that will mean 32 other families have to wait even longer in hostels, temporary accommodation or unsuitable housing. “The property they had agreed to move to is a home of their own choosing – the type that thousands of families across London are desperately waiting for – which has been signed off as suitable to live in by the housing association that owns it. We have also offered to go above and beyond the normal social housing specifications to encourage the family to move in, which they have unfortunately failed to engage with us on.”