Crack addicts loitering below a child’s bedroom, rats climbing through gaps in floorboards to deposit faeces, entrances cordoned off because of the danger of falling masonry.

This is a dilapidated council-owned property in Gipsy Hill where a family has been waiting for a year to be permanently housed by Lambeth Council.

The family - too ashamed of where they live to want to be named - live alongside other families in the short-life council accommodation in rat-infested Ranger Mansions - a place dubbed “Danger Mansions” by tenants.

The council has advised those staying inside to vacate, but the family - who are packed and ready to go - say they are near the bottom of the housing waiting list and have no hope of successfully bidding for a council property.

Lambeth Council deny this and say the family are “high priority” when it comes to bidding for a new home and that it has worked hard to help them.

The father admitted his wife owes thousands of pounds in unpaid rent to the council - now being paid back slowly - from a previous Lambeth council property she lived in before she met him.

But the family of four are desperate to be rehoused now because they say their home is “dangerous, a health risk and not suitable for a family”.

They fear if they leave of their own accord, they will become homeless.

Flats in the building are falling to pieces and walls are being ripped apart as the building subsides, while the main entrance has been cordoned off by the Fire Brigade after a rotting window sill from an upstairs property fell and smashed.

The only access to the building is now down a dark and uneven staircase next to the basement of the building, a popular hangout for drug addicts.

The father said: “We just want to move somewhere we can start afresh. It is unbearable here. We are living in the worst conditions – the council has to prioritise us.”

Gipsy Hill ward Conservative Councillor, Andrew Gibson, has also asked the council to prioritise the family. He said: “In the 21st Century a family should not have to live like this.”

A Lambeth Council spokesperson said: “Short-life housing is by its very nature temporary accommodation that needs refurbishing and we advised families living in Ranger Mansions over a year ago that they would need to move out.

“We have worked very hard to help the family above and beyond our responsibilities, and they have very high priority when it comes to bidding for a new home.

“Ranger Mansions has been inspected by our engineers and we have worked to ensure that areas where tenants have been living are completely safe.”