PROFILE: Audrey Villas, aka Tenant's Association fixer extraordinaire

Audrey Villas’ time is precious. Her phone bleats for her attention every few minutes, and harassed colleagues pester her about the issues of the day: paper shredders and graffiti. As the head of Arden Estate Tenants’ Association (TA) she is on call for up to 12 hours at a time, fielding enquiries from disgruntled residents and exasperated council members, writes Harriet Shawcross

She sighs: “It’s no wonder I have heart problems is it? It never bloody stops here.”
Audrey has worked for the TA for the past 29 years, tirelessly campaigning to improve life on the estate. She proudly catalogues the door entry systems, CCTV and football pitch, which have come into being as a result of her efforts. “I just want this to be the best estate around,” she says.
But these successes have come at a price. Audrey suffers from stress related heart disease, and although she is fast approaching retirement age she rarely leaves the office, which has taken on the air of a makeshift sitting room, littered with smiling ornaments and family photos. She gestures proudly at the bright blue walls. “I painted those myself,” she says. “I was here till midnight every night, just to make it look nice.”
Despite her obvious dedication, Audrey downplays her achievements, claiming: “I’ve always liked helping people, ever since I was a little girl.” While at school in Stoke Newington she worked three part time jobs to help support her family, until she was forced to leave school at 14. She smiles: “It seems stupid now, but I had trodden on a rusty nail a few weeks before the final exams, and it had gone septic. I could barely walk, let alone hobble all the way to school, and as we could not afford the bus fare I missed the exams.” With no possibility of retakes, Audrey was forced to leave full time education with no qualifications and few prospects.
She fell pregnant at 17, and hastily married her childhood sweetheart. The marriage lasted a year, and at 18 Audrey found herself a divorcee and single mother. “We were far too young,” she says. “He left me when I was five months pregnant, because he was a gambler.” But rather than wallowing in self-pity Audrey carried on working to support her seven siblings. “We’re very close,” she says, “and we always made time for one another”.
But within a year Audrey was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. The strain of supporting her young son had become too much. “I think my body just gave up,” she says. “That’s when I woke up to the fact that you can’t solve everybody’s problems. There’s just one of me and there’s only so much I can do.”
This early realisation resonates with her current work at the Arden Estate. Despite her dedication Audrey has received death threats and hate mail from angry residents, and has recently been accused of accepting “backhanders” from Hackney Council. At the mention of this she visibly prickles, and her breathing becomes strained. “I feel like I have been stabbed in the back by the community,” she says. “I work so hard here, but you see me as I am, I don’t suck up to anyone, so people get offended. The fact is you can’t please everybody.”
So how would Audrey Villas like to be remembered when she retires from the TA? She pauses before leaving to answer another phone call, “I don’t want high acclaims, or to be praised,” she says, “all I want is for people to say, she tried.”

Copyright of The Hackney Post