direct to your inboxExactly why the earth opened up and swallowed a chunk of Walmer Street in Abbey Hey is still to be fully explained.A number of factors no doubt contributed, including the enormous rainfall deposited on Manchester by Storm Christoph.While the investigation continues, the desperately sad stories of those forced to flee their homes reveals some wider truths about the struggles so many in our city are facing.Seventeen properties have been evacuated and four are now in the process of being demolished.Families in those homes have all faced different challenges, but several of them have a link to Manchester's housing crisis - rising rents and a shortage of family homes that people on lower incomes can afford.Mary Jones, the.
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