Since May 2016, Joanna Morrison, a support worker, and her partner, a construction worker, have been bringing up two young children in a one-bedroom council flat in the middle of two building sites. On one side, Tottenham Hotspur have been finishing a 62,062-seat stadium and starting on a surrounding property empire, including a 180-bed hotel and 579 apartments in four blocks. On the other, TfL has transformed the decrepit White Hart Lane station with lifts and a new ticket hall fit for the stadium’s increased capacity. In the middle, 297 residents on the condemned Love Lane estate are waiting to be rehoused to make way for a sweeping new scheme called High Road West that will connect the station to the stadium and create 2,500 homes, including 750, or 30%, at affordable rent.

The issue disproportionately affects BAME residents; in Haringey, black people make up more than a third of those in temporary accommodation

Morrison is one of 189 temporary accommodation residents who have been moved on to Love Lane during the last three years while Haringey council hammers out the details of the scheme with the developer, Lendlease. They have been placed there as a stop-gap as the council struggles to house the 10,000 people on its social homes waiting list, yet as temporary accommodation residents, none of them are guaranteed a home in the new scheme.

“You see the brand new stadium on one side, you see the brand new station on the other, and we’re in the middle,” Morrison says. “We don’t fit in and we know they’re going to get rid of us. We’re on edge every minute.”

Across London, local authorities have moved hundreds of homeless families on to council estates that are planned for demolition, where they live in limbo in deteriorating conditions. Many report that living in such uncertainty has had an impact on their mental health, citing issues such as sleep deprivation and anxiety, as well as physical health complaints connected to the poor maintenance of such estates, says Peter Elliott, a Green councillor in the Gipsy Hill ward of Lambeth. Green councillors are calling for an immediate halt to such regeneration schemes to give residents certainty, regardless of their status.

The new Tottenham Hotspur stadium is seen behind local housing. Photograph: Richard Splash/Alamy

“There is this gross inequality for people in temporary accommodation,” says Elliott, who lives on the Central Hill estate that has been slated for demolition since 2014. “Years from telling people their estates are getting demolished, the housing has been falling into disrepair, there are faulty electrics and lighting, walkways are treacherous and sewers are backing up. If it was anyone else those responsible would be branded rogue landlords. These are vulnerable people and councils are abusing them.”

Residents are being moved out and temporary residents are being moved in, sometimes for up to a decade, so the whole system just keeps getting worse

Local authorities have a duty to secure accommodation for unintentionally homeless households, but have struggled to keep pace as the number of families in temporary accommodation has increased 74% since December 2010. There are 84,740 UK households living in temporary accommodation, some waiting for many years until they can be offered permanent social homes. In Haringey, 2,931 families were in temporary accommodation as of June, where they face an average wait of eight years and eight months for a two-bed family home. In many London boroughs, the issue disproportionately affects black, Asian and minority ethnic residents; in Haringey, black people make up more than a third of those in temporary accommodation.

Lambeth council has 2,376 homeless households in temporary accommodation, including 156 on what it calls “regeneration estates”. Among them are Danielle Montrose-Francis and her 10-year-old son, who were moved on to the Central Hill estate in March. By this point they had been homeless for four years after the landlord of their privately rented home evicted them under section 21, which allows a landlord to evict a tenant without giving a reason. The family were unable to afford private rented accommodation in the area and became homeless, sleeping on other people’s sofas and in B&Bs.

Since they moved to the Central Hill estate, they have faced a severe mouse infestation, antisocial behaviour from neighbours and holes in the door and the walls. The cramped conditions and rodents mean that Montrose-Francis has been sharing her bed with her son, who was so stressed at one point that his hair was falling out.

People campaign to save Central Hill estate in 2015. Photograph: Simon Elmer/Architects for Social Housing

“Since we were evicted it’s been like a nightmare that we haven’t woken up from yet,” says Montrose-Francis, who is working part time in a church while she starts her own chemical-free cleaning business. “It’s a kind of discrimination. One group gets help with housing and their needs are acknowledged, but when you are in temporary accommodation it feels like you are punished for being poor.”

Lambeth council says any disrepair on these estates is not related to their use as temporary accommodation. A spokesperson said: “These properties provide low-cost local housing for homeless households who might otherwise have to be accommodated in more expensive accommodation further away. They are entitled to the same services as secure council tenants on the estates regarding issues such as repairs and complaints of antisocial behaviour.”

The Green party is calling for the repair and refurbishment of council estates rather than the sale of land to private developers to build private housing. Lambeth council rejected any suggestion that land would be sold to private developers for private housing. “The redevelopment will be carried out by Homes for Lambeth, an independent company wholly owned by Lambeth Council,” a spokesman said.

When a building is demolished, energy is used to deconstruct it and remove, process and dispose of the waste. Building a replacement requires a further commitment of energy and materials.

“Councils should be maintaining the existing estates as council flats, which reduces the pressure on the housing list,” says Siân Berry, co-leader of the Green party. She wants demands for regeneration on these estates to be permanently halted. “Residents are being moved out to private rented homes or other council flats and temporary residents are being moved in, sometimes for up to a decade, so the whole system just keeps getting worse.”

Morrison co-chairs a tenants’ group called Temporary Accommodation Group, which is campaigning for the 189 families in temporary accommodation on Love Lane to be given permanent social homes at social rent in Haringey. “I’m not against regeneration, but people shouldn’t be put on a demolition site on purpose,” she says.

• This story was amended on 4 and 5 November 2019 to add further response from Lambeth Council.

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