HOMELESS families who spent last week sleeping rough in Chingford are now in the care of Waltham Forest Council's social services.
The families slept outside Chingford Police Station and in a nearby churchyard after police said they were evicted from a Leytonstone house where they had been squatting since January.
Police added they do not qualify for housing assistance and do not have the right to remain in the UK, but because children are involved they are now being looked after by social workers.
The group moved to St Peter and St Paul's Church in The Green, Chingford, last Thursday.
Police said social services gave them money to get a taxi to their embassy but after taking the money they refused to go.
Mother Natasha Woodward, of St Peter and Paul's, fed the group when they arrived.
She said: "They spoke no English, they never asked for money, they were just really perplexed.
"I believe they’ve been taken advantage of and they have ended up the victims of someone in Romania who has said ‘If you pay me then I can get you to England, where there are jobs’.
"It must be pretty desperate to even consider doing what they had to do and then they arrive and can’t get a job, it’s quite a sad story."
She contacted Thames Reach, a homelessness charity, which called the council's social services department when it realised there were children in the group.
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