More housing benefit cuts to come…

A whole raft of cuts to housing benefit, including the benefit cap, bedroom tax, cutting of housing benefit for those aged 25-35 years old, and more, since 2011 has increased poverty and homelessness across the UK as people struggle to meet soaring rents with less and less income. On top of this, a further cut to housing benefit could be coming in soon in the form of housing benefit sanctions.

For a number of years the government have been talking about extending the brutal sanctions regime that is currently terrorising claimants on JSA and ESA to housing benefit. Under their plans, people in part-time work who claim housing benefit could have their housing benefit sanctioned if the DWP decide they are not doing enough to increase their hours or find better paid work. The government said they would be trialling this in April this year as part of the protracted roll out of Universal Credit, but so far, no one has heard anything more about this. Read more about this from welfare blogger Johnny Void. Eventually if the government’s plans are realised 1 million more people could be subject to the benefit sanction regime which is already causing suffering, hunger, homelessness, and deaths.

And it doesn’t stop there – Theresa May announced last month, in an attempt to stir up racial hatred and to attack both migrants and welfare, the Conservative’s plans to stop housing benefit to migrants who do not learn English if they get a majority government after May (which looks very unlikely).  Already, the government has made JSA for migrants conditional on them learning English, and is now threatening to extend this to housing benefit. No one should be forced to learn English or do any other training or unpaid work under threat of destitution. These moves also undermine the role of ESOL teachers who want to teach people who want to be there voluntarily. ESOL teachers have not signed up to policing their students and getting their benefits removed if they are late or don’t turn up for class. Whilst making lots of noise about forcing migrants to learn English, the government recently announced huge cuts to Further Education of 24% meaning that many ESOL courses are under threat.

Boycott Workfare is a grassroots group that has been fighting the government’s workfare schemes and benefit sanctions for years now. There is a week of action against workfare and benefit sanctions from 25^th April to 2^nd May which we will be joining.

Sanctions to housing benefit will cause even more homelessness and poverty in our communities. HASL will fight all cuts to welfare and in solidarity with migrant groups and others fighting these racist policies! And we invite you to join us. We want quality, secure and truly affordable homes for all!

HASL April news

Here’s some important HASL dates for your diary. We hope you can make some or all of the events!

Thursday April 9th 12pm at Papa’s cafe – our regular HASL meeting with kids activities and an Easter egg hunt.

Saturday 18th April – afternoon, location in Brixton TBC, HASL training session including ‘how to be a buddy’ skill share and eviction process legal workshop. Let us know you’re coming so we can keep track of numbers haslemail@gmail.com

Sunday 26th April – from 12pm HASL’s second birthday and supper club at Papa’s cafe. Celebrate 2 years of helping each other fight for the housing we need and deserve and organising in our communities.

Some of us from HASL will be visiting Oxford for the re-launch of their Oxford Tenants Union on Wednesday 22nd April. Please share with anyone who lives there who might be interested!

And don’t miss these events and trainings organised by some of our friends –

Events:

Reclaim Brixton Saturday 25th April 12pm Windrush Square – a day of protest and party to celebrate Brixton communities and resist gentrification.

Boycott Workfare is a campaign against benefit sanctions and forced unpaid work for benefits. Workfare and benefit sanctions deepen poverty and cause homelessness. And now the government are talking about introducing sanctions to housing benefit for in-work claimants, more on this soon. Boycott Workfare week of action 25th April-2nd May. Boycott Workfare Welfare Action Gathering Saturday 30th May.

Training sessions

Want to learn how to facilitate great housing action meetings for HASL and/or the Radical Housing Network? Facilitation training is on Sunday 17th May by London Roots Collective. Book your free place here.

Indoamerican Refugee and Migrant Organisation is running a course in May on benefits for people who are active in their local community on welfare issues. See attached leaflet more more details. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4vukjPu8rTPNklWNlNwV2tUWnJ3dnFZRTV5STd2YV9Mcmk4/view?usp=sharing

Our latest HASL blogs

Our open letter to Southwark council about their disrespect to homeless people and confirming our rights to have someone with us at the housing office. https://housingactionsouthwarkandlambeth.wordpress.com/2015/04/02/your-right-to-have-someone-with-you-at-the-housing-office-our-letter-to-southwark-council/

Effortless evictions: Deregulation Act 2015 – a recent change in law that gives landlords more power and makes us even more precarious. https://housingactionsouthwarkandlambeth.wordpress.com/2015/04/03/effortless-evictions-the-deregulation-act-2015-2/

Lib Peck won’t speak to poor people – when we tried to talk to her about poverty and homelessness at her £90 a head breakfast with developers last month https://housingactionsouthwarkandlambeth.wordpress.com/2015/03/24/lambeth-council-leader-doesnt-want-to-speak-to-poor-people/

Effortless evictions: the Deregulation Act 2015

In 1988, Section 21 of the Housing Act drove a bulldozer through decades of carefully considered law about the circumstances in which an eviction was fair or justified.  Under Section 21, all a landlord has to do to seize a family’s home is serve the correct notice.  In 2004, in response to landlords’ increasingly abusive demands for tenancy deposits, the government introduced compulsory deposit protection schemes.

The courts were clearly aware of the shocking power imbalance between private landlords and their precariously housed tenants, and they took the opportunity to interpret the tenancy deposit laws quite strictly.  As the result of a case called Superstrike v Rodrigues landlords were required to comply with the deposit protection regulations for a second time if a tenant stayed on after the end of a ‘fixed term’ tenancy, otherwise the landlord’s Section 21 notice would be invalid.

However, the government decided that this was too onerous a task for the people who sit there profiting from people’s basic need for a home.  In order to exploit the housing crisis for profit with minimum inconvenience, the government has now eased the regulations through the Deregulation Act 2015. It comes into effect this week.

Landlords no longer need to overcome the small hurdle of re-protecting a deposit, and giving their tenants information about the scheme again.  Landlords argued that this simple act of regulatory compliance was a ‘loophole’, and that they shouldn’t possibly be expected to put up with it.  For many tenants it was the only argument available: the only thing standing between their homes and the oppressive regime of indefensible (in both a legal and a moral sense) ‘no-fault evictions’.

The massive harm of Section 21 on housing does not need to be explained in detail.  The housing crisis speaks for itself.  The law treats houses as landlords’ financial assets rather than people’s homes, and the effects of that are clear in the extortionate rents, precarious leases and poor housing conditions that so many people have no choice but to endure.

A brief glimmer of hope – a viable defence to ‘no fault’ evictions’ – has been put out.

In addition, although the government has also passed a new law that makes it more difficult to evict people who have complained about the condition of their home (‘revenge evictions’), they have not said when they will bring it into force.  The two laws were two parts of the same Act of Parliament, but the government rushed through the section that helps landlords and sat on the bit that helped tenants. The government knows which side its bread is buttered, and it’s not the millions of victims of the housing crisis whose interests they have in mind.

Without security of tenure, tenants’ rights are worthless.

Abolish Section 21! Secure homes for all!

Your right to have someone with you at the housing office – our letter to Southwark council

We’ve blogged about some of the appalling treatment our members have faced at Southwark housing office, as well as the recent High Court proceedings where Southwark council admitted they were unlawfully turning homeless people away. These experiences make it even more important that people making homeless applications and seeking help from Southwark housing office know that they are allowed to have a supporter with them throughout the process. We have supported many HASL members at the housing office in both Lambeth and Southwark, and without our support, they said they would not have got any help from the council.

But at Southwark housing office, we have had a particularly bad response when a homeless applicant has requested someone from HASL be with them. At Southwark recently, when we have tried to accompany a HASL member to a homelessness interview, we were stopped from doing so by one of the staff with no reason given other than “this is my interview and I’ll decide who comes to it”. This member was refused a supporter at other times during the homelessness application.

We want Southwark council and the housing department to confirm to us in writing that people visiting the housing office are allowed a supporter with them at any time they wish. We hope that they will relay this message to all of their staff in the housing office. HASL and Hansen Palomares have written a letter to councillor Peter John, leader of Southwark council, in support of this crucial right to accompany each other at the housing office.

HASL are also organising a ‘how to be a buddy’ skill share afternoon on Saturday 18th April to share experiences and tips so that we can support each other effectively when visiting the housing office and other appointments with authorities to get the help that we need. More details coming soon.

Open Letter

Cllr Peter John, Leader of the Council

London Borough of Southwark PO Box 64529 London, SE1P 5LX

24th March 2015

Dear Cllr John,

Homelessness – the right to be accompanied

Housing Action Southwark and Lambeth (HASL) and Hansen Palomares solicitors both support Southwark’s most vulnerable people through the very difficult process of making a homelessness application.

We are writing to ask you to confirm that homelessness applicants have the right to be accompanied to homelessness interviews and assessments. It is a crucial right that is protected in other areas, such as disciplinary hearings at work, Jobcentre Plus interviews and work capability assessments. Moral support, solidarity, and practical help such as note taking are even more important when a family applies as homeless. HASL, Hansen Palomares and Southwark Council all know from experience that it is legally complex and extremely difficult emotionally.

We note with regret the High Court’s findings of Southwark’s ‘gatekeeping’ tactics in A (anon.) v London Borough of Southwark (Claim No CO/2035/2014). We understand that Southwark has started a complete reform of the homelessness application procedure since the facts of that case took place. We hope that, in the spirit of that reform, you will make it clear that at interviews and assessments Southwark welcomes – or at the very least tolerates – supporters of people who have lost their homes. We look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely, Hansen Palomares solicitors, Housing Action Southwark & Lambeth HASLemail@gmail.com

CC: Cllr Richard Livingstone, cabinet member for housing

Gerri Scott, strategic director of housing and community services

The editor, South London Press

Lambeth council leader doesn’t want to speak to poor people

Yum – coco pops outside the Marriot hotel, County Hall

Early this morning, HASL members, residents from Knights Walk estate, and Left Unity gathered outside the Marriot hotel where Lib Peck was due to have a £90 a head breakfast with property developers to plan more disastorus housing policies for our communities.

We had great music, a huge banner, and our own breakfast of coco pops and orange juice so that she couldn’t miss us but for some reason, she tried to pass without acknowledging us. As she entered the hotel a little after 7.30am, members from HASL tried to approach her to raise the issues our members, and many other Lambeth residents, are facing including evictions, homelessness, disrespect at the housing office, demolition of estates, homeless people being pushed into the private sector, and her own calls for the full criminalisation of squatting. But Lib Peck didn’t want to hear about hunger and homelessness in her borough. She muttered something angrily as we tried to engage her in conversation and she rushed off to her fancy breakfast. Rude. We gave her some loud parting shots as the gate was closed in our faces by security.

Lib Peck isn’t interested in bad housing and poverty – but we are, and we’ll continue to fight these together in our communities. And we’ll continue to make our feelings known at every fancy meal that Lib Peck and the rest of Lambeth council have.

Success for Gustavo! Protest works!

Members of HASL, Unite Community and Lambeth Housing Activists are celebrating today as the campaign to win accommodation for Gustavo Garcia, whose circumstances we blogged about previously, has finally been deemed vulnerable by the council and so qualifies for housing under priority need. Only a day before news of this success arrived, Lambeth’s cabinet member for housing – Matthew Bennett – wrote to HASL stating that whilst he “was very concerned from your email to learn that [Gustavo] had suffered a stroke and lost his job” it remained the case that Gustavo didn’t “qualify as being in “priority” need under the homelessness legislation that would see Mr Garcia housed in temporary accommodation”.

What a difference a day makes.

Protesters occupying Lambeth Town Hall in support of Gustavo

This u-turn by the council shows us two things. First, that priority need is political. Second, despite pursuing every legal route with help of the very good solicitors at Lambeth Law Centre, it was protest and public pressure that in the end got the goods!

Gustavo and his supporters will be celebrating this victory at our next solidarity kitchen (details to follow). We would like to extend an invitation Lambeth’s new ‘advocate for housing rights’, Cllr Mathew Bennett, who, as this example shows, has clearly championed the cause of equality and access to shelter in his borough.

The fight continues – we need to ensure Gustavo is given decent affordable accommodation in the borough, something we are demand for all!

Everyone is priority need!

Crash Lambeth Council’s property developers breakfast

On Tuesday 24th March the leader of Lambeth Council, Lib Peck, is having breakfast with property developers at the swanky London Marriott Hotel at County Hall – no doubt to sell off more of our borough. At £90 a head it’s unlikely many of her residents are going to get a say, or any of the posh breakfast either.

So join Housing Action Southwark and Lambeth outside to let them know we won’t let anymore of Lambeth be sold off, and that we’d rather have a bowl of coco pops anyway!

Get there from 7.30am to welcome Lib Peck’s community destroying guests and bring stuff to make some noise to drown out their sleazy deals!

Join the Facebook event
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For more info on this outrageous breakfast see the Brixton Buzz article on it

 

Lib Peck bundled away from the homelessness of Gustavo Garcia

Today, Lambeth Housing Activists and members of HASL attempted to meet Lambeth Council Leader Lib Peck to discuss the homelessness of local disabled man Gustavo Garcia. Lib Peck was unable to meet with us and was instead bundled away from protesters by security, entering the Town Hall through a side entrance along with Lambeth’s Mayor.

Gustavo in 2010 before his stroke

Gustavo Garcia has lived in Brixton for 18 years. Last year he became homeless after suffering a stroke which caused him to become unemployed and so couldn’t afford his rent. His landlord would not accept housing benefit and evicted him. The stroke caused memory loss and physical weakness, and has also led to severe depression.

Gustavo now faces the threat of life on the streets as Lambeth are refusing to let him stay in their temporary accommodation stating he is not in ‘priority need’ so he is not their problem.

The right side of his body is now numb and much weaker and he cannot do the things he used to. His previous job as a window cleaner fills him with fear as he doesn’t have grip in his right hand, so climbing ladders and working at great heights is dangerous for him. He is shaky. This in itself is hard enough to cope with, but his memory loss has also caused him much distress and disorientation. Gustavo came here from Ecuador eighteen years ago, and is now a British citizen. He spoke fluent English prior to his stroke, but the memory loss caused by the stroke means he has forgotten a good deal of the language. “I feel so alone. I can’t sleep at all. I’m always worrying, afraid of being put on the street” he told us.

This is the inhuman face of the housing crisis as Councils ration an ever shrinking number of council flats and manage London’s housing crisis by putting vulnerable people on the streets.

We demand:

• That Council leader Lib Peck meet with Gustavo and his supporters this week
• That Gustavo be housed in Lambeth where his support networks exist. That if private, this accommodation must be affordable on Gustavo’s income and be secured for a minimum of two years and that access to a rent deposit scheme is offered.

Gatekeeping culture at Southwark council housing offices

 

– “Homeless? We will check, check and check again” Poster in Southwark Housing Office

The following testimony highlights 4 types of gatekeeping tactics, employed by Southwark council against homeless people, that are additional to those raised recently in the High Court after a legal challenge by Hansen Palomares: 1) Delay and time wasting, 2) Initial allocation of temporary housing for two days, 3) Isolation, 4) Verbal intimidation and abuse. Our first request of Southwark Council is for senior housing officers and councillors to reaffirm that gatekeeping practice 3) isolation of the homeless person by refusing them an advocate is against their policy and best practice.

Housing Action Southwark and Lambeth members have had extremely bad experiences of visiting Southwark council’s housing office in Peckham. We blogged here about staff physically and verbally abusing our members who were trying to access housing that the council must provide. Another member reported being racially abused by a staff member. Most recently we were contacted by A who had visited the housing office ten times presenting herself as homeless and asking for the support that they have a legal duty to give her and her family. At all of these visits she was turned away by the staff. There is also the well publicized case of Southwark housing officials conspiring to make a man homeless.

We are organizing together to challenge the culture of disrespect and abuse that often vulnerable people are subjected to at Peckham housing office. As well as providing practical support , including accompanying each other to visits to the housing office, we have been speaking with people outside the housing office about their experiences and giving them leaflets about their rights. We have lots more activities planned as part of our campaign, so get in touch with us if you’d like to be involved.

At the same time as we were providing practical support to A in the housing office and challenging the gatekeeping we were confronted with, a legal challenge by Hansen Palomares lawyers won a High Court order that requires Southwark council stop its unlawful practices of turning away homeless applicants without conducting proper investigations into their case (under the Housing Act 1996 local authorities must provide temporary accommodation to anyone who it has reason to believe is homeless or threatened by homelessness, is eligible for assistance, and is in priority need – for more information see the London Coalition Against Poverty leaflet). We hope that this legal victory will bring about change in the housing office. But we also know from first-hand experience that the gatekeeping at Southwark goes far deeper than turning people away from the start. Those who do manage to get a homeless application started at the housing office are subjected to a culture of bullying and intimidation that follows homeless applicants through every level of the process. They are also given misinformation and constantly set up to fail by the staff there. This means that many people who have started a homeless application could be forced to abandon it or told that they have made themselves ‘intentionally homeless’. Our recent experience with A saw us encounter these gatekeeping tactics. Staff consistently acted against the interests of A, doing their best to end the homelessness application whenever they saw an opportunity.

A’s case – How many people does it take to make Southwark council conduct a homelessness application?

A and her family were living in severely overcrowded accommodation which meant that legally they counted as homeless. A made 10 visits to the housing office to get help with her housing situation but each time she was (unlawfully) turned away. She got in touch with us and we were able to help her finally get a homelessness application appointment. Having experienced problems at this housing office before, we organized for other HASL members to go along to the housing office in support of A. In total, it took three full days (in addition to her previous visits) at the housing office, with a number of supporters each time, and a housing lawyer on the other end of the phone providing legal backup to get temporary housing. What should be a really basic process required an enormous amount of labour hours and was shown to have been impossible to navigate alone.

At the initial meeting, we were handed 5 different forms to fill in, some several pages long, to complete. One of these forms was a ‘priority need’ form which included 71 questions – none of them actually establishing whether the person was in priority need, but instead asking about hobbies and whether you’d accept private rented accommodation if they paid the deposit. These questions seem to be tricking the applicant into making themselves seem intentionally homeless – for example, if you said you enjoyed shopping or gardening, they could use this to question the medical issues you raised, or if you stated that you did not want private accommodation, this too could be deemed as making yourself intentionally homeless for failing to look at other options (take a look at the questions and our analysis here). Another sheet of paper had a check list of all the documents that A was told she must provide. Across the top of the sheet it informed us that if we failed to provide all of these within 7 days, her case would be closed. Of course, for many homeless people, these documents could be at friends’ houses, lost, or difficult to obtain in the weeks time frame.

After a morning of form filling, A had an interview in the afternoon. The HASL supporter requested to accompany A to the interview for moral support and also to take notes (especially as English was not A’s first language). The woman who was going to conduct the interview responded to this request by shouting that they would not be allowed into her interview before storming off. We were extremely concerned about A being refused a supporter to the interview with no reason given other than ‘this is my interview’, as well as at the abusive behavior of this staff member.

Day 2

We return to complete the process and the HASL members there in support are once again threatened, now by the worker who tells us she will call the police on us without any cause. They send A to the other building in which the temporary accommodation will be allocated but in this office they tell us that the other office has not sent the permission through. They take another several hours to do so. By which time completing the allocation is rushed and so a panicked A leaves for work running late. Her husband is forced to collect the kids from school and take them on several busses to meet the landlord. The accommodation however has only been granted for two nights, meaning A is forced to return to the office to extend it.

Day 3

Accompanying A once more to the office to have her accommodation extended the worker tells me that only two days were granted ‘because if it was any longer A wouldn’t bring back the forms she is required to complete.’ A has been aided in filling out these forms since her English is not fluent. One form includes a personal statement on why she is homeless. The housing worker tells us that she must now complete the forms from scratch in front of her with the aid of a translator because she does not believe A wrote the forms herself. The meeting is not allowed to begin until the HASL members there for support leaves, a manager is called, more threats are made and we are forced to leave A alone to carry out what is effectively yet another homelessness interview lasting three hours. By which time the allocation procedure requires A to call in sick for work, risking her job and so putting her and the family at risk of homelessness.

Making the process take all day was a way of disciplining A via her housing need, causing her three times to chose between completing the process or risk losing her job.

Eventually, A and her family were provided with temporary accommodation –having successfully challenged all the gatekeeping. This was certainly a victory for all involved. This case shows the importance of practical support and solidarity, as well as the dire need for significant change in the culture at the housing office.

You can take a supporter with you to the housing office

There are a whole load of reasons why someone might want to take a friend or supporter with them to meetings and appointments with the council, or any other institution (for example the Job Centre or Work Capability Assessment interviews), particularly when making a homelessness application. These reasons may include help with note taking and simply moral support during what can be a very stressful time. It is your right to have someone to come along with you to any appointment or interview if you would like this. We hope that Southwark council housing staff and Southwark councilors will confirm that this is indeed the case, that they recognize the importance of this right to have someone with us at meetings, and that they will make sure that this policy is implemented in the housing office. We will be contacting them with this blog post about our right to support and requesting that they send us a written response.

HASL members accompany each other to appointments, if you’d like to get involved in this buddy system, please get in contact or come to one of our regular meetings.

As well as having our right to be accompanied respected, we want an end to all other gatekeeping practices and an end to the abuse and disrespect that people are subjected to by staff. We want to see Southwark council acting in the best interest of their homeless residents, making sure that they get much needed local, secure, social housing.  They’ve got a lot work to do to make this a reality as the two recent damning High court judgments and our testimonies show. We will continue to support homeless people visiting the housing office and will work with lawyers to ensure that the recent High Court judgment is followed by Southwark council.

 

HASL’s first supper club this Sunday and other updates

Black Panters’ Free Breakfast for School Children Programme

1. Come to HASL’s first supper club this Sunday!

Join us this Sunday 3-7pm at Art Nouveau, 77 Atlantic road, Brixton for tasty, nutritious free food and to hang out together, play games, and watch films. We hope this will be the first of many. Join and share our facebook event here https://www.facebook.com/events/410377939139589

2. Linking up with Skills Network and English for Action
   

We had a brilliant workshop with the wonderful women at Skills Network last Friday. We had a really lively and engaged discussion about what HASL does, our housing rights, the housing crisis, and getting quality housing for everyone. We left feeling really inspired, energized and enraged. We’re looking forward to working together with the Skills Network and supporting each other’s work. Thanks to Skills Network for the invitation and for your energy and enthusiasm.

This Monday, we joined English for Action (participatory ESOL classes, teaching English and organising for social change) for their first community meeting in Walworth. A wide range of issues and concerns were discussed. Unsurprisingly, housing came up a lot. We’re looking forward to working together more with English for Action so that we can support each other to get the quality housing we all need and deserve.

3. Action call outs

Save the date – Lambeth council leader Lib Peck, whilst ignoring local residents concerned about social cleansing, is making time to breakfast with her developer pals for 90 quid a head on Tuesday 24th March at the London Marriot, County Hall.

Support Gustavo – Gustavo is currently being housed by the council in temporary accommodation, but it’s likely that in the next three weeks, the council will deem him not ‘in priority need’ and will end it’s duty to house him. We say – everyone is priority need! Show your support this Monday 9th, meeting outside Olive Morris house, Brixton hill at 9am.

The Aylesbury protest occupation in Camberwell/Elephant and Castle is calling on supporters to visit their occupation tomorrow daytime – Wednesday – to show their support. People from the occupation have two court dates in the morning. They’ll be outside Camberwell Green Magistrates from 10am-12pm tomorrow in solidarity with one of the residents who was arrested by police at the eviction.

4. Our next regular meeting and other upcoming events

Our next regular meeting is Thursday 12th March, 12pm at Papa’s cafe, 10-17 Pulross road, Brixton, SW9 8AF. Come along to give and receive housing support, and plan actions together, and to support your local housing action group. We’re all volunteers, we need your input to make all the plans we have happen.

Focus E15 workshops to build a movement around the slogan Social Housing Not Social Cleansing from 18th-21st March at PEER Gallery in Hoxton with a workshop from Skills Network, a workshop on migrants’ housing rights, and a public talk featuring Focus E15, Our West Hendon, and London Coalition Against Poverty. Facebook event and more details here https://www.facebook.com/events/341894719339610

Great Novara radio podcast on poverty, housing and austerity. The stories in this episode show exactly why HASL exists – so that we don’t struggle alone!

Get ready for April – it’s HASL’s birthday! The big two! We’ll set a date for this soon.