1 Year of Housing Action Southwark and Lambeth

After Housing Action Southwark and Lambeth’s first birthday in April we thought it would be a good chance to reflect on our year of organising in our boroughs around housing and welfare. We hope to reflect on our challenges and successes, share what we’ve learnt with others, encourage people to get involved or start their own group, and document our activities. At the tender age of 1, our experiences will obviously be somewhat limited, but throughout we have been keen to learn from more established groups in London Coalition Against Poverty and beyond. We hope there are some valuable insights you can take away from this.

We had our 1st birthday social 2 months ago; lots of people came, both old and new, and filled up our small meeting room. There was a table of good food and cake, and a great atmosphere as people ate and talked together. The event encapsulated what we have achieved over the year – the creation of a sizeable group of people from across Lambeth and Southwark meeting together and socialising, brought together by shared concerns and experiences, and a desire to do something about these.

A small group of people began to meet in a Camberwell Chinese takeaway with in-door seating last April to form a local housing group in our home boroughs of Lambeth and Southwark. People in the group had direct experience of job centre bullshit and rip off private renting, we were also acutely aware of the new cuts to welfare and housing benefit, soaring rents, and gentrification that would make everything a whole lot worse in our communities. Some of us had experience in workfare campaigning and were keen to be involved in more direct support and solidarity with benefit and housing issues locally. We were inspired by London Coalition Against Poverty groups such as Hackney Housing Group – we’d heard stories about groups of mostly Women of Colour descending upon the housing office and having their demands met. We wanted to do something like this in south London and used the brilliant pamphlet made by LCAP to guide us.

Bedroom Tax Meeting This Thursday

After our recent win with Djina’s case where we got rid of the bedroom tax for one of her rooms, her lawyer, Kevin,  from Lambeth Community Law centre has suggested that we can use the argument that the present use of the room must be taken into account when the bedroom tax is applied, for other people hit by the bedroom tax. If you are being hit by the bedroom tax please come along to this Thursday’s meeting where we can discuss how to do this. Tell anyone you know who is being affected and please spread the word.

Details of meeting:
12-1.30pm on Thursday 12th June at Southwyck House Community Hall, Moorlands Estate, Moorlands Road, Brixton, SW9 8TT (entrance through the passageway to the right of the red door near the corner with Coldharbour Lane).

Although there will be a focus on the bedroom tax, any other housing or welfare issues are welcome, we will make time for these as well!

Success! HASL member overturns bedroom tax applied to her front room

We demand that the Council now reconsider it’s flawed and unnecessary application of this tax!

A Housing Action Southwark and Lambeth member won her appeal against application of the bedroom tax to her front room last week following protests from the group and representation from Kevin Long at Lambeth Law Centre.

The judge in a tribunal held last month decided that the tax should not apply to the room when use was taken into account. Prior to this decision the Council had simply relied on the Landlord’s classification of the number of bedrooms in the property, showing to members of our group negligence and compliance with Landlords over tenants on behalf of the Council who should have simply carried an independent assessment of the property.

Kevin Long, who since cuts to Legal Aid has worked free of charge on this case, said “I’m now more convinced than ever that every bedroom tax decision should be appealed. Take for example a 2-bedroom under-occupying council tenant where grown-up kid(s) have left home and the spare room is used for storage/study/meditation room/personal library. Clearly this is a situation that the tax was meant to hit – but if you apply the room-use argument to its a logical extreme then the tenant would still have a chance of overcoming it.”

HASL are calling to anyone hit by this tax to contact the group, we hope with this experience we can challenge this regressive policy and have the tax on as many tenants as possible lifted and refunded.

We are also calling on the Council’s of Lambeth and Southwark to reconsider it’s application across the board. Recent steps taken by Glasgow Council prove that Councils need not be simply administrators of regressive central government policy.  As Kevin again states “Councils should be inspecting to establish the ‘facts on the ground’ rather than just relying on the landlord’s classification. This might involve a consideration of ‘use’ – but it might also address issues where there is a genuine dispute over the number of rooms – consider for example a room that has been bricked-up due to partial collapse; or a room uninhabitable due to historic decay; or, as with us, a through-room.”

We will be celebrating our success this weekend in style, making great use of this member’s front room!

Still NOT a bedroom!

Lambeth council lobby occupation

Check out our flickr page here for more photos of the occupation.

This afternoon Housing Action Southwark and Lambeth paid a visit to Lambeth Town Hall and made themselves at home. Transforming the council’s lobby into a bedroom we wanted to turn the tables on the council who are insisting that Djina’s living room is a bedroom and have been charging her for the bedroom tax. How do they like it when we tell them their lobby is a bedroom? Not very nice, huh? Clearly NOT a bedroom! Definitely still a lobby.

The council’s insistence that Djina’s living room is a bedroom sees them taking this to tribunal on May 16th. Why are Lambeth council going to such lengths to charge Djina the bedroom tax for her living room? Their actions have threatened her with debt and homelessness. Djina says that the whole experience has left her feeling very distressed.

With chants of “Djina’s living room is not a bedroom” our group of about 20 people occupied the lobby for 2 hours demanding to speak with someone about the situation and have it resolved immediately. At one point, the staff called the police to our sleep-in but they left after about ten minutes of hanging about and unsuccessfully trying to get Djina’s details. Eventually, we were given a meeting with the housing officer dealing with Djina’s case and the housing benefits manager both whom stated that the tribunal was the only way to settle the issue. We challenged this, suggesting that they had over a year in which to visit Djina’s home and take a look at her living room.

Instead of causing more stress and difficulties for Djina, we demand that the council accept that the living room is a living room and stop charging her the bedroom tax. We want a full refund for Djina and apologies for this complete shambles.

Today’s lively and determined collective action has shown Lambeth council that their unjust and harmful processes and decisions are unacceptable and will be challenged. Expect to hear more from us!

Join us for a quick fun action this Thursday!

This Thursday 8th May, join us at 12pm at Southwyck Community Hall (on Moorlands estate, just off Moorlands road). Instead of our regular meeting, we will head off together for a quick action in support of one of our members who is being affected by the bedroom tax. Bring bedroom stuff if you can – pyjamas, blankets, toys, etc. so we can make ourselves at home. 🙂 Please spread the word to friends, family, neighbours. 

Afterwards, we’ll head to Papa’s cafe for a tea (HASL’s finances can cover tea for everyone I reckon) and chat.

Hope to see you there!

 

Come and show support for a HASL member’s bedroom tax refund. We’ve had enough of being messed around by the housing office!

Join us on Friday 25th April, 11.50am meeting outside Brixton Customer Centre, Olive Morris House, Brixton Hill. Bring friends, family, neighbours!

 

Ellen is due a refund of the bedroom tax that she has been forced to pay for a year now, as she meets the criteria for the bedroom tax loophole. However, the housing office have not been all that helpful in getting this refund back to her.

 

The housing office have taken over a month to respond to our appeal letter and we only received the unfavourable response after chasing them up about this. The response gave very little detail or evidence of why this negative decision had been made.

 

The bedroom tax (one of many brutal welfare and housing cuts) is causing great hardship to the hundreds of thousands of people it is affecting. The refund offers a tiny respite from this stress and suffering by returning a small sum of money that should never have been taken off of them in the first place. It takes little effort from the council and will make a huge different to the people who receive it.

 

Join us to make our challenge at the housing office to demand the bedroom tax refund for Ellen and that our dealings with the housing office to be met with more respect.

 

Esther and Her Family Rehoused!

We’re really happy to hear that Esther and her family are being rehoused by Metropolitan housing association in their local area. Esther, ourselves, and Lambeth Housing Activists confronted Metropolitan last week about making the family homeless and demanded that they fulfil their duties as a so-called ‘social landlord’ and rehouse the family locally. By their deadline of Friday, Metropolitan had been in contact with Esther to offer her a choice two flats in the local area. Collective action works! A massive thanks to everyone who supported Esther. Let’s keep on organising together for quality, secure, truly affordable homes for everyone!

We met Esther when she was at Lambeth housing office on Brixton hill being told her and her family would have to live in temporary accommodation across London in Hackney away from their school, work, and community. HASL members accompanied Esther in the housing office to challenge them about this completely inappropriate accommodation. There we were told that homeless people and families are being sent to temporary accommodation in Enfield, Dagenham, and Margate. Others on the Clapham Park estate are facing eviction by Metropolitan as part of their regeneration scheme – a similar story is happening on other estates across Southwark and Lambeth.

Join us at our regular meetings to discuss what we can do together about these issues and any other housing or welfare issues you’d like to take action on. Our next meeting is this Thursday 10th at 12pm at Southwyck Community Hall on the Moorlands estate off Moorlands road. We will be leafletting at Olive Morris House just up from Lambeth town hall on Brixton hill beforehand from 10am if you’d like to join us.

 

 

 

Metropolitan housing confronted over eviction

Today, Housing Action Southwark and Lambeth and Lambeth Housing Activists joined Esther to make a public complaint to ‘social landlords’ Metropolitan housing who had made her and her family homeless. Below is a cross post from People’s Republic of Southwark of the protest. Metropolitan have promised to find her alternative housing in the area by this Friday. We will be making sure they keep to their promise! Massive thanks to everyone who came along to show support today!

Housing activists protest against Metropolitan Housing Association which callously evicted a pregnant mother from her home in Clapham Park.

Earlier today, a dozen or so housing activists gathered outside the Metropollitan Housing Association office on New Park Road (Brixton/Clapham), in protest against their eviction of Esther and her family.

We all joined Esther and collectively went into the reception area, demanding to speak with a senior manager, asking they urgently find Esther a new home in the area. One of the managers was refusing to take any responsibility for Esther’s situation, and initially refused to have the discussion at all, saying they would speak to Esther alone and no one else. This wasn’t acceptable, as it was important that whatever Metropolitan had to say, they did so in public, in front of witnesses. Metropolitan staff withdrew into their offices, refusing to discuss the issue publicly. After a bit of a stand-off, three activists went in with Esther, to talk with the housing association managers.

While we waited for them outside, it transpired that another Clapham Park tenant was there too, with his young son, and that he too, and his family, were likely to be evicted soon, unless Metropolitan were held to an account and started acting as responsible landlords towards their tenants, regardless of their tenure. Passers-by stopped to talk, found out what was happening and many expressed their shock and outrage at both the Metropolitan actions, as well as the London housing crisis.

At some point the alarm at the housing office went off by accident and shortly afterwards a police car, then a mini van, stopped outside. The three police officers who stopped to ‘chat’ with the protesters were all fully kitted (with taser guns at their belts). They soon left and then one of the Metropolitan staff locked the automatic door, preventing not just the protesters going in (which we, by that time, had no intention of doing) but also anyone coming out.

A couple stopped outside the entrance to the office, waiting to be let in, and told us of their six or seven years of fight against the Metropolitan – for some six or seven years, they’ve been trying to get Metropolitan to do the necessary repair work on their home and Metropolitan continued to fail to do so. They took it to a solicitor and it is only now that Metropolitan is starting to negotiate a compensation, which, right now, is, as far as the couple in question is concerned, is a pitiful under-estimate for the damage they caused. The wife’s mental health suffered greatly precisely because of the ongoing struggles, so much so in fact that she is now in a refuge in Kent.

When Esther and her supporters eventually emerged from the meeting with the Metropolitan manager, the activists reported, shocked, that the manager started off by claiming they were under no obligation to rehouse Esther (which, considering Esther was pregnant and with a young child, may not be actually true). When asked if this means people should refuse to leave their homes, she replied, ‘If they do that, we’ll just carry them out’. However, Esther managed to get some reassurance and a promise that Metropolitan would try and find an alternative home for her, in the area, by Friday this week (4th April).

Activists promised to be back at the Metropolitan Housing office if this doesn’t happen.

The real concern over the responsibilities of housing associations remain, as local authorities continue to pass their own housing duties onto housing associations, which, in turn, are increasingly behaving like private landlords – we had recently seen Notting Hill Trust (incidentally coming to the Aylesbury soon!) try to impose huge rent increases to residents in Bermondsey, while, just like Metropolitan, being a bit shy when it comes to maintaining and repairing people’s homes.

You can see more photos from today’s protest on our Facebook page.

For more information, please check Lambeth Housing Activists and Housing Action Southwark and Lambeth websites.

 

Support recently evicted local family this Monday

Protest – No To Clapham Park Evictions

Monday 31st March, 11.30 am Clapham Park Offices, 91 New Park Road, SW2 4AX

What would you do if suddenly you and your family were forced out of your home after three years? Would you allow landlords to kick you down and let the council leave you to rot in temporary accommodation miles from your community? Would you stand up? Then stand up with us too!

Join us and Lambeth Housing Activists to support a recently evicted tenant to make a public complaint to Metropolitan Homes and Lambeth Council – we ask, why should a family be evicted from their home and yet the flat remains empty? Why is there a shortage of quality, secure, and truly affordable housing in Lambeth?

What are the priorities of this council and these landlords? Housing for homes, not as assets! Stop the gentrification of Brixton!

Read more background information, and Lambeth council’s provision of inappropriate temporary accommodation across the other side of London, here.

Camden council houses occupied in ‘Stop the Sell Offs’ protest

Southampton Road protest occupation

Protest occupation above the party shop

section 144 LAPSO does not apply

 

 

Our friends across the river, Camden Housing Action Group, have occupied a council house that Camden council are trying to sell-off. Grassroots direct action for housing for all! Read their press release here and spread the word!

Monday 24^th February – Press release – For immediate release

Stop the selloffs! Camden council houses occupied in protest

Photo opportunities – There will be banners on the building so people can take photographs from the street. We will try and get some photos up online soon – please contact camdenhag@gmail.com for more info.

Camden Housing Action Group is occupying council property on Southampton road to protest against its selling off to private developers.

Camden council has promised to the residents of Camden that no residential housing stock would be sold off, but non residential properties such as land and garages would be sold to fund new housing.

Without any consultation or public announcement Camden council broke its promise by offering up for auction several residential properties on Southampton road.

Camden housing action group is calling on Camden council to withdraw the properties from the sale, issue an explanation and confirm that no further sell offs will take place in the future.

Anna Gardener, a member of Camden housing action group said:

“Our occupation is a protest at the mass sell-off of desperately needed council housing in our borough, and the whole of London, which is exacerbating the housing crisis and amounts to social cleansing as low income residents are forced out of zones 1 and 2.

“Our occupation is also a challenge to section 144 of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders act which criminalises squatting in abandoned residential properties. By using the building as a protest occupation, section 144 cannot be applied. We want to show the importance of being able to still use abandoned residential buildings for community protests such as ours. Criminalising squatting will only make the housing crisis worse, undermining the right to shelter and protest.”