Housing and welfare events coming up!

There’s a whole load of housing and welfare events coming up. Here’s a list of them – with more to be confirmed soon!

Monday 27th January – protest against Lambeth anti-squatter MP Tessa Jowell who last year, along with Chuka Umunna and Lib Peck, called for the full criminalisation of squatting. Read HASL’s response to this here. 11.30am City Hall, Queen’s walk, SE1. Bring sleeping bags and blankets if you can.

Our regular HASL meeting is this coming Wednesday 29th 6.30pm at Renton Close Community Centre, Brixton hill. There is also a protest on this day at 6pm at Lambeth town hall called by Lambeth Housing Activists in support of Maritza who the council are trying to evict from her short-life housing co-op. More info here. We will be out supporting the demonstration, but a couple of us will be at Renton Close from 6.30pm in case people want to drop by for a chat or with a housing or welfare issue. We’ll be looking at the ‘bedroom tax loophole’ that was recently discovered which means that people who have lived in their properties for 18 years and have been entitled to housing benefit over that time may be able to get refunded. We’ll discuss and possibly draft letters to Lambeth council about these refunds.

Lambeth renters are holding a Private Renters’ Rights night with speakers from Housing Solidarity and Lambeth Law Centre on Thursday 30th January, 7.30pm at The Bear, 296 Camberwell New Road. Join their facebook group here.

We will also be holding our fortnightly HASL info stall at Brixton library on Wednesday 5th February from 3-5pm.

Boycott Workfare are holding an info and skill sharing day on 15th February for people in mutual support groups (like HASL) and those that would like to start one up to share rights info, tactics, and ideas on how we can assert and extend our welfare and housing rights. There’s a timetable full of great workshops and more info here.

Look forward to seeing you at some of these events!

Here are some articles we’ve enjoyed reading recently:

Inspiring E15 mums fighting for social housing in London and against social cleansing 

Good article on the housing crisis and the importance and necessity of squatting 

Our Stories: The flat my daughter lives in is unsafe for her but Lambeth Council have failed to act.

Housing Action Southwark and Lambeth believes that everybody should have access to housing that is of good quality, truly affordable, secure, and meets their needs. We’ll be sharing our stories about our housing and welfare issues on our blog in order to document some of the housing problems we face in Lambeth and Southwark and to encourage other people facing similar issues to get involved in our group. We’ll also be blogging on the collective action that we take in order to deal with the problems we face.

When Valerie* first got involved in HASL she told us of the enormous struggle she has been having with Lambeth council to get her daughter re-housed because the flat that she is currently living in is inappropriate for her.

Jessica, Valerie’s daughter, suffers from epilepsy and for the last two years she has been taking medication to deal with seizures which have been brought on by stress. This medication sometimes causes hallucinations or blackouts, and in August 2012 lead to her falling from her fourth floor balcony. Fortunately the fall was not fatal. These unpredictable blackouts mean that living in a fourth floor flat with her three children, as well as having to use the flights of stairs as there is no lift, poses a significant risk to her. A medical assessment taken after her fall confirmed that Jessica should be living in a flat without stairs yet the council have failed to treat this case with the urgency it requires. Over a year later, Jessica is still living in the fourth floor flat where she is at risk of serious injury.

Valerie has sent several letters to the council and has visited her MP, Tessa Jowell, about the case. Lambeth council have failed to act on the case for over a year now whilst Tessa Jowell insultingly suggested that Jessica have her children taken in by social services! An absurd and utterly disrespectful suggestion. Clearly it is the housing that is the problem!

Valerie described the enormous emotional impact the dangerous housing and Lambeth’s inaction has had on her and her family:

“When my daughter fell from her balcony I thought she was dead, but to our relief (father/sisters/family) this was not the outcome, how ever since then I have been fighting with Lambeth Council to move my daughter from the fourth floor flat without any lift. The strain is taking its toll as all my actions have failed and fallen on to deaf ears and the visual impact not only on my daughters health but her three children’s mental state is pushing us all to the edge! My brother and I have been constant carers as my daughter continues to have seizures so we have to do the school and pre-school run even though we also have health issues.

Lambeth Living is one of the most uncaring statutory landlords I have come across.”

Valerie and HASL have written a joint letter to Lambeth council housing office on 10th October demanding that Jessica is urgently re-housed in a council flat that is appropriate for her and her family. We are still awaiting a response and action from the council and will be planning our own action in the meantime.

*The names in this blog have been changed to protect their privacy.

Save Brixton from Property Developers – Protest this Wednesday

Housing Action Southwark and Lambeth will be joining the lobby outside Lambeth town hall this Wednesday protesting against Lambeth’s disastrous housing policies and demanding NO EVICTIONS! See you there!

Lambeth Save Our Services

Lots of people will be protesting outside the full council meeting this Wednesday:

• Students & Teachers want Lambeth Council to Stop the Sale of Brixton College to Developers
• Lambeth Housing Activists want the council to Build More Council Housing with no evictions due to Benefits Cuts of Bedroom Tax
• Lambeth United Housing Coop and residents of Cressingham Gardens want the council to stop the sale of Council Property

We’re having a united protest outside the Town Hall from 6pm on Wednesday 20th November

Many people will be meeting outside Lambeth College on Brixton Hill from 5pm to march to Lambeth Town Hall

Please come, and please bring all your friends.

View original post

We’re Leaving the Park Street Occupation and Onto Other Projects!

This afternoon Southwark council summonsed us to court to regain possession of the £3 million council house that we have been occupying since 28th October in protest at Southwark council’s sell-off of council housing and the wider housing crisis.

We attended court to restate our protest: that Southwark council should not be selling off council housing, particularly when there is such high need for it, and that selling off council housing in expensive areas is social cleansing. We also hope that our protest shows that the law to criminalise squatting in residential buildings (section 144) should not apply to protest occupations such as ours and that empty residential buildings should still be used for such acts.

London and the entire country face a housing crisis. Selling off council housing, cutting housing benefit, and attempting to fully criminalise squatting is only making the crisis worse. We believe that our occupation is one kind of direct action that is necessary to assert our right to housing.

A massive thanks to all the support – including emails, letters, donations of food, visits to the occupation – that we received, it has been really inspiring.

Expect more action and projects in Lambeth and Southwark as well as London-wide co-ordinated actions. Come along to our meetings or email us to sign up to our announcements list to get involved.

Media Coverage of the Park Street Council Houses Occupation

We’ve now been occupying 21&23 Park street for a week in protest at Southwark council’s sell off of council housing and the wider housing crisis we face. We’ve had loads of people stopping by and showing their support for us – we’ve even received a greetings card in the post. We’d like to say a massive thanks for all of this support.

The occupation has received a good deal of media coverage in the national press. The mainstream media have picked up on the fact that housing is a major concern for most people – from housing benefit cuts, poor quality housing, temporary accommodation, stationary housing waiting lists, sky-high rents – and it is good to see some decent writing on the issue. It is quite something to see our ‘Homes For All!’ banner emblazoned on the front page of the Evening Standard. We’ve collected a selection of some of the media coverage we’ve had here. Whilst it’s nice to have hit the pages of national media, the most quality stuff is definitely from independent media sources and blogs, so make sure you check these out! Stay in touch with us by following and chatting with us on our blog, facebook, and Twitter. Drop us an email at haslemail[at]gmail.com if you’d like to be put on our announcements email list.

National Media Coverage

Guardian feature by Amelia Gentleman featuring supportive local resident Maureen

Interesting piece in the Observer about the history of the Park street building

Our Comment is Free piece

Article on the BBC website

Financial Times article (behind a paywall – boo)

Article in The Independent

Independent media

Schnews piece

Occupied Times interview

People’s Republic of Southwark

London SE1

London SE1 discussion forum

Squash

Squat Net

We’ll be having a stall in Windrush square this Saturday from 11am -3pm to hand out our ‘Resist Evictions’ posters and to talk with people about their housing problems and about the group.

Do Southwark Council Have a Good Track Record For Building Council Houses? No.

OK. As politicians love to say, let’s be clear.

Southwark Council have claimed they intend to build 20 council homes with the proceeds of the recent sale of 21 Park St. Here are some facts regarding Southwark Council and their attitude towards social housing.

• The Heygate Estate was once home to over 1,200 social housing units. 1,100 of those were social housing, 100 were leasehold.. the ‘redeveloped’ Heygate will have a total of 79 new council homes.

• Southwark Council sold the Heygate Estate to property developers Lend Lease for well under the market price at £50m. They then spent £44m evicting and rehousing the tenants. Despite promising former residents that they will be rehoused in the rebuilt estate (it’s been empty for over 2 years now), Southwark backtracked (with pressure from Lend Lease) and now promise only 70 units at “affordable rates.”

• Number One The Elephant, was originally going to contain 35% “affordable” housing. When it’s finished, it will contain 0% council, 0% affordable housing. The developers, when asked for an explanation of the lack of viability of this provision, claimed that tenants in affordable flats would have required a separate entrance so as to keep them apart from those living in the more expensive flats.

• According to a FOI request made to Southwark, the Council has demolished 5656 council-owned homes in the last 20 years in Southwark, including leaseholds bought back.

• Overcrowding in social housing across Southwark ranges from between 6%-25%. 25% of Peckham’s social housing is overcrowded.

Call it complicated. Call us naïve. But this is still social cleansing.

Occupation Against Southwark Sell-off Still Going at Park Street

Park Street occupation

Today, Housing Action Southwark and Lambeth people were involved in the occupation of 21 & 23 Park street buildings in protest at Southwark council’s sell off of these council houses. See our press release from earlier here. Sadly, the buildings were sold off this afternoon for almost £3 million, diminishing Southwark’s public housing stock. Through this sell off Southwark council have shown their complete lack of interest in ensuring quality, secure and truly affordable housing for residents and have made it clear that they do not think people on low incomes should be able to live in the Borough area.

On the plus side, the protest occupation is still going strong. Although the police did visit this afternoon with the intention of removing the protestors, the police acknowledged that the law brought in last year to criminalise squatting in residential properties did not apply in this instance as this is a political occupation – section 144 of Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act makes it a criminal offence to live in a residential building, occupying it in protest is not the same as living in it. This is an important challenge to section 144 and shows a potential loophole for people to occupy residential buildings.

If you can, get down to 21 & 23 Park street, just off Borough market, to show your support. Donations of food would be welcome.

Housing Action Southwark and Lambeth are meeting this Wednesday, 6.30pm at Renton Close Community Centre, Brixton Hill where we discuss our housing problems, provide support for each other and discuss collective action. It is important that this meeting is a safe space for people to be able to discuss any housing problems they may have without fear of confidential information being broadcast in the public domain. Therefore, it would be unsuitable for journalists to attend this meeting.

Council Houses Occupied to Stop Southwark Council Sell off

Housing activists have occupied a property owned by Southwark council which was due to be auctioned today at a starting price of £2.3 million.

They have occupied the building to stop the sell-off of yet more public housing stock when the borough faces a severe housing crisis with almost 25,000 people on the housing waiting list and increasing numbers of people forced to sleep rough on London’s streets.

The occupation is also a challenge to section 144 of the Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act (LASPO) introduced last September which criminalised squatting in residential properties. This law has meant that homeless people seeking shelter in empty buildings can find themselves with a prison sentence.

Sarah Morris, a local housing campaigner involved in the occupation said:

“We have occupied this building to stop yet more council housing being sold off to private developers. Southwark council has a waiting list with 25,000 people in need of quality, secure, and truly affordable housing that this building once was. In the face of such housing need in the borough, London, and the whole of the UK this sale of council housing is madness. The attempted sale of this building is a part of the social cleansing that is happening across London where local working class residents are being forced out so that wealthier people can buy it up. We hope that by taking direct action, we can stop the sale of these homes so that they remain a public good rather than another empty building owned by a property speculator.

“The squatting of this residential building is significant because it is a challenge to the law introduced last year which criminalises homeless people through the banning of squatting residential buildings. Community led occupations such as our own to defend our council housing could be made illegal if this punitive law is extended.”

Follow @housingactionsl for more info and photos

Welfare and Housing Information day – Saturday 26th October 3pm-6pm

 

 

HASL Response to Chuka Umunna, Tessa Jowell & Lib Peck

As residents of Southwark and Lambeth, we were disappointed (if not wholly surprised) to learn that the Justice Secretary, Chris Grayling, received a jointly signed letter earlier this week from the Head of Lambeth Council, Lib Peck; MP for Streatham, Chuka Umunna; and MP for Dulwich & West Norwood, Tessa Jowell, calling for the criminalisation of squatting to be extended to commercial properties.

The further demonisation of squatting, in a climate of increasing desperation and homelessness, couldn’t come at a more unwelcome time. Many residents across Southwark and Lambeth are increasingly struggling to keep up with the rising costs of living and, in far too many cases, to keep a roof over their heads. The squatting community has traditionally been a key component in providing a lifeline to those with nowhere else to turn.

There are thousands of empty buildings across London, many of which have been deliberately left for long periods of time. It would be far more preferable for these to be put to use by people who have nowhere else to live, rather than creating an entirely new criminal class of Londoners who are guilty of nothing more than being forced into poverty. If politicians are serious about reducing levels of squatting and trying to solve the root causes of something they present as a problem, they would be demanding and implementing the construction of truly affordable social housing and regulating the amount of rent private landlords can charge instead of pushing tenants out of particular boroughs, without much in the way of support, in the hope of attracting more affluent residents.

We only need to look at developments across our two boroughs in recent times for evidence of the ongoing process which this letter was attempting to strengthen: Entire communities are being broken apart; we have seen Lambeth Council aggresively pursuing residents who have fallen into rent arrears due to the imposition of the Bedroom Tax; we have witnessed the total destruction of the community at the Heygate Estate, against the wishes of its residents (some of whom were rehoused miles away from the area); residents of Rushcroft Road, Brixton, were violently evicted from their homes so that Lambeth Council could make a quick buck on the sale of the land; and house prices and rents rise ever higher and higher.

What this letter really emphasised was the immense gulf between the people who live in Southwark and Lambeth, and those politicans who claim to represent them. It is clear that if our ‘respresentatives’ had any real understanding of the lives and struggles of the people who live in their constitutencies, and if they had any pretence of representing their wishes, the last thing on their minds would be attempting to drive yet more people from their homes.

Housing Action Southwark & Lambeth is a relatively new group made up of residents of two boroughs who are working together to combat some of the problems that residents face; many of whom have been completely abandoned by the institutions which have a duty of care over them. We live the experience of Southwark and Lambeth residents. When we meet, we listen to each other’s concerns. We attempt to offer support, both moral and legal, to those who are finding themselves on the vicious end of an austerity climate that we did nothing to cause. We share in stories of the latest way in which housing offices have lied to us, misled us and threatened us. Everyone we meet is worried about where they will live when they can no longer afford to live in their current home. We are all struggling to make the next rent payment. The criminalisation of squatting does absolutely nothing to help with any of these conditions which rather begs the question: if our elected representative are seeking legislation against their constituents’ interests, exactly whose interests are they working for?