We’ve stopped the eviction, now Southwark – stop trying to make people homeless!

This morning over 50 local people came together to stop the eviction of Aminata and her family from their temporary accommodation by Southwark council. Even though bailiffs had told the family they would arrive at 8am, they had coordinated beforehand with police to evict them at 11am. Lots of people returned to scupper the bailiffs plans and prevent the eviction. Another important win with collective action!

The eviction attempt was being watched over by the head of temporary housing at Southwark Council. He refused to speak to Sky News about why he had come to watch a family get evicted by police and bailiffs and he offered no solution that did not result in further homelessness for Animata and her family.

This was gross behaviour from Southwark council – calling police and bailiffs on local residents and using their staff time to come and watch a family be turfed onto the street. We were able to stop the bailiffs today but Aminata and her family were served with a court notice that puts them under 24/7 threat of eviction – another sickening move by the council. Southwark council need to stop this threat, drop their ‘intentionally homeless’ decision and continue to house the family until suitable social housing is given to them.

Why are Southwark council trying to make people who are already homeless, homeless again?

Aminata and her family, like all of us, needs secure, truly affordable and quality social housing. We must keep the pressure on Southwark council to drop their claims on ‘intentionally homeless’ and to continue to house the family until suitable social housing is provided.

Join us tweeting Southwark council and Councillor for housing Richard Livingstone.

Help us to organise an action to show our support for the family and tell Southwark council that no one is intentionally homeless! Get in touch and keep a watch on our website and social media.

Tweet to @lb_southwark

Eviction resistance callout! – Breakfast not Bailiffs

7.30am Tuesday 13^th October at 51 Benhill Road, Elmington Estate, Camberwell SE5 7QY

A family are facing eviction this Tuesday morning in Camberwell. This is the second time Southwark council are trying to throw the family on the street and have caused enormous stress for them. We stopped the bailiffs the first time and we can do it again – with your help and support! With enough people standing in the way we can stop the eviction.

But resisting the eviction isn’t enough. Southwark council must drop their claim that the family is ‘intentionally homeless’ – which is their excuse for evicting the family and getting rid of the legal duty they have to house them. We know that no one is intentionally homeless and we must make Southwark see that too! In this case it looks like the council have dragged up events from 2012 in desperation to prevent the family from accessing the help Southwark should be providing.

This family has been in temporary accommodation for years, Southwark should be providing them with stable, secure, council housing – not pushing them into further homelessness.

Bring yourself, your friends, neighbours – we’ll bring the breakfast! If you can’t make it on the day, please support us online on the day by retweeting and tweeting Southwark council to keep the family housed.

As we said, the eviction resistance will be the first action – there will be more until the family are guaranteed their homelessness duty with the intentionally homeless threat removed. Please join us!

Big housing weekend 2! Sat 6th and Sun 7th June

English for Action at the March for Housing

After the great success of our housing weekend last month when we joined the Reclaim Brixton day and celebrated our second birthday, we’re back in June for another housing packed weekend!

On Saturday 6th June we’ll be joining ESOL teachers and students and housing campaigners from across London for a Housing and ESOL skill share workshop. The workshop will help us to strengthen our links between our groups and share skills and ideas of how we can work together – for example, we’ll look at how housing campaigners can involve and make  our work accessible to ESOL students. We’ll also look at how ESOL teachers can look at housing issues in their classes, teach housing rights and organise actions. See the call out below:

ESOL and Housing – Call-out!

ESOL teachers, ESOL students and housing activists have been linking up for years. Some people are indeed two (three?) of these things at the same time. But we can link up more effectively, more powerfully and just more! So if you are an ESOL/literacy teacher, a housing activist or a student interested in housing then you really must come to our skills share on Saturday June 6th.

Teachers will learn about housing rights, how to teach language around housing rights and how to take action effectively. Housing activists will learn how to better include migrants with English as an additional language in their struggles (what language is accessible, what language is not, how to deliver good workshops etc.) and how to take action (even more) effectively.

Where? St. Margaret’s House, 21 Old Ford Rd, Bethnal Green, E2 9PL

When? Saturday 6th June, 10-1:30 (lunch after provided by EFA)

Why? Over 11,000 families were evicted from their homes across England and Wales in January, February and March this year.

What? Training/skills share

Please come and bring your experiences to share!

Supper Club

Then on Sunday 7th June, join us for our third lunch club – this time in Elephant and Castle. Our almost-monthly free community meal is a chance for HASL members, supporters, and those interested in the group to meet up, socialise, and eat tasty, nutritious food together. We collect donations of food from local shops and cook it up together. If you’d like to help out collecting and/or cooking food, send us an email haslemail@gmail.com. Everyone welcome, bring your friends, family and neighbours. Join and share our facebook event here.

HASL’s big housing weekend!

HASL joined Reclaim Brixton on Saturday!

We had a stall in Windrush Square,

Our stall in Windrush Square.

marched to the town hall where people tried to occupy it over Lambeth Council evicting and moving residents out of the borough,

Town Hall banner drop.

marched around some more,

HASL on the march.

enjoyed the renovation work at Foxton’s,

Foxton’s after a community makeover.

and then relaxed in Windrush Square

o, and enjoyed the Ritzy’s film board 🙂

Ritzy advertising our eviction resistance tree!

And then on Sunday HASL celebrated it’s 2nd Birthday with a BBQ at Papa’s park 🙂

BBQ going at Papa’s park.

Thanks to everyone who came down!

More photo’s can be found on our Flickr photostream.

Join us for the big housing weekend!

The big housing weekend is upon us! We’re excited to be joining the HUGE Reclaim Brixton event this Saturday where thousands of people, including local campaign and action groups, from across Lambeth are descending on Windrush square to celebrate and protest in defence of our communities. We’ll be there to make lots of noise against bad housing, homelessness, and social cleansing! We’ll be joining the Guinness Trust estate feeder march meeting at the estate at 11am to march to Windrush square together. See here for other meet up points.

On Sunday we’ll be celebrating our second birthday with food, cake, games and good company at Papa’s cafe from 12pm. Everyone welcome! Join and share our facebook event here.

On Wednesday 29th April we’ve got our regular HASL meeting at 6.30pm at Renton Close Community Centre, Brixton Hill, SW2 1EY. Join us to reflect on the events gone, to think about what next, and to give and receive housing support and information, and to plan action.

On Wednesday 29th April at 12pm we will be leafleting outside Brixton Job Centre as part of Boycott Workfare’s week of action against workfare and sanctions. As everyone knows, benefit sanctions are causing homelessness and deeper poverty. We’ll be handing out Know Your Rights leaflets and speaking to people about their experiences and what we can do together to get the housing and welfare we need and deserve. Everyone welcome to join us and help out.

Lambeth Council making more people homelesss

Image is from ‘Made Possible By Squatting’

HASL has found out from homeless members who squat in empty buildings that Lambeth council have been using business rates debts to get them evicted, leaving the buildings empty once again. There have been a number of long running squats in the area where homeless people took over disused abandoned commercial buildings, and when they were finally found by the owners they came to an agreement to stay till the building was needed. The owners tended to put the business rates they would have been paying in the squatters name (sometimes literally writing ‘squatters’ on the paper work!), which the residents would not have the means to pay and therefore would build up debts.

The council business rates team has not been chasing the squatters for the debts (knowing they can’t pay!) or even the owners (as the squatters are liable for the rates). Instead they have been sending bizarre letters that seem to imply the owners need to evict the squatters for the purpose of business rates compliance. Here is one of the letters:

Re: National Non Domestic Rates – address redacted – Property reference: redacted  I write in regards to the above premises.    The Council has been recently informed that there have been squatters occupying the  premise since the 15th February 2013. If this is correct, please supply documentary evidence proving this, showing the action being taken to move them out. This can be in the form of a police report, court order or notice of eviction from an enforcement company.    I trust you find the above in order.    Yours sincerely,

 

The above letter is asking the owner to show action being taken to move them out, but yet the owner is under no obligation to do so. The phrasing of this letter has put pressure on the owners to evict squatters they were happy leaving in the building. In one case the owner told the squatters this was because they felt they could face financial charges if they didn’t evict the squatters due to these letters off the business rates department. This is disgusting behaviour off Lambeth using business rates as a weapon to get homeless people evicted.

They have tried to say they have been doing this to put the buildings back into ‘beneficial occupation’. But the stories of two of the buildings are far from this. Before evictions the two buildings HASL are aware of housed 20-30 homeless people in total, with community meals, martial arts training and film showings taking place. Now one sits empty and boarded up with holes in the floors to prevent it being re-squatted and the other has security sitting in it 24/7 to stop it being re-squatted. To whose benefit is this new ‘occupation’? Lambeth may now be getting its business rates but in total over 50 people could be homeless as a result.

This fits into Lambeth Labour’s wider attitude to homeless residents. In 2013 Chuka Umuna, Tessa Jowell and council leader Lib Peck published a letter calling for squatting to be fully criminalised. The law has not changed yet but through bullying owners with business rates the council have been trying to make squatting impossible in Lambeth. While Lambeth force homeless people out of empty buildings they are denying homeless families the stable social rents they need and are selling off truly affordable housing with the short life coops. We demand Lambeth stop this disgusting practice and let people put abandoned buildings to truly beneficial use by housing themselves in them.

The Freedom of Information request can be found here.

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/

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.