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.

Online action – social housing for Temi and her kids! Contact Southwark council to show your support

Join us on Tuesday 16^th December by emailing Southwark’s head of homelessness Ian Swift to show your support for much needed social housing for Temi and her kids. Feel free to use the template letter at the end of this blog or write your own email to Ian Swift. Ian.swift@southwark.gov.uk cc christopher.underwood@southwark.gov.uk and us on haslemail@gmail.com

Temi and her kids have been stuck in poor quality temporary accommodation for almost four years now.

Southwark council offered Temi unsuitable social housing which she could not access. When she refused this, they declared her ‘intentionally homeless’ and the family were evicted from temporary accommodation with no support from the housing office to find alternative accommodation.

During this process, Temi was subjected to racial abuse by one member of the housing staff who was reviewing Temi’s case. The person told Temi ‘as a Nigerian, you should be able to live anywhere…I have seen many Nigerians living ten in a room’. Temi clearly did not have a fair review process with this person involved.

Temi and HASL visited the town hall to speak to the head of homelessness Ian Swift about her situation and to ask for a suitable offer of much needed secure, social housing (which the council should have done in the first place!). Ian Swift refused to listen to her and called the police on Temi and the group to have us evicted from the town hall.

Ian Swift has refused to meet us as we requested in the letter we sent him to discuss and resolve this situation.

Temi has been forced to search for private rented accommodation but has been unable to find any in her home borough or even in London.  Southwark housing office and social services have provided no help to Temi to find decent private rented accommodation near to her children’s schools, their community and Temi’s workplace.

We say enough – Temi and her children need suitable, secure, social housing now! Email Ian Swift in support of Temi to show that she is not alone, and that we won’t tolerate the disrespect and mistreatment Temi has been subjected to. Southwark council were the one’s at fault offering unsuitable social housing, they need to make this right with an offer of suitable, secure, social housing.

Dear Ian Swift,

I am emailing in support of Temi and Housing Action Southwark and Lambeth to request an adequate response to the email they sent you last week. They requested a meeting with yourself to fully resolve Temi’s situation with a suitable offer of secure social housing for the family. After almost 4 years in poor quality temporary accommodation it is clear that secure, social housing for the family is vital. On top of this, Temi has been subjected to mistreatment, including racial abuse by one staff member.

Temi has attempted to find decent private housing in the borough near to school, community networks and work but has been unable to find somewhere. Southwark council have offered no help to Temi to find decent private housing in the borough.

Temi and her family have had many years of insecure poor quality housing. The last couple of months, where she has been threatened with eviction by social services whilst she has struggled to find private rented accommodation, have been particularly difficult for the family. The situation cannot continue like this. Southwark council must offer proper support to get secure housing in the borough for the family immediately. Please contact Housing Action Southwark and Lambeth about the situation as soon as possible.

Yours sincerely,

Southwark council try to evict a homeless woman and her supporters who are asking for housing from their town hall

We’ve got some higher res photos of our occupation coming soon!

HASL made a mass visit to Southwark town hall this afternoon to demand social housing for our member T and her kids who are facing eviction and homelessness by Southwark council’s social services this week.

T and her kids have been stuck in poor quality temporary accommodation for 4 years now and are desperately in need of secure social housing in their home borough. This year, Southwark council housing office dropped their duty to house T after she refused an offer of social housing that she could not access due to medical reasons. The council deemed her ‘intentionally homeless’ and she was evicted from temporary accommodation. Of course, no one is intentionally homeless. For the last 6 months she has been living in temporary accommodation provided by social services, but they are refusing to house her any longer and she faces eviction this week.

The presence of our large group meant that Ian Swift, LB Southwark Group Services Manager for Homelessness and Housing Options, came to speak with us and we made our demand for suitable social housing for T and her kids. He returned to his office to look at her case on the computer and returned to our group where he told us incorrect details about her case. We attempted to correct him and discuss the situation more but he refused to listen to us and made yet another Southwark council eviction threat to T and the rest of HASL telling us “if you don’t leave, we will call the police and have you evicted”.

We decided to stick about to make our feelings felt, accompanied by drumming from a talented HASL member. Ian Swift call the police on a homeless woman and her supporters to have them evicted from the building. The police arrived and left. We left of our own accord, pledging to return.

Although we didn’t have our immediate demand met this time, our message that no one is intentionally homeless was made clear to the council and will continue to remind them of this. Everyone needs quality, secure, genuinely affordable homes. A big thanks to everyone who showed up and showed such awesome solidarity!

Join us at our last meeting of the year this Thursday at Papa’s cafe at 12pm to plan our next steps and to give and receive housing support, and plan action together for quality homes for all.

Support needed this Monday – social housing now!

T and her family are facing homelessness at the hands of Southwark council. If this goes ahead, this will be the third time the family have experienced an eviction and homelessness. Come along and show your support for her and her kids to be given the secure, social housing in their home borough that they desperately need.

Join us this Monday 8^th December at 2pm meeting on the south end of London Bridge next to the staircase with the big spike and near to Evans Cycles.

T and her family endured years in poor quality temporary accommodation before being offered unsuitable social housing by the council. When she declined this offer of unsuitable housing due to health reasons, the council declared her ‘intentionally homeless’ and she was evicted from her temporary accommodation. We know that no one is intentionally homeless! Let’s make sure the council learn this too!

Join our anti-eviction phone network for updates. Text 07741910527

Two evictions stopped – but why are social services making people homeless?

In the past two weeks, HASL has supported two families to stop evictions after social services told them that they would no longer provide accommodation for them. Both the families had nowhere else to go, yet social services decided to withdraw the only accommodation the families had. Social services were housing these families because they were homeless – why were social services making the families homeless again?

In both cases, HASL members visited the families on the day of the eviction to provide eviction resistance support – cramming together into the tiny, and in one case, rat infested temporary accommodation to inform the landlord that they wouldn’t be leaving as they had nowhere else to go. Section 6 of the Criminal Law Act 1977 means that no one can force entry into an occupied home and HASL were there to support the families to enforce this. In both cases too, the attempts by a landlord to evict them would have been illegal as they did not have the court order required for an eviction for these types of temporary accommodation. Social services were taking no notice as families in their care faced illegal evictions.

Supporting K and her family last week, facing eviction as Lambeth social services refused to provide accommodation any longer for the family, lawyers we had contacted the previous day managed to negotiate an extra week with social services so the eviction was averted. Yet, when we called social services that morning with K to see what the situation was, her caseworker had still been refusing to extend the accommodation and callously said that putting K’s children into care was the only thing they would do. This is often used by social services as a nasty threat – the cost of putting children into care is extremely high and therefore social services would be reluctant to do this, but they use it to scare the families and to stop them from demanding the support they need from social services. The caseworker was overruled and the family were allowed to stay for a further week, after not only being subjected to the threat of eviction, but also the splitting up of their family at the hands of social services.

This week, we were contacted by S and her family, facing eviction after Southwark social services said they would no longer provide accommodation for the family. Again, a group of people from HASL went to be there to provide support for when the landlord arrived and to liaise with social services to extend the accommodation. The family were living in one room of a huge building full of other rooms that were being let out to homeless families. Someone from the business came to try and conduct an eviction. They seemed surprised to be met with resistance, informing us that “we do this all the time” (illegal evictions without a court order) and refused to listen to the legal information – section 6 and his need for a court order – that we were telling him. “We wouldn’t be able to run our business if people don’t leave” the man told us. His poverty profiteering business model is not under threat as he would like us to think – for every single room here, he was getting £400 a week. Liaising with Southwark social services, we managed to get them to agree a further month in the accommodation, and so the staff of the slum accommodation were appeased.

Collective action meant that K and S’s families were able to resist evictions and keep a roof over their heads. These are important and concrete wins.

Both these situations raise important issues about the ways social services are treating people and also the disgusting and exploitative temporary accommodation being provided to homeless people – where illegal evictions are standard practice.

High Court shows Southwark Council is rotten to the core

It’s clear to us, and as our recent occupation of Southwark Council offices highlighted, this council is rotten inside and out.

Outside, the council projects its lies about regeneration, claiming for example it will build 11,000 council houses over the next 30 years – an unlikely commitment from the same councillors responsible for the massive Heygate Scandal, and much else besides.

While inside, at the council’s housing offices, service users and members of HASL have been bullied and intimidated, as Ruth’s case has shown.

Yet if anything confirms in black and white this rotten council it has been the recent High Court judgement finding that Southwark’s housing officers conspired to illegally evict and destroy the belongings of one of their tenants.