Massive Housing Solidarity, Southwark Council Ineptitude

Southwark Town Hall occupation

UPDATE 20/10/2014 We heard from Ruth on Monday that on Friday (the day after our occupation) the council had got back in contact with Ruth and offered her accessible temporary accommodation for Ruth and her kids. Although a one bedroom flat for Ruth and two kids is still not appropriate temporary housing. Massive thanks to everyone who came down and supported.

We left Ruth this evening heading to temporary housing we had achieved after a 2 hour occupation of Southwark town hall and a 3 hour wait at the Peckham housing office where we were subjected to the abuse of aggressive male staff members. We had met together at 10am in the morning and had believed the situation had been resolved with decent temporary accommodation for Ruth and her kids.

Unfortunately, when Ruth arrived at the temporary housing, she found out that Southwark council had given her housing that had stairs leading up to it. Because of her disabilities, she could not physically access this accommodation. This is yet another massive failure of Southwark council in their duty to Ruth and her kids to add to the massive list of failures.

This same week, a damning court judgement highlighted some of the issues in Southwark council’s housing department. Cllr Richard Livingstone tried to brush these aside as a ‘one off’ but Ruth’s situation shows similar abuses and neglect from housing officers. We know for sure that these are not one offs but that this is the culture of hate that operates in the housing office.

The occupation this morning saw twenty supporters and Ruth make their presence felt in Southwark town hall’s lobby. The brilliant Focus E15 mums travelled across from East London to offer their support and solidarity. A Spanish housing activist over here for the counter-MIPIM mobilisations also joined. After an hour or so, when the suited officials of the town hall had enough of angry mothers sticking up for each other and telling them to sort things out, and realised we weren’t going to leave until our main demand of decent temporary housing was met, they agreed that they would get Ruth temporary accommodation.

This felt like a huge victory as our group had managed to overturn a negative decision made by the council through our collective direct action. We were told we could collect the keys to the accommodation from the Bournmouth road housing office. We had been reluctant to go there after a previous visit where staff had been rude to us, with the manager shouting in our face before storming off, but we were assured it would be simple and quick.

Two important questions arise – Why did it take 20 people occupying the town hall before Southwark were able to use their discretion to house Ruth temporarily whilst her appeal took place? Since receiving the appeal lodged over a week ago, which listed Ruth’s health problems and that she has two young children, why did Southwark decide they did not want to offer her temporary housing when it was in their powers to provide this?

Why did Southwark Council offer a woman with mobility issues accommodation which had stairs. Is there not a system that looks at the accessibility of accommodation and makes sure that people are matched up with housing they can actually safely enter and live in?

Leaving our awesome occupation at the town hall, a smaller group visited Bournemouth Road in Peckham to sort out the temporary housing we had been promised. Before we even entered the building, the male staff there were confrontational, abusive, aggressive. They had obviously been told that a group of us were coming and decided the appropriate way to react was to behave in this way. We were a group of 4 women and one baby and the male staff were verbally abusive, shouting in our faces, refusing to give us their names, security staff refusing to show us their badges. One physically intimidated one of the women standing close and moving forward so that she had to back out of the building to get away from him. As he did this she informed him that he could not physically assault her in this way, to which he replied ‘I can assault you’. The men then came outside to take photos of the women outside and informed them that they were going to put them on Facebook.

The experience was extremely distressing for all of the women who told the male staff they felt scared and intimidated by their behaviour. We saw these same staff members verbally and physically abuse other women who were separate from our protest as they entered the building. The aggressive, intimidating behaviour of the male staff is particularly concerning seeing as the housing office is a place that vulnerable women,  many of whom may be survivors of domestic violence, visit to try and get help.

Something must be done about the behaviour we experienced today and that is clearly standard practice in the housing office. The joyous feeling of our occupation felt quickly lost as we were subjected to these people in the housing office and had to wait for three hours for temporary accommodation to be found – which in the end was not accessible for Ruth. We made it clear that we would be supporting Ruth until she gets the safe, secure housing she and her family need. We will also be taking on the toxic environment of Southwark housing until something is done about this. The massive housing solidarity today from people across the borough and across London is inspiring and we’re gonna keep on growing!

Lib Peck – What’s your priorities! Social housing or social cleansing?

Lambeth Council leader Lib Peck will be speaking at MIPIM, the world’s leading property fair, being held in London Olympia on 15th – 17th of this month. MIPIM is the place for developers, speculators, landowners and politicians to meet in order to carve up our cities while prioritising profit over people. It has been the favoured honeymoon destination of Southwark Council and Heygate developers Lend Lease over the years; one of many wonderful matches made at MIPIM.

MIPIM, where our cities are carved up between politicians, investors and developers.

It seems Lib Peck’s session, “Affordable Housing: Is it Worth it?”, and the opportunity to schmooze with private investors takes precedence over meeting her constituents. One resident of the Guinness Estate in Lambeth due for eviction before Christmas awaits response from the council leader who has remained silent over the possibility of a meeting to discuss the fate of 45 households being cleared from this estate.

Lib Peck – we ask you to meet residents of the Guinness estate and their supporters at MIPIM on Wednesday 15th. Show us what your priorities are: the fight against the homelessness of your constituents or private profiteering in our Borough?

The Radical Housing Network has plans to protest at the opening and closing of MIPIM, while also organising a conference to discuss and mobilise for the alternatives. Join us!

A response to Cllr Richard Livingstone

Following a popular HASL blog post on regeneration practices in Southwark, Richard Livingston, Southwark Council’s cabinet member for housing, got in touch stating he was happy to look into the case.

@HousingActionSL @FocusE15 I’m happy to look into this case if you provide details. Email them to richard.livingstone@southwark.gov.uk.

— Richard Livingstone (@Livingstone_RJ) September 30, 2014

Hence we ask him:

1) To ensure the council uses its discretion to provide D and her family with temporary accommodation immediately in Southwark during the period in which the decision regarding her homelessness application is being reviewed. The review has been filed today (Thursday 2 Oct) and details will be sent via email to Livingstone. We also request that Livingstone ensures that the council make sure that D is quickly housed in secure, affordable, local social housing after being stuck in temporary accommodation for 9 years; D has serious medical problems and two young children.

2) To investigate high rents being charged to homeless people in Southwark owned temporary accommodation on a decanted housing estate (Aylesbury) where residents were living on a building site.

3) To investigate whether temporary tenants and precariously housed tenants (such as ASTs) in decanted housing are being made homeless following eviction or if they receive genuinely affordable housing in the borough after being moved on, i.e. is Southwark actually “keeping people in their homes?”

4) To investigate the culture of gatekeeping and intimidation in benefit and housing offices in Southwark. D’s is not the only case. We can report, from our experience, the systematic practice of preventing access to services, benefits and housing in Southwark to those entitled. We suspect the cause lay in both the scarcity of these resources, aided in no small part by Southwark Council, the working conditions of staff in Southwark offices and a working practice encouraged by management.

We would like a response on the first point by the end of the week. On points 2, 3 and 4 we are happy to negotiate a deadline for response.

Housing Action Southwark and Lambeth

Keeping people in their homes, a Southwark Council guide to homelessness

A few nights ago, at a meeting in Camberwell, Cllr Richard Livingstone, Cabinet Member for Housing at Southwark Council, waxed lyrical about the council’s grand plans to build 11,000 new council homes, adding, at one point, it was ‘important for the council to keep the people in their homes’.

Southwark Council’s Richard Livingstone, a crusading force against evictions? Not quite.

Housing practices around ‘regeneration’ are well documented and not exclusive to Southwark alone. Here’s how it works in practice: First council tenants are en masse rehoused (‘decanted’) from council estates and leaseholders are pressured into leaving. Next councils use the empty homes to generate income and prevent squatting etc often by allocating them to some of the people from housing waiting lists, these persons and families are given deeply insecure/shorthold/temporary tenancies. The net effect for the council can be fewer people on housing waiting list and a continued income stream before regeneration goes ahead. However for the new ‘temporary’ tenant with few rights the horizon can simply be homelessness.

D got in touch with Housing Action Southwark and Lambeth last week after being evicted from temporary accommodation she held for seven years on the Aylesbury Esate due to rent arrears. The rent for her ‘temporary’ and cramped family home was £205 per week, paid to Southwark Council. Initially, D was able to afford the rent until she became ill forcing her to take a lower paid but more manageable full time job. Her weekly income was marginally higher than the weekly rent. Seeking support a Southwark Council worker misinformed D on two occasions; as is the general culture of gate keeping in all benefit offices she was turned away from making an application for the housing benefits she was in fact entitled to. With these benefits affordability of the flat would remain in question however without them D soon fell behind with the rent payments.

Even more outrageous behavior from Southwark came when on the day of the eviction the council asked D to come into the housing office. D sat there from 9am believing she was going to resolve the issue. While waiting D received a phone call from her kids in the afternoon: bailiffs were breaking in the door finding D’s frightened children inside. In the office D appealed, only to be made to leave. “We thought your kids would be at school” council workers told D. We want to know if this disgusting tactic is a regular practice of Southwark Council to aid the work of bailiffs?

Now evicted the council also issued a letter stating they had discharged their duty to rehouse D on the grounds of D making herself ‘intentionally homeless’ due to the rent arrears. HASL accompanied D to the council’s homelessness office, to make a fresh application, but the council officers refused this point blank.

Appalled by the council’s treatment of D HASL has been advised to seek a review of Southwark’s decision not to house her. Southwark should exercise its discretion to provide appropriate temporary accommodation under s.188 (3) of the Housing Act. Further, Southwark have withheld D’s belongings and shown only contempt and disregard for D’s circumstances. This must be resolved.

This is what regeneration in Southwark looks like. Get involved with HASL to fight for secure housing and empowered communities. Text 07741910527 to join our anti-eviction phone network and be informed of upcoming events and actions.

Lambeth Council push homeless into the private sector

 

Housing Action Southwark and Lambeth have uncovered Lambeth Council’s dirty tactics of pushing homeless applicants for social housing into the private sector. Since November 2012 councils in the UK have been granted the authority by the Conservative government to dispose of homeless people into the private sector, yet as recently as June this year Lambeth claimed in Freedom of Information Requests not to have used this power. The Localism Act, see also here, which introduced the policy, undermines access to decent and affordable housing for all and means that councils can claim that the demand for social housing has fallen thereby allowing them to continue to sell off or underdevelop social housing stock.

Despite their statements otherwise, Lambeth are in fact pushing families and individuals applying for council housing into the private sector, as one member of HASL has recently experienced. Lambeth are effectively forcing those bidding on council housing while in (most often very cramped and unsuitable) temporary accommodation to “cooperate with the council to prevent homelessness” by taking up privately rented accommodation. Those who comply are moved to a higher council housing priority band, from C to B. As one HASL member has said “I have no choice.”

Applicants for social housing are forced to decide between waiting in unsuitable temporary accommodation on a lower priority band or being moved into the private sector where:

– In the overwhelming majority of cases Housing Benefit alone will not cover private rents in the borough.

– Renters are forced to work but remain in a poverty trap being told, like one member of HASL, not to earn too much; she can only apply for jobs with a low wage or risk losing her housing benefits and becoming homeless.

– Many landlords refuse to rent to those on benefits (For an example see here)

– For these reasons the individual or family remains threatened by homelessness.

Lambeth are discussing what work they can do to pay extortionate rents in the area, yet as we have said before, housing benefit already acts as a subsidy for private landlords.

Finally, Lambeth’s tactic bribe of a move up the priority band for social housing becomes voided as more people enter band B than ever before. Again thanks to the powers granted via the Localism Act councils can determine with government guidance who is deserving of the slim quantities of social housing. Increasingly across London this is becoming reserved for those in work or ‘volunteering’ and as politicised provision for ex-servicemen.

Instead of maintaining a housing policy where homeless families and individuals are given social housing in the borough, Lambeth Labour Council have willingly adopted a Tory policy via blackmailing people into picking precarious private tenancies. Tenancies with such high rents can only be payed for with the perfect mix of benefits and low wages otherwise you’re back at Olive Morris House once more declaring yourself homeless.

Social housing for all!

Get involved!

This Saturday we attended the London Coalition Against Poverty (which HASL is a part of) Annual General Meeting. LCAP meetings are always really helpful and interesting meetings as they provide the chance for the different housing and welfare action groups from across London to share what issues they have been facing, tactics they have been using, and other ideas for action. We used some of the time to plan what we would like to do over the year ahead – as our communities face soaring rents, increased evictions, benefit sanctions, rising food bank use, and falling wages. Our short brain storming session led to a load of exciting projects that we’d like to take forward including:

Direct action casework training sessions to talk about and role play tactics and reflect on the model. The training sessions would be useful for those already in groups and also for those who are interested in starting up a local group in their area.

Information trainings – for example, working tax credits workshop, benefit sanctions workshop. These two types of training would of course overlap, so as part of a benefit sanctions workshop we would also have time to discuss practical collective action to enforce and extend our rights.

Information gathering and actions on councils discharging their duty to homeless people through the private sector and also on housing associations who are mistreating their tenants, regenerating and evicting estates, and essentially behaving like private landlords.

It’d be great to have more people’s input and energy with these projects and any other ideas you’d like to contribute. If you are interested in getting involved or you’d like to be kept updated on LCAP’s activities drop us an email at haslemail@gmail.com and we’ll get back to you. Come along to our next meeting which will be on Friday 3rd October at 1pm in Kilburn (more details to be confirmed) hosted by the Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group.

As HASL, as well as contributing to the LCAP activities above, we’ve also got lots of plans for activities locally.

We’re organising an anti-gentrification walk around Brixton to take a look at some of the major changes/cleansing in our neighbourhoods, including some of the struggles emerging on estates such as Myatts Field North and Loughborough Park Guinness Trust, stories from Brixton past, and the growing number of artisan food places and new housing developments with no social housing, ending up at Windrush square and sharing food together.

We’re also hoping to organise a film showing of the Berlin housing struggles film Rent Rebels.

We also regularly meet to support each other with our housing issues by sharing information (both from our personal experiences and from our developing understanding of the more formal/legal rights and processes) and ideas, and planning actions around these.

Again, if you’d like to get involved in helping with any of the above or join our announcements email and text alerts, get in contact! haslemail@gmail.com or come along to our next meeting, Wednesday 27th August, 6.30pm at Renton Close Community Centre, Brixton Hill, SW2 1EY. Everyone angry at social cleansing, soaring rents and benefit cuts and who wants to do something about it welcome!

Join Guinness Trust residents’ twitter storm. Stop the evictions, local social housing NOW.

Tweet @GuinnessPartnership Wednesday 23rd July, 1-3pm

Tweet to @YourGuinness

Tweet to @YourGuinness

Tweet to @YourGuinness

If you add a full stop (.) at the start of the tweet, it will allow all your followers to see it too.

Guinness Trust residents on Assured Shorthold Tenancies (ASTs) on the Loughborough Park estate are facing eviction as their so-called social landlord, Guinness Partnership, has written them out of the regeneration plans. After many years living on the estate and being a part of the local community, AST residents are being evicted, made homeless and forced out of their community. We have written about this previously here, and have held a lively protest on the estate.

Residents have described the process as social and ethnic cleansing. The residents have also told us of the intense stress and worry that they have had to endure over the last couple of years, living on what is essentially a building site and watching the new homes be built whilst they wonder where they will end up living.

The residents have started up a campaign, supported by us and Lambeth Housing Activists, calling on Guinness Partnership to rehouse all AST residents in local, social housing (preferably in the new houses they have built on Guinness Trust, Loughborough Park so as to keep the community together). On Wednesday 23rd July from 1-3pm, join our Twitter storm letting Guinness Partnership know what you think about them making people homeless and destroying communities. Tell them that we want local, social housing for all AST residents. Feel free to use the tweet buttons below and also to write your own personal tweets to Guinness Partnership. Retweet other people’s tweets to get the word out and put the pressure on Guinness Partnership.

Not on Twitter? You can email Guinness Partnership on gs.mail@guinness.org.uk or leave a post on their facebook page here (where they apparently respond to your post within 3 working hours)

In solidarity with all those fighting evictions, social cleansing, gentrification, high rents and for our communities.

See you on the tweets!

 

Myatts field day of action – 25th July

Graffiti on the Myatts Field North redevelopment

Next Friday (25th July) at 10am at a location to be confirmed tenants will be taking action against the redevelopment of the Myatts Field North estate in Brixton which is being done through a Public Finance Initiative (PFI). A PFI is where a company has fronted the money and Lambeth will pay it back for years at rip off rates. Residents are already seeing:

• Higher rents
• Energy monopoly (EON will control the residents energy prices for the next 45 years)
• Lease holders are being evicted and given poor compensation for their home
• Green space has been lost
• Residents have had no say in any of this so far

Myatts Field Residents say:

“We welcome housing groups , tenants from other estates and trade unions to join us at 10am on Friday 25th July (location to be confirmed!).
Wednesday 23rd July we will also be holding a residents meeting in the Bramah Green Community Centre at 7pm , members of the public are welcome to join in.

Please let us know if you are interested in coming to any of the above so we have an idea of the numbers .

The tremendous vote against privatisation on the neighbouring Cowley estate and the angry mood of residents living on the PFI redevelopment shows there is a momentum building in favour of council housing for all, and against the councils complicity with the private sector.”

Energy rights workshop with HASL and Fuel Poverty Action – Tuesday 8th July

Join us and Fuel Poverty Action on Tuesday 8th July, 6.30pm at Art Nouveau, 77 Atlantic Road, Brixton, SW9 8PU to learn about our energy rights, how we can enforce these, and how we can take action together for warm homes for all.

It’s summer – but people are struggling to pay rip-off energy bills year round and with winter around the corner, it’s a good time to get clued up on our rights, how we can support each other with our energy issues, and discuss what action we can take together to combat fuel poverty in our communities. A recent article in a Glasgow newspaper showed that people visiting the local food bank were using camping stoves indoors to cook food because they couldn’t afford their gas and electric bills. People cannot afford to cook their food and lives are endangered as people resort to desperate measures such as camping stoves to get warm food.

Please find our poster below and spread the word!

Guinness Partnership – stop making people homeless! Local, social housing for all residents of the Guinness Trust estate

Protest with us on Friday 4th July, 3.30pm meeting at the front of Guinness Trust estate, Loughborough Park, SW9 8NL.

Residents of the Guinness Trust estate, Loughborough Park, are campaigning against so-called ‘social landlord’, Guinness Partnership, who have been making tenants on Assured Shorthold Tenancies (insecure tenancies) homeless as part of the ‘regeneration’ of the estate. Guiness Partnership will in total have made 150 households homeless by the end of the ‘regeneration’. Those that qualify for ‘help’ from Lambeth council face months of exile as Lambeth house hundreds outside the borough while they process their claim for homelessness.

Together, Guinness Trust estate residents, Housing Action Southwark and Lambeth, and Lambeth Housing Activists are calling on Guinness Partnership to provide local, social housing for all residents faced with eviction and homelessness. We welcome you to get involved too! Why not contact Guinness Partnership expressing your concern at a ‘social landlord’ making people homeless, there contact details are here and you can tweet them here.

Tweet to @YourGuinness

Keep your eyes on our blog for more news and updates, and get in contact if you’d like to get involved: haslemail[at]gmail.com

Guinness Trust estate is one of many estates across London being subjected to ‘regeneration’. Regeneration for who, though? For many residents and communities, this means eviction, homelessness, displacement, and the loss of desperately needed social housing. This quality article on the Brixton Blog includes residents of the Guinness Trust describing the impact of eviction on their lives. One person describes how they were admitted to hospital for four weeks after being evicted by Guinness Partnership. The residents describe how the regeneration is a process of social and ethnic cleansing.

Residents on the estate tried to organise together back in 2010 to have a say in the regeneration, but their attempts were frustrated by the Guinness Partnership who refused to acknowledge their tenants group and allow them use of the community centre. At one of the protests, the residents were threatened by the police and this also contributed to the end of the campaign. ‘9 Stories in Brixton’, a film made by the residents can be seen below. But the residents haven’t given up on their campaign, it’s starting up again.

 

A Guinness Trust AST resident has written to Lambeth council leader Lib Peck asking for her support for the rehousing of Guinness Trust AST residents by Guinness Parternship. Read her letter below