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.”

Guinness Trust residents protest against evictions

 

Guinness Partnership – No evictions!

Some photos of billowing banners and a sunny protest here

On Friday, Guinness Trust shorthold tenants held a loud and lively protest on the estate against evictions and demanding local, social housing. Assured Shorthold Tenants (ASTs) are threatened with eviction and homelessness as part of the estate’s ‘regeneration’. More information here including a tweet button to let ‘social’ landlords Guinness Partnership know what you think of their social cleansing plans.

Over thirty people joined the protest which saw the Guinness Partnership close their office on the estate for the afternoon. The residents’ campaign is supported by Housing Action Southwark and Lambeth and Lambeth Housing Activists. A number of secure tenants joined the protest and a group from the House Of Brag queer social centre in the old Joy shop, who have been making links with local Brixton struggles, came down to support. People played drums, chanted, and spoke with residents and passersby about what was happening to the ASTs.

There was a huge amount of support from the people we spoke with, especially other residents on the estate. On hearing that the Guinness Partnership were making his neighbours homelessness one man said: “it’s wrong, it’s wrong”. Another woman who lived on the estate expressed her anger at the Guinness Partnership’s actions and remarked how this was part of the wider gentrification of Brixton. Talking about all the new shops that have been springing up she asked, “who needs soda bread and ham that’s been cured for 28 days?”

Keep your eyes on this blog, facebook and twitter for more actions as part of the campaign calling on the Guinness Partnership to stop the evictions and provide ASTs with local, social housing. Get in touch with us if you’d like to get involved: haslemail@gmail.com

Focus E15 mums’ March for Decent Housing. Photo credit: Peter Marshall, Demotix

Then, on Saturday we joined the Focus E15 mums’ campaign and people from other housing groups across London for the ‘March for Decent Housing’ through Newham. Like the ASTs on the Guinness Trust estate, Focus E15 mums are demanding local, social housing after Newham council tried to move the mums out of London into private accommodation in Manchester and Hastings. The campaign saw them win a partial victory as they have been housed in their home borough of Newham, however, the Focus E15 mums are calling for local, secure and affordable social housing for their families and for everyone.

 

Struggling with a housing issue? Angry at high rents, poor housing, and evictions in your communities? Come along to our next meeting, Thursday 10th July, 12pm, Papa’s cafe meeting room, 2-10 Pulross Road, SW9 8AF.

 

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

1 Year of Housing Action Southwark and Lambeth

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

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

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

Bedroom Tax Meeting This Thursday

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Labour’s Lambeth Council: hands tied by landlords and government

In Lambeth for the last four years Labour’s Council of quietism has done little to resist, if not explicitly aid, both Tory austerity and the desire of landlords to see poor tenants swapped for the young and upwardly mobile.

In fact it would be too simple to say that the Council are passive administrators of austerity. Their keenness to restructure Lambeth to mirror it’s neighbour Southwark, with shiny unaffordable developments sweeping from the South Bank to the Heygate, is worth reflecting on. Lambeth has heartly engaged in evictions on Rushcroft Road last year. The Council leader Lib Pek, joined by Chuka Umunna and Tessa Jowell have appealed for further criminalisation of squatting, a scapegoating of the most vulnerable for the causes of homelessness akin to UKIP’s scapegoating of migrants for an economic crisis caused by elites. The pursuit of evictions of short-life tenants, many residents in Lambeth for forty years, some old and vulnerable, is a display of a Council that shares the hunger of private landlords for fresh assets while the former local residents join the long queues at the Housing Office.

However if anything has illustrated this Council’s apathy as to the concerns of its poorer residents it is the handling of the bedroom tax in Lambeth. This petty Tory policy is once more a demonisation of the poor during a crisis caused explicitly by the wealthy, a policy with which Lambeth Council has dutifully carried out.

Two weeks ago HASL occupied Lambeth Town Hall’s Lobby to support a local resident facing the bedroom tax being applied carelessly to her front room. When finally we were greated by a Council worker we we’re told that Lambeth’s hands are tied – the landlord decides how many bedrooms a property has and it’s not up to the Council to intervene.

Not so, legal representation from Lambeth Law Centre and the resident have argued while appealing the decision in a tribunal last week. We claim it is the Council’s authority to determine to what rooms the tax applies, as Councils in the North of England have done – councils taking a stand against Tory policy. If the Council and the tenant don’t determine the use of a house via a simple visit (limiting the stress and the resources required of a tribunal) then a landlord might as well say a tent in the yard is a bedroom and a hole in the roof is a shower.

The representative of Lambeth in the tribunal made the case “our hands are tied.” In fact his aim was to remove the council from our protest entirely suggesting we “knock at the right door, not the council but the landlord.”

After this display of apathy we’re left wondering if a vote for Labour tomorrow is simply a vote for handmaidens of both austerity from central government and gentrification from private landlords. If we are going to vote our direction to the council should be one of activism.

A decision on the tribunal is yet to be heard.