HASL’s 2022 end of year blog!

It’s been another extremely challenging year for people who are living in bad housing conditions, who are homeless, and who are struggling on a low-income. This year we have seen a huge increase in rent rises, threats of eviction, and councils using hotels to accommodate homeless families – on top of the common housing problems such as overcrowded housing and issues with temporary accommodation that our group usually deals with. These are all signs of how bad the London housing crisis has got. Our meetings have been the busiest they have ever been with almost all of our meetings having over 100 people, with many of our members facing very urgent issues.

But there are lots of reasons to be hopeful. Our group is bigger and stronger than ever! We organised one of the biggest housing protests in years calling for the high-quality family-sized council homes we need. One HASL family won a huge victory in the High Court over Southwark council’s cruel treatment of overcrowded families. We have been able to run face to face meetings again after 2 years on zoom.  We have worked with other grassroots groups and organisations sharing information on housing rights and our experiences of organising. We have helped our members to understand and enforce their housing and homeless rights which has stopped evictions and helped members facing unlawful gatekeeping to get temporary accommodation. With our support 32 HASL members and families have been able to move from temporary accommodation and other poor housing conditions into permanent social housing.  

Every day across south London we are supporting people to understand and enforce their housing rights, we let people know that they are not alone, and we campaign for the good council homes we all need and deserve.

A big thank you to all our HASL members and supporters for your continued support. Our group is run by our members and the group would not function without everyone’s participation. Thank you to everyone who has helped in any way – participating in our group meetings, helping with translation/interpretation, telling friends about the group, liking our social media posts, joining protests, helping to make videos and so much more! We’ve also loved working together with our friends Public Interest Law Centre and English for Action and many other groups and new friends we’ve made over the year.

We hope everyone can have a good rest over the winter holidays and we’re looking forward to returning with even more energy, strength and solidarity in the new year!

Here are some of our 2022 highlights.

London’s biggest protest for 3, 4, 5 bed council homes  

HASL’s October half-term holiday protest saw over 300 HASL members and friends march from Parliament Square to Downing street with our demand for the high-quality 3, 4, & 5 bed council homes we need and deserve!

We were joined by our friends Haringey Housing Action Group, Focus E15, English for Action, and Parents and Communities Together who helped to make it our biggest ever protest! And one of the biggest housing protests there has been for many years.

Children destroyed a squalid temporary accommodation pinata and a housing waiting list pinata. Housing waiting lists and temporary accommodation should not exist because everyone should have good housing!

There was some amazing media coverage of our protest: A lovely short video of our protest, Report in The Big Issue, Report in the South London Press, Amazing photos by Steve Eason

Huge High Court victory for Milton and his family over Southwark council’s cruel treatment of overcrowded families

On 24th May, the High Court overturned Southwark council’s cruel ‘deliberate act’ decision blaming Milton and his family for living in severely overcrowded housing. This is a huge victory for the family and for all our HASL members and supporters who have campaigned tirelessly for years. On the day of the High Court case, HASL members were there to show their support for the family. This important judgement will also support other families who find themselves in overcrowded and unsuitable housing due to the housing crisis.

We’ve put together a twitter thread collecting together the national and local media coverage of Milton’s important case. Shortly after the victory, the Guardian published a story about the dramatic decline in successful high court challenges – showing how the odds were very much against us!

Shortly after Milton and his family were placed in their rightful position in band 1 on the housing waiting list, they were able to successfully get a beautiful housing association home. Viewing their new home Milton’s daughter remarked “the living room is the same size as our old flat”. Milton and his family came to our HASL meeting to thank the group for our support and celebrate together: “Thank you to everyone in the group who came to protest in support of us. We had to submit so many documents [as part of their 4 year long case]. We couldn’t have done it without the support of the group. We will keep on fighting for everyone.”

Face to face meetings

This year saw us return to our regular face to face meetings two times a month after 2 years of zoom meetings. To help make the face to face meetings as safe as possible from Covid 19 we have been providing and wearing high-quality medical masks. Our face to face meetings have been busier than ever with almost all the meetings having over 100 people attending. A big thanks to all our members who have been helping to run these meetings as smoothly as possible. It’s been great to meet again in person and we’re so happy to have our Saturday kids’ activities running again with our amazing kids team.

Too Long in Temporary – Lambeth protest

In May, HASL members descended on Lambeth council’s Civic centre and held a noisy protest in support of Janeth and her family who have lived in temporary accommodation for 8 years. Insultingly Lambeth council deemed her husband’s recent cancer diagnosis to be a ‘less urgent medical need’. Shortly after our group protest, Lambeth council finally accepted that the family had an urgent need for social housing and have placed them in a higher position on the housing waiting list. But a shortage of 4 bed council homes means the family still face too long in temporary. MyLondon’s Ruby Gregory covered our member’s story and our group protest in her article here. 

The reason Janeth and others have lived so long in temporary accommodation is because Lambeth council put all homeless households at the bottom of the housing waiting list meaning that they faced very very long waits for social housing. We’ll be continuing our Too Long in Temporary campaign in support of Lambeth homeless families who are trapped in temporary accommodation.

Some of our members’ victories

All throughout the year we have been supporting members to learn and enforce their housing and homeless rights and providing each other with vital emotional and moral support. We have buddied our members at their homeless assessments, helped them to find good lawyers to challenge terrible homeless decisions, helped our members to challenge unsuitable temporary accommodation, and helped them get their correct position on the housing waiting list. We have attended court 5 times with our members facing eviction to provide them with moral support through the stressful eviction process – in all but one case, the judges dismissed the landlord’s cases and our members were able to stay in their homes. In the one unsuccessful court support case we then got the council to offer the family social housing due to the high needs of their children.

With our support 32 HASL members and families have been able to move from temporary accommodation and other poor housing conditions into permanent social housing. We’re so happy for our members who have been able to move into secure social housing but we know the hardship and difficulties they suffered before they were finally able to get their new homes. In HASL, we know how life-changing it is to have a permanent home in our local community and each victory inspires us to keep on fighting for the high-quality, safe, secure, family-sized council housing we all need and deserve.

One of our members had been living in a single room in a hostel with shared bathroom and kitchen facilities for over 10 years. She had wrongly been placed at the bottom of the housing waiting list by Southwark council. We helped her to get the correct banding and took our complaint to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman who ordered Southwark to make a direct offer of permanent housing. Our member finally has her own council flat. “I don’t have enough words to say thank you. Only I can say God bless you. You Change my life. If it weren’t for you I will be still in the hostel. Any way thank you again…Staff in the council they do whatever  they want for the  people like me (immigrants ) because we don’t know what the legal thing for our right. But I am sure a lot will win because of your help.”

One HASL family who were able to move to permanent council housing recently was a mother and her young daughter who is autistic. They were living in a cramped 1 bedroom private rented flat where they had suffered the constant threat of eviction with their landlord serving them 5 eviction notices over 6 years. With the support of HASL and a good legal aid housing lawyer, they were awarded the top band on the housing waiting list and within weeks were able to bid for a ground floor 2 bedroom council home. Our member came to our meeting to celebrate and she told us how her daughter was so happy to finally have her own bedroom.

Protecting Southwark homeless families’ rights

In last year’s 2021 end of year blog, we described how Southwark council were forced to settle a judicial review case that 2 HASL members took against them for operating an unlawful policy pushing homeless families into private rented housing and families in temporary accommodation further down the housing waiting list. As a result of the legal challenge that was taken by Camden Community Law Centre, Southwark council ended this so-called ‘trial policy’. This year, another HASL member started judicial review proceedings against the ongoing impact of Southwark’s unlawful “trial” on families in temporary accommodation who had been pushed down the waiting list. In order to avoid going to the High Court, Southwark council made our member a direct offer of permanent housing. This was a good outcome for our member but it meant that Southwark council was not made to explain their policy in the High Court. We are still working on getting accountability on this important issue for Southwark households and ensuring that it is never happens again.

Workshops

We have loved attending workshops and events with other housing groups, community groups and other social justice organisations. We’ve enjoyed talking about HASL and sharing our experiences of organising mutual support and collective action on housing and we have loved listening and learning from others and finding ways to work together. We spoke at a London Tenants Federation meetings about our experiences of overcrowding in social housing and we also joined the Homes for Us Assembly. We ran housing rights workshops with our good friends at PACT (Mums Space and Espacio Mama) and our new friends Hope and Unity. We spoke at Medact’s event ‘A People’s Economy: the fight for health and economic justice’ about how housing and health are closely linked and also invited Medact members to one of our Saturday group meetings. We also attended the Socialist Agenda for Southwark event with other local campaign groups. We spoke at the Public Interest Law Centre AGM about our experiences in HASL and practical tips for showing solidarity and we attended a special event organised by PILC for the launch of two brilliant pamphlets on homelessness and solidarity –   Solidarity not charity: activist interventions in housing and homelessness and  ‘Ch**owo ale bojowo’ (‘Things are f*cked but we don’t give up’): in memory of those we’ve lost

Media coverage

All year, our members have been busy speaking to the media about our experiences living in temporary accommodation and mould ridden, overcrowded private rented housing and other housing problems. In their interviews, our members have been highlighting the desperate need for high-quality, family-sized council homes. It can be scary and difficult speaking to the media, especially when we’re already dealing with the stress of bad housing, but our members have been incredible.

Our Fowsiyo and HASL kids feature in this Owen Jones video at the Home Office protest against the government’s inhumane Rwanda policy

Our member Mabinty spoke to The Big Issue about living in temporary accommodation. She also spoke with Sky News for this report here and a video here

 2 HASL members Ruqaiya and Izzy spoke with Moya Crockett for a feature article in the Evening Standard about London’s housing crisis

HASL members are quoted in this Observer article on build to rent. 

Grace spoke to Open Democracy about being forced out of her home borough of Lambeth and living in cold, dilapidated private rented housing as well as her important legal victory over Lambeth council

Our protest for 3, 4, 5 bed council homes featured in this article in the Observer!

Karen spoke to My London about facing eviction from temporary accommodation

Maria spoke with My London about mould and fungus growing in her private rented flat

A big thanks to Ruby Gregory for her excellent and sensitive reporting on housing cases across south London.  

Other activities

We had our biggest summer picnic in the summer holidays with over 200 people attending. We didn’t quite have enough pizza and chocolate cake (even though we had 3 huge chocolate cakes!) for everyone, but we will make sure that we do next time. At the picnic HASL children coloured in placards for our October protest and also made a video to help promote our protest.

As well as supporting each other with housing problems in the group meetings, more and more of our members are telling us about the long-term health issues and disabilities that they are struggling with. We have been sign-posting our members to the wonderful Z2K for help claiming disability benefits and help challenging poor decisions by the DWP.  

HASL contributed to this report by Human Rights Watch – “I Want Us to Live Like Humans Again”: Families in Temporary Accommodation in London, UK,” about the experiences of children in temporary accommodation.

We attended a protest organised by SOAS Detainee Support against the government’s cruel and inhumane Rwanda policy. We will always fight in solidarity with asylum seekers, refugees, and all migrants. No one is illegal and everyone deserves a safe place to call home.  

HASL joined the nurses picket outside our local hospital, St Thomas’. The NHS is very close to HASL’s heart. Members of our group who are living in temporary accommodation, overcrowded and other poor housing also work in the NHS as cleaners, nurses and healthcare assistants. We will always show solidarity with our members in their work places. Many of our members are also patients, some are struggling to access the high-quality care they need and are stuck on long waiting lists. Some have very positive experiences of the NHS. We need high quality council housing and high quality health care for everyone! You can spot our banner in this video

HASL’s 2021

It’s been another very challenging year – especially for people living in bad housing and struggling on a low-income. Due to the Covid 19 pandemic, we have not been able to have our face to face meetings and instead we have been running weekly zoom meetings with our members. We had a few opportunities this year to come together as a group at our noise protest, summer picnic, and a housing meeting in Burgess park. It was amazing to see so many old and new HASL members in person at these events.

We’re really proud of everything we have achieved this year – if we can achieve this much by organising over zoom, just wait until we can meet in person again!

Over the year we have won victories big and small, we organised a massive response when our local councils tried to use the winter lockdown to take away important rights for people on the housing waiting list, we’ve stopped evictions, successfully challenged unlawful gatekeeping of homeless people, and helped people move from homelessness and slum housing into the safe and secure council homes they need. We’ve also launched our campaign for high quality, safe, secure family-sized council homes which we will continue building in the new year.

Every day across south London we are supporting people to understand and enforce their housing rights, we let people know that they are not alone, and we campaign for the good council homes we all need and deserve.

A big thank you to all our HASL members and supporters for your continued support. Our group is run by our members and the group would not function without everyone’s participation. Thank you to everyone who has helped in any way – participating in our zoom meetings, telling friends about the group, liking our social media posts, joining protests, helping to make videos and so much more! We’ve also loved working together with our friends Public Interest Law Centre and English for Action and many other groups and new friends we’ve made over the year.

We hope everyone can have a good rest over the winter holidays and we’re looking forward to returning with even more energy, strength and solidarity in the new year!

Here are some of our 2021 highlights.

Campaign for 3, 4, 5 bed council homes, end NRPF!

In March, kids from Housing Action Southwark and Lambeth, Akwaaba, and English for Action living in overcrowded housing and temporary accommodation launched our poster campaign calling for 3, 4, 5 bed council homes. They have also wrote personal messages on their posters:

“You wouldn’t get enough sleep if your house was overcrowded”

“Sharing a room with parents or sleeping somewhere that is not the bedroom isn’t fun!”

We did this to mark the first anniversary of lockdown which many children have spent trapped in tiny, cramped, poor quality housing.  We launched over 50 of these posters with a twitter storm at Minister for Housing Robert Jenrick to make sure he couldn’t miss them. We also sent him a letter explaining the need for high quality, safe, secure family-sized council homes and the need to abolish No Recourse to Public Funds so no one is refused good housing based on their immigration status. Children need space to play, rest and study!

You can see all the beautiful posters here

Challenging Lewisham and Southwark’s lockdown ‘consultations’

At the start of the year during a difficult winter lockdown, both Lewisham council and Southwark Council (and a number of other London councils) decided that that it was the best time to make significant changes to their housing waiting list rules. There is no doubt that they used this moment to try to quickly push through new rules that would negatively impact their residents suffering in overcrowded housing and temporary accommodation.

We immediately organised to make sure our members and other residents knew what was going on and how these new rules would affect them. We ran a number large online meetings with members from both boroughs to discuss the consultations and what the group’s response should be. After our online meetings we put together template responses to both Lewisham and Southwark councils’ housing waiting list rules consultations helping hundreds of people most affected by the new rules to engage with these badly organised consultations. Our 2 Southwark meetings had over 80 families joining each meeting!

The South London Press covered our concerns at Lewisham’s housing waiting list consultation and features one of our member’s cases.

Southwark News covered our demands for Southwark council to ‘pause, amend and extend’ the consultation to make sure that Southwark residents can meaningfully engage.

We know we had an impact! In September, Lewisham council announced the new housing waiting list rules. Some of the worst rules had been removed. As a result of our campaigning we successfully challenged Lewisham council’s harmful plans to push thousands of families in severely overcrowded housing to the bottom of the housing list. We will be writing a blog post on this with more information soon.

After Southwark council tried to rush through their consultation, they have now gone silent. Now they say that the new rules will not be agreed until after June 2022. This is conveniently after the May 2022 local elections. It looks like they are playing politics with people’s lives. We’ll be writing another blog post with more updates on this soon.

Southwark campaign on overcrowding – victories and challenges ahead

As a result of our community-led campaign and Favio and Elba’s legal challenge in the Court of Appeal Southwark council removed the cruel ‘deliberate act’ term from their new draft allocations scheme. We were hopeful that this would mark a change in Southwark council’s treatment of families in overcrowded housing. As a result of Favio and Elba’s Court of Appeal challenge, a number of other HASL families were able to move from severely overcrowded housing into spacious council homes this year.

Back in March, 18 HASL members also had a zoom meeting with the leader of Southwark council Kieron Williams and the councillor for housing Stephanie Cryan where we raised the council’s treatment of overcrowded families and other homelessness and housing issues our members face. Kieron William’s apologised for the cruel and hurtful overcrowding decisions that families had received.

However, despite the Court of Appeal victory, the council’s intention to remove their cruel ‘deliberate act’ term, and Kieron William’s apology, Southwark council’s culture of blame and refusal targeted at families in overcrowded housing has continued.

Milton’s family have faced years of bullying and blame by Southwark council and have been campaigning for years on their case. In June, HASL members turned out in force for a noise protest outside Southwark council town hall in support of Milton’s family and all overcrowded families. You can read our short blog here. Afterwards our members told us: “it was amazing to be part of” and “the union makes us strong”.

With Public Interest Law Centre, Milton and his family launched legal action against the council’s decision that their severe overcrowding is a ‘deliberate act’. Milton and his teenage daughter powerfully explain their situation in this Southwark News article. We have fact-checked Cllr Cryan’s statements in the article here. The family’s case was also covered in MyLondon where it received almost half a million views and was picked up by the Mirror as well.

For years, we have repeatedly campaigned and warned Cllr Kieron Williams and Stephanie Cryan about the toxic and hostile culture in the housing office targeted at families of colour and migrant families in overcrowded housing. We were unsurprised but still sickened when a HASL family of 5 who have lived in a room for over 10 years were asked if they had thought about returning to Peru to solve their overcrowding. The family were also represented by PILC and even though the council blamed them for their overcrowding saying it was a ‘deliberate act’ the family were still able to move from their room to a permanent council home this month just in time for Christmas. Earlier this year, PILC had also helped the family remove the racist No Recourse to Public Funds condition and access welfare benefits and the housing waiting list.

Families in severely overcrowded housing have won significant victories against Southwark council’s cruel treatment with the help of other HASL members, supporters and our friends at PILC. They shouldn’t have to go through these efforts because they should never be blamed in the first place but as long as Southwark council’s culture of blame and refusal continues, we will keep on fighting it.

Lewisham overcrowding challenge

Our member Zaida went to the High Court to challenge Lewisham council from banning her from the housing register despite living in overcrowded housing because she has not lived in the borough for 5 years. Here’s our Lewisham group showing their support on zoom. Unfortunately the legal case was not successful. But we will keep on fighting for council housing for everyone and against strict local connection criteria which discriminates against migrant families and everyone who suffers from insecure private housing.

Workshops, events and other activities

At the end of August we had our HASL picnic which was our first in-person social event in over a year and a half. It was an emotional and special afternoon seeing old friends and meeting people who we had only ever met on zoom before.

The warm autumn weather also meant that we could have our first big housing group meeting outdoors in October. We had 100 people join us for our housing meeting and it was great to run our big group meetings again together.

We joined the Brixton Community Rally with other housing groups and campaigns fighting for our local communities against social cleansings and private developments.

Our members Fowsiyo and Pamela were interviewed by English for Action students and talk about the causes of London’s housing crisis, what we do to fight the housing crisis together, our victories, legal aid cuts and so much more! Watch, ‘like’, share, and subscribe to the EFA youtube channel here

Our member Pamela also featured in this renters rights video.

In February, HASL members joined Akwaaba, a social centre for migrants based in east London, to run a workshop on racism in housing and sharing our experiences of organising collectively for housing rights and high quality council homes for all. We also delivered a talk on housing campaigning with a new Ealing and Hounslow housing group. We also ran a social housing rights workshop with our members who have recently moved into social housing.

We also joined NEON’s housing movement builders training in July and October this year where we met with other housing campaigners from across the UK.

Protecting homeless families’ rights

In February, Southwark council were forced to settle a judicial review case that 2 HASL members took against them for operating an unlawful policy pushing homeless families into private rented housing and families in temporary accommodation further down the housing waiting list. As a result of the legal challenge that was taken by Camden Community Law Centre, Southwark council ended this so-called ‘trial policy’. We’ve experienced first-hand in Lambeth a similar ‘homeless prevention’ scheme which forces families into private housing and we know how disastrous these schemes are. In their housing waiting list consultation, Southwark council also proposed to bring this scheme into the housing allocations policy and we strongly opposed this in our responses to the consultation. We have another blog about Southwark’s unlawful policy coming soon!

Some of our other victories

Waltham Forest council have tried to force a number of homeless families to Stoke on Trent, or other locations across England, including one of our members. A strong twitter storm made Waltham Forest council stop the eviction of Monica and her family from temporary accommodation. We collected some of the press coverage here. We know these cases aren’t isolated cases and we’re disturbed at what is happening in Waltham Forest council’s housing office where homeless families face this appalling treatment.

With the help of Lewisham Law Centre, our homeless member successfully overturned Lewisham council’s decision to force her and her family into unsuitable private housing. We’re really concerned at Lewisham council’s use of private sector discharge which they are targeting at single parents. The private sector is a main cause of homelessness, families should not be forced back into it. We’ll be campaigning more on this issue with our members.

Back in August 2020 we wrote a blog with our member who was facing her 3rd section 21 eviction notice. With the help of GT Stewart solicitors the eviction company’s dodgy section 21 notice was thrown out of court! 

Throughout the year, a number of our members have been able to bid for secure social housing, the last few months have been particularly busy! We’re so happy for our members who have been able to move into secure social housing but we know the hardship and difficulties they suffered before they were finally able to get their new homes. One of our members was living with her young son in a small room with no natural light or ventilation. Southwark council’s enforcement officers said it was not fit for people to live in and should only be used for storage. With our help and PILC, our member was put into band 2 on the housing register and is now has a spacious 2 bedroom council home. One of our members who is suffering from a number of medical issues and was sofa surfing was helped by the group to get higher medical priority on the housing waiting list. She was then able to successfully bid for a housing association home. She told us that our group’s work “you do it with your heart…I want to comfort people and I want you to know that I will come to support others”

Our group has also helped families to make homeless applications and challenge unlawful gatekeeping, helped people get their correct banding on the housing register, helped people understand their rights, helped people to find lawyers for their housing cases, helped people to request suitability reviews which has seen them re-housed closer to their home borough, and provided emotional support as well. In our group zoom meetings our members have been incredible at providing support, sharing experiences and rights information.

Noise protest at Southwark council in support of Milton’s family

Over 50 HASL members joined our noise protest outside Southwark town hall at the start of this month in support of Milton’s family and all families living in overcrowded housing. As well as families coming from Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham, some of our members traveled from their temporary accommodation out in Croydon. Other members joined us from Haringey and Hackney. You can watch some videos on our twitter here.

Our noise protest lasted over 2 hours making sure that the council could not ignore us and resulting in the housing manager coming down to speak with the families. He promised Milton’s family that they would receive a decision on their case by the following week. Unfortunately, this deadline has not been met. We have been keeping the pressure up on twitter and we might have to return with even more people and even more noise.

Milton’s family has faced extreme bullying from the council over the last 3 years. The family of 4 have been living in a tiny studio flat for four and a half years after this was the only property they could find after facing discrimination by private landlords and unaffordable local rents. Due to the serious level of overcrowding, the family should qualify for band 1 which would allow them to be quickly re-housed into suitable social housing. Instead of supporting the family, the council wrongly accused the family of committing fraud over an innocent admin error, threatened them with criminal prosecution for causing overcrowding and have insisted that the family’s overcrowding is a ‘deliberate act’. The family have been repeatedly asked by the council why they need to live in Southwark.

Last December, another HASL family successfully challenged Southwark council’s decision that their overcrowding was a ‘deliberate act’ in the Court of Appeal. The judgement should help other severely overcrowded families including Milton’s but from our experience so far, it seems that the council are ignoring this important ruling.

Along with Public Interest Law Cetnre we are also supporting a number of other HASL members who live in severely overcrowded housing to be treated fairly and respectfully and to claim their rightful position on the housing waiting list.

Thank you to everyone who joined who helped make it such a strong and powerful protest! We all know that no one chooses to live in overcrowded housing, hopefully Southwark council will finally get the message!

HASL go to the Court of Appeal fighting for the rights of overcrowded families

Join HASL and PILC’s email protest here calling on Southwark council to stop penalising families living in overcrowded housing.

Southwark council have been telling families in some of the most severely overcrowded housing in the borough that their overcrowding was a ‘deliberate act’ by the families. These cruel decisions deny these families band 1 on the housing register which would allow them the urgent move into the permanent, more spacious council housing they need.

As well as punishing these families by refusing them the urgent re-housing they need, due to their apparent ‘deliberate act’, these decisions are also offensive, harmful and deeply distressing.

It is widely accepted that the causes of the housing crisis, where there are over 3.6 million people living in overcrowded homes, are high private rents, benefit cuts and a lack of family sized council homes but for some reason, Southwark council are choosing to ignore these and to blame families instead.

On Thursday 10^th December, a HASL family’s case against Southwark council’s decision that they deliberately caused their overcrowding will be heard in the Court of Appeal. A summary by the family’s barrister Ed Fitzpatrick on the original High Court case in May this year can be heard on the HLPA podcast at 9 minutes 50 seconds and there is a blog post here.

This is an important case for many severely overcrowded families in Southwark, as it challenges the council’s widespread use of the phrase “deliberate act” to blame families for their overcrowding and which leaves families stuck in completely inadequate housing for years. A positive outcome in the Court of Appeal could mean that other severely overcrowded families would also benefit if Southwark council’s use of “deliberate act” is more limited. This is just the most recent action in an almost five year campaign by HASL families protesting against the ‘deliberate act’ policy where we have occupied the Town Hall, spoken out at a cabinet meeting, canvassed canvassing councillors, submitted an open letter with over 30 community groups and provided practical support and help with challenging these decisions.

What happened in Favio and Elba’s case?

Over 6 years ago, Favio and Elba and their two young sons moved into a 1 bedroom private flat in Southwark. They had been looking for a suitable flat and this was the only landlord who would rent to them and where the rent was affordable with housing benefit. As everyone knows, finding suitable housing in the private rented sector is extremely difficult – if you have children, claim benefits and do not speak English as your first language, like in Favio’s case, it can be an impossible task.

The consequences of the discrimination faced by BAME and migrant households accessing housing is shown in the disgraceful statistic that while only 2% of White British households are overcrowded, 30% of Bangladeshi households and 15% of Black African households are.

Local authorities with paid staff, time and resources, including ludicrous landlord ‘incentives’, often struggle to find suitable housing with more and more families being housed in temporary accommodation that is overcrowded or far away from their community. It’s not surprising that families searching by themselves have no choice but to rent housing that is overcrowded and often has other problems of damp and disrepair.

When the boys were younger, the level of overcrowding was uncomfortable but just about manageable. But as their sons grew up, the cramped living conditions have become more and more difficult. When their oldest son turned 10 years old, the family met the high threshold of ‘statutory’ overcrowding. With the help of HASL, they were able to join the housing waiting list but Southwark council decided that the overcrowding was a ‘deliberate act’ and refused to award the family band 1 for their statutory overcrowding.

Instead of awarding band 1 for being statutory overcrowded, the family were given band 3 which is for households who are ‘overcrowded’ which also includes families living in mild, non-statutorily overcrowded housing. Here the waiting times for social housing is longer and this banding does not reflect the severely overcrowded circumstances that the family are living in.

Southwark council’s reason for refusing band 1 was that the family’s overcrowded housing was a ‘deliberate act’ by the family, because the overcrowding was not caused by a “natural increase”.

This may seem confusing, because surely overcrowding being caused by children getting older is exactly what “natural increase” is. What Southwark meant was: the overcrowding was the family’s own fault, because the one-bedroom flat would eventually have become statutorily overcrowded and that Favio and Elba must have known that it would eventually become statutorily overcrowded (even though Favio and Elba did not even know about the social housing waiting list, let alone the details of all the rules or what ‘statutory overcrowding’ means).

The legal challenge

Favio and Elba’s lawyers took Southwark to the High Court in May. This type of case is called ‘judicial review’ and these types of cases are very difficult. You cannot simply say that you don’t like the council’s decision, or that you think that the decision is wrong. Instead, you have to show that the council has acted unlawfully.

Judges are generally very reluctant to find that councils have acted unlawfully in council housing allocations cases even if most people would think the council are wrong. Court judgments in earlier legal challenges have established that judges are required to give councils a lot of freedom in deciding and applying their housing waiting list rules.

In order to work out who should win the case, the High Court judge had to decide what the word “deliberate” meant in Southwark’s policy.

The judge in May this year ruled in the council’s favour and agreed with the Council’s argument. He decided that the word “deliberate” could include cases like Favio’s, even though Favio’s family had not done anything wrong, and even though they did not even know that the council housing waiting list existed when the “deliberate act” took place.

The decision also has supported a bizarre and worryingly broad definition of the phrase “deliberate act” that Southwark have come up with, which means statutorily overcrowded families have to wait very different times for social housing depending on if they happen to meet very arbitrary criteria. Strangely, the High Court decision said that “deliberate act” does not require any intent by the family to actually cause their overcrowding in a deliberate attempt to get higher priority. And actually the only way to obtain band 1 overcrowding priority is to become statutorily overcrowded by giving birth to more children while living at the property. This created a strange distinction which means having more children is not “deliberate”, but renting accommodation that will become statutorily overcrowded in the future through children growing up is “deliberate”.

What does HASL think about the case?

We cannot understand why Southwark council continue to insist that families would deliberately live in such overcrowded housing. We have repeatedly pointed out how the council’s actions are targeting families from BAME and migrant backgrounds. The council must immediately stop this culture of blame which punishes families in overcrowded housing and direct its time and resources to the real causes of the housing crisis – high private rents, benefit cuts and a shortage of family-sized council homes.

In Favio and Elba’s case, the council’s decision that their severe overcrowding is a ‘deliberate act’ by the family is insulting, cruel, and simply and obviously wrong – we hope that it will also be found unlawful and that this could help other families in similar situations. We have seen many similar decisions and the devastating impacts that these decisions have on some of the most overcrowded families in our borough.

Getting to this stage has not been easy for the family. They have worked tirelessly on their case trying to prove to Southwark council that they did not choose to live in overcrowded housing and they have been navigating what is a complicated legal process.

It is disappointing that Southwark council are willing to go to such extreme lengths, using public money and resources to deny severely overcrowded families the help that they need. Southwark council claim that they are committed to helping people to fight against the housing crisis. But they have very publicly shown their commitment to these punitive rules.

Favio explains: “We want to rent a two-bedroom apartment but it is very expensive and the agencies ask you for many documents, and they ask us what you work for, how much you earn, how many hours you work. If you have benefits we cannot rent you. Why so much inequality?…And there are people who take advantage of us, there are private agents and they take £500 commissions. It’s not fair. Everyone has the right to have a normal life.

When they get home my children do not have a place to do their homework, I have a small table, they both start to discuss, and I have to tell them one to do at the table and the other in bed, so the fight starts and my son says: I want a room and a place where I can do my homework. I understand their anger that he is 14 years old and they need their space … at night when they went to bed to sleep, they sleep together in a bed because there is no space at all sides.

We are very anxious, nervous and very worried about the decision [The Court of Appeal] they will make. We are only waiting for a flat with 2 bedrooms so that my family is stable. When the children grow up it is more complicated, they need more space.”

His partner Elba explains: “The council have treated us a bit badly, all the decisions they have sent us have been negative. Since Covid 19, the situation for families in overcrowded housing has been very bad.

During the lockdown, the children have been studying at home online, we have been doing our best, we have made a small space for each son to study. It has been very difficult for children to study. I hope there will be a change because coronavirus has made things very bad. Now we are waiting for what we hope will be a positive outcome for us and that it will help and support other families as well.”

Their eldest son aged 14 explained: “With the small flat we would try to be outside more but with virus, we are in 2 little rooms. My brother is always cheeky every time when I do my homework. Especially when I had virtual lessons, there’s not enough space for me to concentrate, my brother is playing with toys and it disrupts me when I’m doing my lessons.

I have allergies which give me watery eyes, my nose gets itchy, and I’m asthmatic mostly when I’m at home, when I’m outside, it calms down. We’ve mostly been at home because of the virus and my allergies have got worse for me especially.

We hoped we would have a house for Christmas last year, then I hoped maybe for my birthday, so many times we have had our hopes up but it never happened.

I feel like it’s too long for us to be living in one room, we never had experience of having 2 or 3 rooms, of having my own room.

[What would he say to Southwark council?] Most of them live in their own rooms, so try to think about others, how do they feel.”

Lewisham council – don’t ban overcrowded families from the housing register

A judge has granted permission for a HASL member’s case to be heard in the High Court. Our member, whose family live in overcrowded housing, is challenging Lewisham council’s decision refusing them access to the housing register because they have not lived in the borough for 5 years.

We are a family of 5 people, I have 2 sons aged 14 and 16 and a 7 year old daughter. We live in a small 2 bedroom flat. My 2 sons sleep in one room and my husband and I occupy in the other room with our daughter. This situation is very uncomfortable because we have very little space. That is why we requested to join Lewisham’s housing waiting list but they rejected us 2 times for not living in the borough for 5 years. We feel very upset by this situation and we feel that it is very unfair and oppressive. We are challenging this decision and we hope it will also help other families as well. Thank you to HASL for your help and your guidance.

Overcrowding is one of the biggest housing problems our members face and an issue we have been supporting each other with and campaigning on together for years. High private rents, benefit cuts, widespread discrimination by private landlords and a desperate shortage of council homes mean that families are forced to rent smaller flats than they need. Even before Covid 19, these living conditions had serious impacts on families mental and physical health. With lockdowns confining people to their homes the situation for overcrowded families has been even more unbearable. Overcrowding itself is a serious public health issue.

The obvious solution to overcrowding is 3, 4, 5 bed high quality, safe, secure council homes. So why is Lewisham council’s response to overcrowding to increase the local connection criteria to make it more difficult for overcrowded families to join the housing register?

We believe that it is blatantly unfair to apply a strict residence criteria to families suffering with a housing need. They are forcing overcrowded families to endure these living conditions for 5 years before they can even join the housing register for the chance to access more spacious social housing. It’s not acceptable for children to spend over 5 years of their childhood in overcrowded housing and for this to be the council’s policy.

In HASL, we see the discriminatory impact this has particularly on migrant families who are less likely to have accumulated this time in the borough – many migrant families face additional difficulties and discrimination when trying to find housing in the private rented sector meaning that they are more likely to end up having to live in overcrowded conditions. Often, they may have had already moved homes several times trying to improve their housing conditions making it harder to build up time in a particular borough.

The consequences of the discrimination faced by migrant and BAME households accessing housing is shown in the disgraceful statistic that while only 2% of White British households are overcrowded, 30% of Bangladeshi households and 15% of Black African households are. Policies such as Lewisham’s only deepen these inequalities and injustice.

It should not take legal action for Lewisham council to support their residents living in overcrowded housing and we hope they will urgently review their decision to apply the 5 year residence criteria to people with a housing need. Alongside the legal challenge, we’ll continue our campaigning in support of overcrowded families and for the 3, 4, 5 bed council homes we all need and deserve.

How you can help!

Please share our blog and tweets to Lewisham council in support of overcrowded families and feel free to write your own tweets.

Lewisham council recently announced that they will be reviewing their housing allocations policy and will undertake a consultation exercise with local residents and stakeholders. If you’re a Lewisham resident, please think about engaging in this consultation – in HASL, we’ll be discussing how we want to respond to this consultation and we’ll be publishing our ideas and guidance about responding to this consultation soon.

Too Long in Temporary! Janeth’s family

 

Watch the short video we made with Janeth where she speaks about the difficulties of living Too Long in Temporary and the impacts on her family’s health.

In July this year, it marked the 6th year Janeth and her family have been living in temporary accommodation. Originally from Lambeth, the family have been housed in 5 different temporary accommodations across London. Lambeth council place homeless families in band C at the bottom of the housing waiting list meaning that Lambeth’s homeless households may never get the permanent, safe, secure council homes they need. We are supporting Janeth’s case and all homeless households who have spent Too Long in Temporary.

Janeth’s oldest child, aged 9, has spent over half his life living in temporary accommodation. Her other 3 children have spent all their lives living in temporary accommodation. The temporary accommodations have often been very poor quality – they have lived in a hostel, a severely overcrowded flat, and many of the properties have had infestations and damp and mould issues. The poor quality housing and constant moving has seriously affected the family’s health with the children developing coughs, asthma, skin rashes, and anxiety. They have suffered these health conditions for many years. Her oldest son is constantly worried that he will have to move home again and change schools. Homeless households and others suffering from bad living conditions are also at higher risk of catching and being worse affected by Covid 19, a Lancet article highlights the particular vulnerabilities of young children in temporary accommodation.

The family have submitted strong and detailed medical evidence to Lambeth council about the impact of their housing conditions on their health. The children’s school has stated that the housing situation is negatively impacting the children’s health and their future educational outcomes. Their GP called for an urgent move. Yet, despite this evidence, Lambeth council have refused to award the family band B on the housing register for an urgent medical move. The family received a very short and vague decision letter in July this year which failed to properly engage with the evidence submitted. Camden Community Law Centre are helping the family to review the decision and the family have now been waiting over a month for a response.

We are calling on Lambeth council to award the family band B based on the serious health issues they continue to suffer in temporary accommodation so that they can move into the permanent council housing they desperately need. As well as supporting homeless families who have an urgent medical need to move to permanent council housing, Lambeth council must also urgently change their housing allocations policy so that homeless households are not stuck at the bottom of the housing register with no hope of council housing.

We know there is a desperate shortage of high quality, safe, secure family-sized council homes in our communities. We campaign together for high quality, 3, 4, 5 bed council homes we need!

Lambeth’s Temp to Settled Scheme – what has changed and what happens now?

HASL visit Lambeth council’s Civic Centre last March protesting against the Temp2Settled policy

Were you homeless and housed by Lambeth council outside of the borough in private housing?

Were you placed in band B on the housing register?

Did your housing register bidding account get closed?

Did you hear about Housing Action Southwark and Lambeth and Public Interest Law Centre’s successful legal challenge which means your bidding account should be re-opened?

Our leaflet can help you understand your situation and your rights.

LEAFLET IN ENGLISH

FOLLETO EN ESPANOL

Following HASL and PILC’s important legal and campaign victory in June over Lambeth council, we have produced a new leaflet to explain what this means for families who were affected by the Temp to Settle scheme and who were removed from Lambeth’s housing register. Families affected by this scheme still could face problems in the future so please do get in contact with HASL so that we can support each other with our cases.

Many families who approached Lambeth council as homeless were not even aware that they were put on this Temp to Settle scheme – many only found out when their bidding accounts were closed. But if you were housed outside of Lambeth in private housing and were put into band B, it is likely that you were affected by this scheme.

If you are a Lambeth family (or if you used to live in Lambeth) who is  concerned or confused about your situation, please do get in contact with us by email or SMS/ whatsapp (details in leaflet)and we will do our best to help.

Lambeth council’s social cleansing scheme stopped!

HASL visited Lambeth council’s Civic Centre last March protesting against the Temp2Settled policy

Thanks to our friends Public Interest Law Centre for writing this press release about the legal and campaign victory that we have worked on together.

There is great coverage in the Brixton Blog here. 

We will be producing an information leaflet for those affected explaining about the legal victory, what your rights are now and what more needs to be done!

 

Important win for homeless families in Lambeth

Lambeth Council agrees to amend a housing allocations scheme that had resulted in hundreds of vulnerable families being removed from its social housing register 

Lambeth’s Temp2Settled Policy 

Since 2014 Lambeth Council has been encouraging its homeless families to withdraw their homelessness applications, and to move into temporary private sector accommodation, by offering them higher priority for social housing. However, in very many cases, the deal that Lambeth was offering actually prevented these families from staying on the social housing waiting list at all.

Under the ‘Temp2Settled’ Scheme, those approaching the council as homeless were told that if they agreed to forego their rights under the housing and homelessness legislation, they would be placed in Band B (rather than Band C) and therefore have a ‘much better chance’ of successfully securing council housing or housing association tenancies.

However, what these families were not told was that if they were placed outside the borough (as hundreds were) they would almost certainly be removed from the housing register altogether before they were able to bid successfully for social housing and be rehoused. That was because they would lose their ‘local connection’ to the borough after two years.

These families never had any real prospect of securing permanent accommodation, as the average wait time for securing permanent family-sized accommodation in Band B has always been more than five years. We therefore suspect that Lambeth council may have designed the policy with a view to denying applicants their housing rights.

Other consequences – suitability of accommodation and eviction 

Apart from being removed from the housing register and losing their local connection, these families also felt the wickedness of Lambeth’s policy in other ways.

Unlike the accommodation provided under the homelessness legislation, there is no statutory requirement for  ‘Temp2Settled’ accommodation to be ‘suitable’, and there is no right to challenge the suitability of the offer of accommodation by way of statutory review. Families therefore often found themselves in unsanitary or uninhabitable living conditions and forced to stay there as they were unable to challenge private sector accommodation that was unconstrained by suitability requirements.

Given the unstable nature of the accommodation, many families faced threats of eviction from private landlords. On top of all this, having been placed many miles outside the borough of Lambeth, some had no choice but to travel long distances in order to retain their support networks and to get to and from work or school.

The legal challenge 

The Public Interest Law Centre, with support from Housing Action Southwark and Lambeth (HASL), brought a legal challenge on behalf of four families affected by the ‘Temp2Settled’ scheme. Each client had either faced eviction or felt forced to reside in unsuitable or uninhabitable living conditions. In many cases this led to them and their children suffering a deterioration in their mental wellbeing and physical health.

As a result of the challenge, and not long before the case was due in court, Lambeth agreed to amend its policy and reinstate the four families to its housing register with immediate effect. Applicants who opted for the Scheme (only to be placed in private rented accommodation outside of the borough and removed from the housing register after two years) are also to be reinstated.

Barristers Nick Bano and Liz Davies (Garden Court Chambers) and David Wolfe QC (Matrix Chambers) were instructed.

Quotes:

Elizabeth Wyatt from HASL says:

“Our members told us they were tricked and deceived by Lambeth council when they visited the housing office as homeless. More and more people were coming to the group telling us they had been removed from the waiting list with no idea why. This allowed us to build our legal challenge, but there are still hundreds of households who have been struggling alone. 

Lambeth’s Temp2Settled scheme is yet another example that so-called homeless prevention which pushes families into the private sector does not work and is not fair. 

PILC and HASL have successfully challenged it here and we will continue to do so wherever these schemes fail to act in the best interests of homeless people. 

Real homeless prevention is safe, secure, high quality council housing in our communities, and a welfare system accessible to everyone that ensures a dignified life free from poverty.”

Helen Mowatt, solicitor at PILC, says:

“This case is an important victory for the hundreds of families who have been affected by the  ‘Temp2Settled’scheme, and we hope sends a message to councils – that it is not acceptable to place targets above the needs of the community. We know that there is a culture in housing departments that regardless of how vulnerable you are, the ultimate goal is to get the numbers down. Schemes like ‘Temp2Settled’ are adopted to further the gentrification agenda, as it is in the commercial interests of councils to get as many homeless and low-income families out of the borough as possible. 

Of course, this mentality trickles down from central government and is linked to the limited housing stock and to a decade of austerity measures. But councils need to be pushing back against this—and not taking it out on homeless families who approach the council for support. We must continue the campaign to ensure that those families no longer feel forced to reside in uninhabitable living conditions, are protected from eviction, and have access to secure council-owned accommodation.”

One of the four claimants had this to say:

“I first encountered Lambeth council’s ‘Temp2Settled’ Scheme when I became homeless in 2017 and was at my most vulnerable.  The council officers sugar coated the nature of the Scheme and persuaded me to agree to enter into it – they told me that it was the best option for myself and my baby as we would be provided with permanent council accommodation in our home borough within a matter of weeks. However, I later discovered that relying on this advice had put myself and my daughter at great risk. The conditions of the property I was placed in were very poor and it was not safe for us to live in. I have also been threatened with eviction on several occasions. 

My intention has always been to do right by my daughter and to do the best for her. I believe that Lambeth Council took advantage of this and of me when I was at my most vulnerable and when I had no choice but to place my trust in them. When given the option of a stable and secure home for my daughter, of course I was going to take that – even if it meant living away from our home borough for what I was told would be a short period of time. 

My daughter is now 3 years old and at the crucial age of starting nursery and settling down for the starting of her educational life. This should be an exciting time for us, but the consequences of the council’s scheme (the suitability of accommodation, threats of eviction and being forced away from the place I call home) had impacted us both greatly – causing so much stress and anxiety. Not knowing what my future for my daughter looked like and whether we would be able to return to our home borough, made making important life decisions for me very hard. 

Without HASL and the Public Interest Law Centre, who dedicated their time in helping us not only get justice, but also to expose the way me and others were treated, this would still be happening undetected, and Lambeth council would be able to continue to treat families in this way without any accountability for their actions. 

I am proud of myself and of all the other residents who stood up to the council and I hope this sends them a message that council officers cannot continue to treat us like we are just numbers which they need to reduce at any cost. We are human beings and have families, just like they do.”

HASL’s lockdown diaries – overcrowded housing

Severely overcrowded housing has always been one of the main problems our members face. Overcrowding is particularly bad in the private rented sector where high rents and low housing benefit rates mean that families are forced to rent small flats, studios or even single rooms. Lockdown has made this serious situation even worse as families are forced to stay in cramped conditions 24/7. 

The government was warned by academics and the homeless charity Shelter that urgent action and support were needed for overcrowded families to stop the virus spreading, but the government ignored these plans preferring to allow the virus to spread within families and households living in overcrowded housing. This is neglectful and unforgivable.

We’ve been supporting our members and campaigning on overcrowding for years –

Helping people get the correct priority on housing waiting list and challenging bad decisions by the council that families deliberately caused their overcrowding

Helping with homeless applications

and importantly calling for the 3, 4, 5 bedroom safe, secure and good quality council homes we need!

This demand is more important than ever. No one should have to spend a moment longer in overcrowded housing!

Don’t blame families for overcrowding!

A recent report showed that there are people 3.6 million people living in overcrowded housing.

Another report shows that 94% of private rented homes are too expensive for families on housing benefit.

Almost everyone accepts there is a housing crisis and that the root causes are the unregulated private rented sector, benefit cuts, low wages, and lack of social housing. There is huge support for social housing as one of the main solutions.

But Southwark council have taken a new approach to the housing crisis. They are blaming overcrowding on families themselves.

Recently, 5 families, living in overcrowded housing in the private rented sector, have received decisions telling them that they have deliberately caused their overcrowding. They have been put in band 4 at the bottom of the housing list where they have no chance of social housing. This is a big change in policy for Southwark council. Previously overcrowded families would be placed into band 3 and depending on the level of overcrowding, they may qualify for a priority star for statutory overcrowding. Some families may qualify for band 1. Now these families are being denied any priority for overcrowding and statutory overcrowding, a serious and severe level of overcrowding.

So what is going on?

These decisions are wrong, immoral and, we think, unlawful. They are hurtful and devastating for our members who receive them. How can Southwark council justify making these decisions against their own residents? Why are they blaming and targeting the victims of the housing crisis?

Many of these families are migrant families who already face significant discrimination and barriers to accessing decent housing. Why are Southwark council introducing new anti-migrant, discriminatory policies into their housing register?

We have written to Southwark’s councillor for housing Kieron Williams asking him for answers and to advocate on behalf of our members and all overcrowded families. 

The council must immediately change these decisions and give our members the priority they are entitled to.

We also feel our members are being targeted. We made a Freedom of Information request asking how many households had been placed into band 4 for ‘worsening circumstances’. In the last 12 months, there have been ‘less than 10’. However, in the last few months, 4 of our members have been put into band 4.

Our members are stuck in appalling conditions in overcrowded private rented housing because they have no other option, they could not rent anywhere else. They have been discriminated against by private landlords who won’t rent to them because they are claim benefits, because they do not speak English, and for having children.

Now they are discriminated against by Southwark council who tell them the overcrowding is their own fault.

Meanwhile, we know that Southwark council are housing homeless families in temporary accommodation that is overcrowded, including temporary accommodation that is statutory overcrowded. When our members challenge the council on these overcrowded conditions, the council are happy to use the housing crisis as their excuse.

We will be campaigning in support of our HASL families and all overcrowded families to make Southwark treat them properly!