Do you live in Southwark? Or do you have another connection to Southwark – for example, do you work in Southwark? Or do you have family who live in Southwark? Or do you have a homeless duty with Southwark council (but are housed outside the borough)?
If any of these apply to you – Please use and share our template email to fight for the rights of Southwark families in temporary accommodation and overcrowded housing!
Southwark council are running a consultation/survey to get our views on new rules for the social housing waiting list. We are concerned about a number of negative changes the council are planning to make. This is a vital opportunity for us to oppose these changes and protect the rights of homeless households and families in overcrowded housing.
If you are a Southwark resident or have another connection to Southwark, please show your support by using our online form to send HASL’s answers directly to Southwark council. Over 120 HASL families, living in temporary accommodation or overcrowded housing, helped to write these template email answers.
✨the council should not introduce policies that will push homeless families down the waiting list causing them to be trapped in dilapidated temporary accommodation for longer.
✨We challenge the unaccountable Annual Lettings Plan where housing officers will allocate housing outside of the waiting list rules
We’ve stopped Southwark council’s disastrous housing waiting list policies before and we can do it again – but we need your help to make sure as many people as possible use our template email.
The deadline for submitting responses to the consultation is Sunday 1st June.
We’ll be posting on social media soon about our template email as well so please look out for this and re-post!
HASL occupying Lewisham council housing office for our Halloween protest
2024 has been HASL’s busiest year ever fighting the devastating and spiralling homelessness crisis. We’ve regularly had over 200 people attending our twice monthly support meetings, mostly with very urgent situations. In the face of the horrendous housing situations our members are suffering, we have been organising mutual support, building our group’s capacity, and running campaigns and direct actions on a scale never seen before! In the worst ever year of the housing crisis, we have organised our biggest protests and won countless victories – many of them life-changing victories of secure, council housing in our local communities.
A big thank you to all our HASL members and supporters for your tireless support. Thanks to your efforts, every day across south London (and sometimes beyond!) we are supporting people to understand and enforce their housing rights, we let people know that they are not alone, and we are building a movement for the high-quality council homes we all need and deserve. Thank you to everyone who has helped in any way this year – participating in our group meetings, helping with translation/interpretation, telling friends about the group, engaging with our social media posts, joining protests, cooking us delicious food, setting up a solidarity standing order, and so much more! We’ve also loved working together with our friends Public Interest Law Centre, English for Action, Z2K (for their excellent and expert disability benefits advice), Parent Action, Lambeth Mutual Aid, 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 have the opportunity for reflection and goal setting that the end of the year brings.
We’re looking forward to returning with even more energy, strength and solidarity in the new year!
Over 300 HASL members serve eviction notice on Michael Gove
In April, 300 HASL members helped to make our biggest ever protest and the biggest protest of homeless families that London has seen in at least a decade. Our powerful, loud and determined protest demanded the family-sized council houses that we urgently need. We also delivered an eviction notice to Michael Gove at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities for presiding over the biggest homeless crisis in the country’s history. The eviction notice warns that in order to avoid eviction, Michael Gove and his government must commit to: “A council housing revolution of high-quality, safe, secure, family-sized 3, 4, 5 bed council homes that our communities need and deserve.”
Watch the brilliant Reel News video of our protest (and please ‘like’ the video, leave a friendly comment, and subscribe to our friends Reel News channel).
Our biggest ever protest occupations
We kicked off the year with a protest occupation of Lambeth council’s housing office in support of Amin and his family after Lambeth council had wrongly said that they were not statutory overcrowded and were refusing them the emergency banding on the housing register that they qualified for. As well as the hazardous overcrowding, Amin’s baby daughter Dareen had been hospitalised 6 times due to the mouldy flat making the situation even more urgent. At the time, this was our biggest protest occupation with 60 HASL members participating and it was a huge success with the council quickly backing down and awarding the family the top band – band A – on the housing waiting list. Speaking to the media about his case, Amin explained: “This isn’t just a problem for us, it’s a lot of peoples’ problem as well, some maybe even worse. I’m hoping the council will help, not just me but other people as well.” Watch us in action here.
In October, over 100 HASL members descended on Lewisham council’s housing office in a Halloween themed protest occupation over the appalling treatment of our members Anabel and Maria. In total the two families had spent almost 4 years in hostels and Anabel’s 2 year old son spent his entire life living in a hostel. The incredible turn out, with members coming from across London and even from as far as Slough, made this our biggest protest occupation so far. In response to our protest, Lewisham council finally gave Anabel and her son a 2 bedroom, self-contained temporary accommodation flat close to Anabel’s mother who helps with childcare. The new temporary accommodation is a huge improvement on the previous conditions the family were enduring.
Reel News video coming soon!
We don’t just take action on housing! When our long-term, dedicated member Ingrid told us how she’d been the victim of a heavy-handed e-bike seizure by police where 10 police officers surrounded her and called immigration enforcement on her, we took action in support of her. Ingrid uses her e-bike for her job as a delivery driver. Since the police took her e-bike, she had been unable to work which meant she did not have money to pay her rent and feed her kids. She had bought the bike from a shop right next to the police station a few years earlier.
Straight after our housing meeting, over 50 of us – mostly women and babies – marched down to Walworth police station and occupied it calling for her bike to be immediately returned so that she is able to work again. The cops called more cops on us and forced us outside. Despite all of our best efforts, we were unable to get her e-bike returned to her. The police should not be targeting workers who are simply doing the best job they can in often precarious and exploitative working conditions. But if there is this response every time an e-bike is seized, the police will have to stop once and for all!
One new member to our group sent us this whatsapp message: “today was my first day to come to the group meeting. I never expected to do a protest for an electric bike. It was an enjoyable day and i hope that bike gets returned to its owner as soon as possible.”
For over a year, London’s streets have regularly filled with hundreds of thousands and even millions of people demanding an end to the war on Gaza and calling for a free Palestine. These have been the biggest and most sustained protests of our lifetimes. In October HASL members joined the diverse and family-friendly march through a very sunny central London with hundreds of thousands of Londoners and others who had travelled from across the country to be there. As one of our of placards read, we strongly believe: “Nobody is free until everybody is free”.
31 HASL families have moved into social housing this year
HASL member with keys to his new home
With our support 31 HASL members and families have been able to move from temporary accommodation and other poor housing conditions into permanent social housing in their local communities. Last year, we supported 23 HASL families to get permanent social housing, so this is a significant increase and comes in a year when the housing crisis has been the worst we’ve ever experienced. 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 and the fight that it took them to get their 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 member’s stories
At a recent HASL meeting, we were able to record on our HASL grid “enjoying my new home” as an update from one of our members. She had come to our group last year with a section 21 no-fault eviction notice. Her and her family had already been through the homeless process before and Westminster council had discharged their homeless duty with private rented housing which she was now facing eviction from. She was very distressed at facing having to go through the homeless process again and worried about where the temporary accommodation would be and the impact this would have on her children’s education. We helped her to find a lawyer to help her check the validity of the section 21 notice. While looking over her housing file with her original homeless application, he noticed that the council had not completed all the paperwork to discharge her homeless duty. After hearing this, our member wanted to fight to get her old homeless duty and bidding account reinstated, as she was outraged at how badly Westminster had treated her family years before by abandoning them in the insecure private rented sector. She got her lawyer to defend the private sector eviction and also argue to the council that her homeless duty had not been ended. Our member and her lawyer issued her case against Westminster council in the High Court arguing that her original homeless duty was still active as it had not been properly ended. The council settled her case agreeing that they still owed a homeless duty to her and re-opening her bidding account, and months later she was able to bid successfully for a 3 bedroom council home.
Some of our members’ victories
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. Our regular group meetings are the heart of our group where we give and receive moral and practical support on our housing cases and plan housing actions together. But outside of these meetings, on a daily basis HASL members are attending homeless assessments with members, helping to find good lawyers to challenge terrible homeless decisions, and doing court support.
This year, we’ve been at court supporting our members facing eviction on 8 occasions, and 6 of these times our members were successful in stopping the eviction. In two of the cases where possession was granted our members are taking appeals.
We have supported 12 HASL families to move from squalid, overcrowded, and sometimes even dangerous temporary accommodation into more suitable, spacious temporary accommodation. One of our members who had been living in a hotel with her two young children was moved to self-contained temporary accommodation a short walk from their primary school. She sent us a whatsapp message to update us: “Me and my kids just started living happier and comfortable because of you… all your sisterly and kindly support will stay in my heart and my entire life forever. Me and my kids are happy on this house!!”
As the homeless crisis has worsened, local councils have responded with even more aggressive gatekeeping to stop people from making homeless applications and getting the vital temporary accommodation they need. Over the year, we’ve supported 15 families to challenge unlawful gatekeeping and get them temporary accommodation.
Three families were facing being forced out of London to locations hundreds of miles away under the threat of destitution and we helped them to successfully fight this and remain in their communities in London. Two families were given private sector discharges to Halifax and Leicestershire, but we helped them both to get lawyers to successfully challenge these offers. Our member Hana said: “Together we win, I didn’t win alone, I had no hope before I found the group” Ayana was being forced by Tower Hamlets to Middlesbrough after they wrongly decided she did not have a local connection to Tower Hamlets (she did!) but they eventually reversed their decision with our community campaign.
At the start of the year, Edith’s family were left without heating and hot water in her family’s council home for two weeks. Edith’s young daughter Meghan is on dialysis daily for 12-13 hours and was due to have surgery to remove her second kidney when the boiler problems started. Southwark council repair workers were making visits to the flat but failed to fix the problem or give any time frame for when it would be fixed. After our tweet went viral and national media covered the case, suddenly Southwark council fixed the boiler within 24 hours so Meghan was able to return to a warm home after her surgery. We know that decades of funding cuts for social housing from central government means our social housing stock is being left to fall into disrepair – and putting lives at risk. But Southwark council showed that they can act quickly when they want to. Edith’s family are long-term members of our group and have been involved in an important group legal challenge (see below) as well as other legal challenges on their personal case this year fighting for the 4 bed council home their family need as well as supporting our campaigns for family-sized council homes for everyone.
Our member Patricia won an important High Court legal victory over Lambeth council after they removed 6 years waiting time from her housing register account when she separated from her husband. Such a cruel policy would potentially trap women with abusive partners for fear of losing their housing list waiting time if they were to leave. In Patricia’s case, the council’s actions would mean that her and her family would be trapped in temporary accommodation for years longer. But Patricia’s court case meant that Lambeth council were forced to back down and re-instate her housing waiting list time.
As well as housing problems, our members are routinely denied the benefits that they are entitled to. This year, we helped our member Elsa to reclaim a total of over £10,000 from housing benefit and Universal Credit as she was not receiving the correct amounts. Elsa’s different benefit issues show the massive underpayments councils and governments are able to get away with if people do not know their rights, and don’t have help to enforce them!
Our member Amira also took her PIP case to the Tribunal where she was eventually awarded the disability benefit that she needs to manage her complex and long-term health conditions. And we supported numerous other members through the stressful disability benefits process as well to ensure they receive the correct benefits.
HASL’s organising
HASL summer picnic in Burgess park
As well as running our huge group meetings twice a month we also helped to run 2 other monthly housing support meetings with our friends English for Action and Parent Action.
In response to our growing group and the complexity of the housing cases our members are facing, our organising team has also been running and participating in two extra sessions each month – our work session and our grid session – where we work on tasks and review cases together building our skills and knowledge. These extra sessions have been really important in helping to collectivise and share out the tasks and action points that come from our main support meetings.
We have run 3 training sessions over the year including a homeless rights training in English and Spanish to help refresh our memories, share our experiences, and develop our knowledge of our key homeless rights.
While it has been an incredibly busy and intense year for everyone, importantly we’ve made time to socialise together. Over 200 HASL members attended our annual summer picnic at Burgess Park on a windy Saturday in August where we enjoyed face painting, cup cake decorating, animal balloons and K-pop. The highlight of the day was undoubtedly the Eritrean feast, alongside a spread of delicious cakes, pizza, and treats generously shared by our members. It was wonderful to see so many familiar faces as well as new ones. Of course, no HASL summer picnic would be complete without our spirited chants for 3, 4, and 5-bed council homes!
Throughout the year, we’ve been building our wider campaigns that come directly from the issues our members are facing including our campaigns on: 3, 4, 5 bed council homes, Too Long in Temporary, No More Overcrowding, ending private sector discharge, and raising the urgent housing needs of families with children with disabilities. We also have plans for a new campaign from our ever growing group of members without children who face the cruel priority need test, where they are regularly told by councils they are healthy enough to live on the streets. We will be calling on local councils to respect the DWP’s decision when someone is unable to work due to their health and award homeless assistance in these cases. Too often, we’ve seen members who the DWP accept cannot work due to long-term health conditions being told by councils that they are not in priority need which simply goes against all common sense.
Legal victory over Southwark council’s unlawful direct offer policy
Edith and her family were on the front page of the Southwark News for their legal challenge along with 2 other HASL families after social housing properties suddenly disappeared from Southwark Homesearch back in April with no explanation.
This is now the second time that HASL have caught Southwark council trying to make up their own housing waiting list rules without following the proper consultation process. On this occasion, this direct offer policy meant that there have been no homes for those in the highest housing need (such as living in statutory overcrowded housing conditions or having a severe medical need to move) to bid on and residents found themselves trapped in hazardous and intolerable conditions indefinitely.
HASL members, Refurbish Don’t Demolish and Southwark Law Centre at ULC East
From the Chilean embassy, The Ivey House Pub, UCL East, and London Review of Books letters section, our members have been busy speaking about the housing crisis, and sharing our experiences, which go over a decade, of how we can organise for the high-quality council homes we all need. We’ve also participated in discussions about housing and organising on the Aylesbury estate, Mayday rooms and Anarchist bookfair. We joined our friends Lambeth Mutual Aid at their Solidarity Sunday session and we participated at the Homes for Us annual summit. Our busy outreach diary this year reflects the growing interest in autonomous and grassroots housing action.
HASL’s FOI research on private sector discharge published in Guardian exclusive
Stop forcing homeless families out of London placard at our mass protest in April
HASL members sent Freedom of Information requests to every London council to find out how they are using the cruel and harmful policy of private sector discharge to gather information for our campaign to end private sector discharge. Our research was published in a Guardian exclusive where it held the number 1 position of ‘most read’ all morning and stayed at position number 4 for the afternoon. We were really energized and inspired to see how well received our research was.
Just before our research was published, HASL hosted a London-wide action planning meeting on private sector discharge attended by over 30 people from 8 housing and social justice groups from across London.
In our Frequently Asked Questions article below we answer the following questions about private sector discharge.
What is private sector discharge?
Why is private sector discharge so bad?
Has private sector discharge always existed?
Who does it affect?
Where are these private sector offers?
Do all local councils use it?
But maybe local councils use private sector discharge because they don’t have any other choice?
How can we end private sector discharge for good?
Our stories
What is private sector discharge?
Private sector discharge is when a local council uses their legal powers to end a homeless duty with a mandatory offer of private rented housing. Although it’s called an ‘offer’, applicants do not have a free choice of whether to accept. When a housing officer is using private sector discharge, they must give the homeless applicant a formal offer letter with details of the private rented housing and information about the consequences of accepting or refusing an offer.
Things can get a bit confusing because sometimes housing officers will make offers of private rented housing to a homeless applicant that are not official private sector discharge offers. If you are made an offer of private housing by your housing officer and you are unsure whether it is a private sector discharge offer, please seek professional legal advice immediately
A local council can use their discharge powers at both the Relief Duty stage, and when someone has a Main Housing Duty. This means mandatory private offers can be made while a homeless application is still being assessed, or even after someone has been living in temporary accommodation for 10 years.
When a housing officer makes an offer of private rented housing using private sector discharge powers, this is a mandatory offer that in most / almost all circumstances the homeless applicant must accept. The consequences for refusing are extremely serious (more on this below).
Why is private sector discharge so bad?
Private sector discharge takes away our homeless rights and forces vulnerable homeless people back into the private rented sector. As the private rented sector is the biggest cause of homelessness, private sector discharge creates a cycle of homelessness.
The forced nature of private sector discharge is very real and serious – if someone does not accept a private sector discharge offer, they can be left destitute as the council can end their homeless duty and evict them from their temporary accommodation. If the person then tries to make a new homeless application, they may be found ‘intentionally homeless’ and refused the Main Homeless Duty.
Private sector discharge has fuelled social cleansing with some local councils using their private sector discharge powers to force homeless families outside of London. Waltham Forest and Enfield councils have a particularly bad reputation for their treatment of homeless families and they have both forced families over 300 miles away to Hartlepool.
Usually when someone is forced into the private rented sector outside of their home borough, their housing register bidding account will be permanently closed meaning that they are no longer able to apply for social housing. Even if you are discharged into your home borough, your position on the housing waiting list may be affected as you are no longer homeless. This shows how some councils use private sector discharge as a tactic to make their waiting lists shorter, which means that they deny people the chance of ever getting permanent council housing.
Homeless families are faced with constant worry and insecurity due to the threat of private sector discharge. Homeless families in temporary accommodation can be so scared of being targeted for a private sector offer that they may not report serious disrepair and hazards in their temporary accommodation causing them to be trapped in dangerous housing.
Has private sector discharge always existed?
No. The Conservative government first introduced these powers in 2012 as a way to try to end the vital link between homeless duties and social housing. Before private sector discharge was introduced the only way that local councils could end a homeless duty was with an offer of permanent social housing. We know that the only way to end homelessness is with social housing and the previous right to social housing for homeless households must be restored.
Who does it affect?
All homeless households who made homeless applications since 9th November 2012 can be affected by private sector discharge – although there is a huge variation in whether local councils use it at all and how they use it (more on this below).
If your homeless duty was started by an application made before 9th November 2012 then private sector discharge does not apply to you and the council can only end your homeless duty with an offer of permanent social housing.
From our experience, we’ve seen how private sector discharge is racist because migrant families, families of colour, and those who do not speak English as a first language are disproportionately targeted for private sector discharge. Housing officers will look for homeless applications who they see as ‘easy targets’ for private sector discharge and are less likely to know their rights and be able to enforce their rights. We also see that other households are targeted because they are seen as ‘difficult’ for rightly complaining about bad conditions in their temporary accommodation.
We obtained Freedom of Information request data from Lewisham council in 2020-2021 showing that single mums were being targeted for private sector discharge
Private sector discharge would be unjust and harmful even if it was applied equally, but it is even more dangerous because councils use it in such a discriminatory way.
Where are these private sector offers?
Some private sector discharge offers are in a homeless applicants home borough, or neighbouring borough. But from the very start of private sector discharge, we’ve seen some local councils use it as a social cleansing tool to force homeless families outside of London to towns and cities hundreds of miles away. From our own direct experience and using Freedom of Information requests, we’ve found out that local councils have been forcing homeless families outside of London to other cities and towns across the UK including Stoke, Hartlepool, and Durham.
Some councils have earned a reputation for their particularly cruel use of private sector discharge to far away cities and towns – Waltham Forest and Enfield councils have recently been forcing their homeless residents over 300 miles away to Hartlepool.
These local councils are using their private sector discharge powers in particularly nasty ways against their homeless residents. It is clear that these local councils are not trying to provide suitable housing for some of their most vulnerable homeless families – they are making these offers knowing that they will be refused and families will end up destitute.
When finding a private sector offer to discharge a homeless duty, councils are required to provide the nearest possible housing to their community. The housing officer should also take into account the household’s personal circumstances such as work, education and other welfare needs. There are also other conditions and standards that the council/housing officer must make sure that the private sector offer meets. It’s clear from the locations that people are being offered that local councils are not doing proper assessments and it may be possible to successfully challenge these offers – but this often relies on the homeless applicant being able to find a legal aid lawyer to help them with their case, which is becoming increasingly difficult due to legal aid cuts.
Do all local councils use it?
No. Our latest research shows that at the moment 7 London councils do not use private sector discharge at all.
Some local councils use private sector discharge with particularly bad intentions such as Waltham Forest and Enfield, who have made hundreds of private sector offers which are outside of London in the last year.
Other local councils make very few private sector offers, which makes us wonder why they bother to use it at all and what process they have used to pick out these unlucky people.
But maybe local councils use private sector discharge because they don’t have any other choice?
The fact that not every council uses private sector discharge shows that they do have a choice. The councils that are using private sector discharge are making a political choice to do so. There is nothing compelling local councils to use private sector discharge against their homeless applicants. They could allow their residents to remain in temporary accommodation with a Main Housing Duty and the important protections that this gives to homeless applicants.
Furthermore, the use of private sector discharge can increase the cost to councils in the long run, as it often results in people being evicted from the private tenancy. This means that councils have to take a fresh homeless application and use expensive pay-per-night emergency accommodation, rather than letting people stay in longer term temporary accommodation.
Some councils try to say that their out of London offers are a result of the benefit cap meaning that nowhere in London is affordable for families affected by the benefit cap. But as was pointed out in a recent legal case, when a family is in temporary accommodation, they receive housing benefit and are not impacted by the benefit cap. By using private sector discharge against these families, councils are guaranteeing that they will be at risk of the benefit cap when they would be better off remaining in temporary accommodation.
Waltham Forest Council and Enfield councils’ extreme use of private sector discharge is thankfully not followed by other local councils. This shows that their cruel approach is certainly a political and ideological choice. There is no other justification for why they have both made hundreds of private sector offers outside of London when no other London councils have done this.
Local councils also have the choice to stand with their residents at the sharpest end of the housing crisis and to challenge and campaign alongside them for homeless rights and for the huge investment in council housing that we desperately need. We have seen very little, if any, evidence of this over the last 14 years of austerity.
How can we end private sector discharge for good?
Every day across London, local housing action groups such as Housing Action Southwark and Lambeth, Haringey Housing Action Group, Focus E15 are supporting our members with homelessness and housing problems with mutual support and collective action. This includes fighting private sector discharge when our members are affected by this. If you’re not already involved in your local housing action group, we encourage you to join one to learn your rights, help us build collective support and solidarity, and campaign together for our homeless rights and for the high-quality council homes we all need and deserve!
As well as fighting private sector discharge on a case by case basis, we want to end this cruel and harmful policy for good so that no one ever lives with the fear or faces the reality of being forced from their community and pushed into a cycle of homelessness.
From the very start of private sector discharge, it has been fiercely resisted. Back in 2013, in response to private sector discharge offers by Newham council to places as far away as Manchester and Birmingham, theFocus E15 campaign emerged with their inspiring slogan ‘Social Housing Not Social Cleansing’. At the time, their campaign achieved immediate successes of stopping their members from being socially cleansed from London and has also continued to win wider victories with Newham residents including ending Newham council’s use of out-of-London private sector discharge offers.
Over 10 years later, the Focus E15 slogan is even more urgent as councils increasingly use private sector discharge and as the locations get even further away.
Using the decades of organising experience of our local housing action groups, we want to build on the campaign started by Focus E15 and the individual victories our groups have achieved, and help to coordinate a London-wide campaign to end private sector discharge for good. Stay in touch with us to get updates and ways to be involved in this campaign.
Our stories
Comments from Haringey Housing Action Group member ‘Destiny’
I asked Enfield for help months before my eviction date, but they didn’t do anything. I went back to them on the day the bailiffs came, but they left me and my kids homeless on the streets. After three weeks of homelessness, they finally agreed to put us in a hotel. They left us there for seven months. We don’t have a kitchen, and we have to travel one and a half hours each way for school.
Then they offered me a private sector discharge in Stoke on Trent. My daughter is in her A-level year but they didn’t care. They said I should be grateful they chose Stoke on Trent, because some families are being sent seven hours away. I got legal help and Enfield withdrew that offer, but I don’t know where they will try to send me next.
We’ve lived in Enfield for twelve years but they still want to put me outside London. I know people round here, my friends and family are all local, but they want to leave me isolated. The way they treat people is horrible. I’ve gone through a lot already, I’m so stressed. Every day I still have to spend three hours taking my kids to and from school. It’s bad now, but I’m scared that they will try to send us somewhere even worse.
Housing association tenants demand urgent action on dangerous overcrowding
Five families from Lambeth who are all tenants of Metropolitan Housing Association have written an open letter to their social landlord calling for urgent action on dangerous overcrowding. The five families all live in housing that is so overcrowded that it meets the strict legal definition of ‘statutory overcrowding’ which is an out-of-date definition invented in 1935 to help identify and prevent slum housing.
In their letter to their social landlord, the families describe the difficulties of daily life in such overcrowded housing conditions including the serious impact on their mental and physical health.
They make 3 clear demands to their social landlord to resolve their cases and to help all Londoners living in overcrowded housing.
You can read and share our open letter to Metropolitan Thames Valley Housing Association here.
Pawan, a tenant of Metropolitan Housing Association and a member of this campaign, says: “I live with my husband and 3 children in a one bedroom flat in the Metropolitan Housing Association in Lambeth. The children are aged 8, 6 and 2 and a half. We are overcrowded and this is affecting our health. The overcrowding is causing damp and mould in the flat. We have no history of asthma in our family but because of our living conditions my youngest daughter has developed asthma. The children have no space to play inside or do homework. In the winter when it’s too cold to go outside they get upset. My oldest daughter asks me why she cannot have her own room like her friends.
We have been bidding for a bigger house since 2017, we were in Band C and we could only bid for a 2 bedroom house. We contacted the council to change our band and let us bid for a 3 bedroom house but they ignored us. When we contacted them again they told us we could rent privately or move out of London. We cannot afford private rent in London and we cannot move because my husband’s job is here.
Two years ago I heard about Housing Action Southwark and Lambeth (HASL) in my ESOL class. I joined the housing action group organised by HASL and English for Action to get advice for my housing problem. HASL sent an email to Lambeth council and after one month they changed our band to Band B and let us bid for a 3 bedroom house. I was so happy! The council listens to HASL because together we are many people and we have power.
My husband is working all the time and I am learning English so it’s difficult for me to speak on the phone and write emails. HASL helps with this, they help migrant families a lot. I felt unwell before, you can be sick from stress. No one listened to me but HASL understood my situation and they didn’t ignore me, they gave solutions. This group is fighting for family life, for 3, 4, 5 bedroom council homes for families.”
Elizabeth Wyatt, a member of HASL, says: “As a social landlord, Metropolitan housing association must take urgent action on these hazardous, intolerable, severely overcrowded housing conditions that their tenants are enduring. Every day that these families are trapped in this housing is a day too long. Metropolitan housing association must do everything they can to ensure that their tenants are living in high-quality and spacious housing where they can thrive.
Just next door to one of our member’s, Metropolitan are building 30 brand new homes, but none of these are for social rent which are the homes our members and the majority of Londoners desperately need. One of our demands is that Metropolitan make these new homes into social housing and use them to re-house these 5 families who are living in some of the most overcrowded housing in the borough.”
Our campaign has won our demand that Optivo/Southern Housing stop their eviction and that our member is re-housed in local social housing. Last month our member moved into his new permanent home in his local neighbourhood. He explained how he has settled into his new home:
I’m happy now because I’m living in my own home, it’s good for me, I’m happy. I’m relaxed now because I was in pain, I was stressed when I was facing eviction, but now I have my own house, I’m relaxed now.
The group is important for me, in all of my problems they helped me, they are like my family. Not just for me, for everyone, it’s important. Thank you, thank you for everyone who helped me. I’m happy for the group, what they did in my life.
Since March 2022 our member had been living with the threat of eviction and homelessness after Optivo /Southern housing served him with a section 21 eviction notice saying that the property where he had lived for the last 7 years “is no longer used for the Eritrean Community”. Our group and others, including people in London’s Eritrean communities, raised concerns that our member was being subjected to racist treatment by the social landlord.
Alongside campaigning on his case, our member instructed lawyers from GT Stewart solicitors to help him to defend the eviction proceedings. With his lawyers, he defended the possession proceedings on the basis that the section 21 notice amounted to direct discrimination as the cover letter showed that he was being evicted because he was Eritrean. They also argued that the eviction notice amounted to harassment under the Equality Act 2010.
After the defence and counterclaim was filed Optivo/Southern housing entered into settlement negotiations. They did not admit any discrimination but they did agree to re-house our member into local social housing.
It should not have taken a campaign and legal challenge for Optivo /Southern Housing to do the right thing. But when they eventually did, the staff we engaged with were very helpful and supportive showing what housing associations should be about and that the option of re-housing (and not evictions) is best for everyone.
Please support our letter action in support of our member Y who is facing eviction by Optivo (now Southern Housing). Over 200 letters have already been sent to Optivo’s CEO in support of our member. Send yours using our quick online tool here.
Optivo housing association served him with a section 21 eviction notice saying that the property where he has lived for the last 7 years “is no longer used for the Eritrean Community”. We think this is a racist eviction.
We are calling on Optivo housing association:
· Stop this eviction and to urgently re-house our member in local social housing – as they originally promised.
· Optivo must end the use of section 21 no-fault eviction notices against their tenants.
· Optivo must ensure that their tenants from black and minority ethnic backgrounds are treated fairly and with respect and not singled out for eviction.
On Monday this week, we were in court with our member where we successfully stopped Optivo’s Possession Order so Optivo can’t evict him for now. It was great to have so many members at the court showing their support for our member ‘Y’.
But our campaign continues to make sure that our member is safely re-housed in local social housing as he has been promised in the past by Optivo. The housing association’s handling of this case shows they have a long way to go to gain the trust of our member and other black, Asian and minority ethnic tenants.
Our friends Social Housing Action Campaign (SHAC) have written an excellent blog about our member’s case other cases where housing associations have subjected their tenants to racist treatment.
Lewisham residents – Use our template answers to fight for the rights of Lewisham families in temporary accommodation and overcrowded housing!
En español abajo
Lewisham council has launched its Lewisham Housing Allocation Scheme Policy Review which is in the form of an online survey which can be found by clicking here
Housing Action Southwark and Lambeth is a community housing group made up of families and individuals who are homeless in temporary accommodation, living in overcrowded housing or face other housing problems.
HASL is very concerned about many of the new proposals contained in the survey that will have a hugely negative impact on families in overcrowded housing by reducing their banding. We also want to make sure families in temporary accommodation are not forced into the private sector through the council’s use of their private sector discharge policy.
It is really important that Lewisham households, especially households suffering at the worst end of the housing crisis, respond to the survey to challenge these bad proposals and share their views on how the council can make the fairest policy which supports everyone, especially those with high housing needs.
HASL is here to help you!
Together with our Lewisham group members, we have prepared template answers (please click on link below) which you can use to help complete the survey – and please feel free to include your own views as well.
At the end of the survey, you can add your email address so that you will be emailed a copy of your answers. If you are happy to for us have a copy of your answers so that we can keep a record of them, please forward this email to haslcases@gmail.com.
You can email Lewisham council if you need the survey translated into another language, if you have any questions about the survey or if you want to submit more information or suggestions: housingconsultation@lewisham.gov.uk
If you would like extra support from HASL to complete the survey, if you have any questions or if you want to be involved and hear more about HASL’s activities on this important survey/consultation, send a message to to our group phone 07930 062282 or send us an email: haslcases@gmail.com
The survey does not give any room to explain about your personal housing circumstances or to give your own suggestions and proposals. Email us your personal testimony/story explaining your current housing situation and how the new policy would impact you and we will collect these together to submit to the council. Send your testimony to haslcases@gmail.com
The survey asks in question 21 what type of housing you live in – for example, private rented, temporary accommodation, social housing but the survey does not give space for you to say if you are currently overcrowded in your housing. If you are currently overcrowded, please let them know by adding this sentence to the end of the first answer:
My family lives in overcrowded housing in the private rented sector and this policy directly affects me.
The deadline for responding to the survey is Sunday 14th March
Residentes de Lewisham – Usen nuestro modelo de respuestas para luchar por los derechos de las familias de Lewisham en acomodación temporaria y vivienda superpoblada!
Housing Action Southwark y Lambeth es un grupo de alojamiento comunitario formado por familias e individuales sin techo en acomodación temporal, viviendo en una casa sobrepoblada o enfrentando otros problemas de alojamiento.
HASL está muy preocupada por las muchas propuestas contenidas en la encuesta las cuales tendrán un gran impacto negativo en las familias sobrepobladas reduciendo las posiciones de sus bandas. También queremos asegurarnos que las familias en acomodación temporal no están siendo forzadas en un sector privado a través del uso de la política de descarga del sector privado del ayuntamiento.
Es realmente importante que los hogares de Lewisham, especialmente los hogares sufriendo en las primeras situaciones de crisis, respondan a la encuesta para desafiar estas malas proposiciones y compartir nuestras visiones en cómo el ayuntamiento puede hacer la política más justa que apoye a todos, especialmente a aquellos con altas necesidades de alojamiento.
HASL está aquí para ayudarte!
● Juntos con nuestros miembros de Lewisham, hemos preparado un modelo con respuestas (haga clic en el enlace de abajo) las cuales pueden usar para completar el cuestionario – y por favor siéntanse libres de incluir sus propias opiniones.
● Al final de la encuesta, usted puede añadir su correo electrónico para que le envíen una copia de sus respuestas. Si están de acuerdo en enviarnos la copia de sus respuestas para mantener un registro, por favor envíelo a este email: haslcases@gmail.com.
● Puede enviar un correo electrónico al ayuntamiento de Lewisham si necesita traducir la encuesta a otro idioma, si tiene alguna pregunta sobre la encuesta o si desea enviar más información o sugerencias: housingconsultation@lewisham.gov.uk
● Si desea apoyo adicional de HASL para completar la encuesta, si tiene alguna pregunta o si desea participar y escuchar más sobre las actividades de HASL en esta importante encuesta / consulta, envíe un mensaje a nuestro teléfono de grupo 07930 062282 o envíe envíenos un correo electrónico: haslcases@gmail.com
● La encuesta no da espacio para explicar tus circunstancias personales de alojamiento y dar tus propias sugerencias y propuestas. Envíanos por correo tu testimonio personal explicando tu situación actual de alojamiento y como la nueva política te afectaría y estaremos recopilando estas para enviarlas al council. Envia tu testimonio a haslcases@gmail.com.
● La encuesta pregunta en la pregunta 21 en qué tipo de acomodación vives – por ejemplo, renta privada, acomodación temporal, alojamiento social pero la encuesta no da oportunidad de decir si estas sobrepoblada en tu casa. SI estás actualmente sobrepoblado, por favor hazme saber añadiendo esta frase al final de la primera respuesta:
Mi familia vive en un alojamiento sobrepoblado en un sector de renta privada y esta política me afecta directamente
La fecha límite para responder a la encuesta es el Domingo 14 Marzo 2021
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!
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.
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.
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?
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!
Housing Action Southwark & Lambeth 