Social Housing/ private renters/ squatters/ homeless

[Gramsci]

Completely agree. As an ex-resident of Wandsworth, it does my head in that properties once owned by the council to house people in need/unable to afford to buy are now the subject of rampant greed.

In the programme that CH1 links up to Enfield said they might be buying back ex Council houses.

 

[Gramsci]

Good piece on this blog about Leigham Court gardening day.

Leigham Court is a beautiful ‘modernist gem’ of a sheltered housing estate, sitting high up on a hill in Streatham and designed by celebrated Architect Kate Macintosh. This is from a Housing Activists press release on what is happening there:

Lambeth Council and Lambeth Living are planning to close the Leigham Court Sheltered Housing scheme. Senior residents have been informed that their homes will be demolished and the land sold off to pay for a mixture of extended care and private accommodation.

 

[Gramsci]

 

[Gramsci]

Latest edition of the Lambeth Housing Activist newsletter printed by Unite.

The printed versions will be distributed soon.

If anyone wants some let me know.

Please send the link to newsletter to anyone who might be interested.

 

[Gramsci]

Latest from Lambeth Housing Activists

Thanks to everyone who came to our Social Housing not Social Cleansing protest last week. We made our point well and got some good media coverage. There was an long article in SWLondoner and two articles on the Brixton Blog. This article covers the protest, this article covers the council meeting.

We now need to discuss the next stage for our campaign to Save Cressingham Gardens and help the Guinness Trust shorthold tenants. Please come to our meeting on Monday 1st December, 7pm at the Effra Social to find out how you can get involved.

 

[Gramsci]

I put this on the Cressingham thread as well.

 

[Gramsci]

The latest issue of Lambeth Housing Activist newsletter is now on the website. You can download it directly from http://housingactivists.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/LHA-newsletter-nov14b.pdf , or you can go to the "covering web page" at http://housingactivists.co.uk/newsletters/latest-issue-of-our-newsletter/

 

[CH1]

Anyone catch the offensive Clintons Cards "Santa Must Live on a Council Estate" card before it was (apparently) hastily withdrawn? (source City-AM)

 

[oryx]

Anyone catch the offensive Clintons Cards "Santa Must Live on a Council Estate" card before it was (apparently) hastily withdrawn? (source City-AM)
View attachment 64739

There's a thread on here somewhere! And yes, lots of people found it really offensive. That whole attitude does my head in (the original idea, not people finding it offensive).

 

[Gramsci]

 

[editor]

I've been waiting for them to finalise this for ages!

 

[Gramsci]

Facebook event page here

Join community and trade union activists
to discuss the roots of the housing crisis
in London and the possibilities for change.

Speakers:
Prof Doreen Massey - author of 'world city'
Lindsey Garrett - New Era campaigner
Adam Lambert - Unite Rep St. Mungo’s
Homeless Charity
Lambeth Housing Activists

 

[Gramsci]

Better poster:

 

[quimcunx]

http://www.rentfreedomday.org/

 

[Gramsci]

Got sent this link of UCL conference on gentrification. It has sound recording of the speakers.

In the audio below, a number of academics explore how the arguments, details and rationale within London: Aspects of Change are still relevant to thinking about and exploring twenty-first-century London. It marks just over fifty years since Aspects of Change was published.

In her carefully crafted introduction to the book London: Aspects of Change in 1964, the urban sociologist Ruth Glass coined the term ‘gentrification’. The term, referring to demographic shifts within an urban community, subsequently spawned an extensive and ever-growing field of urban research and debate.

London: Aspects of Change was the result of work by the Centre for Urban Studies at University College London (UCL), established in 1958 and led by Ruth Glass. The Centre contributed to ‘the systematic knowledge of urban development, structure and society, and to link academic social research with social policy’. As such, it was strongly cross-disciplinary, although archives of the Centre are surprisingly limited.

 

[Gramsci]

 

[Gramsci]

Just a reminder:

 

[RedDragon]

We're aiming to addend this, this would be our first outing in four weeks following my partner's peg surgery. We had lived in social housing for twenty years until my partner was diagnosed with motor neurone disease last May, it quickly became apparent enough will could not continue to live in our street property basement garden flat due to needing to use a wheelchair.

We already knew social housing in general was scarce but trying to find accommodation for someone who's disabled was almost impossible. We viewed many HA purpose built places for ludicrously high rents (@ £260 a week), finally we were lucky enough to find a ground floor flat on a council estate for an affordable rent. The experience left us deeply shocked by the plight of London's disabled, our reason for wanting to be there tomorrow.

 

[Greebo]

I may or may not be there tomorrow. I've got everything ready, but have been coughing my guts up yet again and a few hours outdoors tomorrow might not be the best idea.

 

[ViolentPanda]

We're aiming to addend this, this would be our first outing in four weeks following my partner's peg surgery. We had lived in social housing for twenty years until my partner was diagnosed with motor neurone disease last May, it quickly became apparent enough will could not continue to live in our street property basement garden flat due to needing to use a wheelchair.

We already knew social housing in general was scarce but trying to find accommodation for someone who's disabled was almost impossible. We viewed many HA purpose built places for ludicrously high rents (@ £260 a week), finally we were lucky enough to find a ground floor flat on a council estate for an affordable rent. The experience left us deeply shocked by the plight of London's disabled, our reason for wanting to be there tomorrow.

You'll also notice, soon enough, just how disabled-unfriendly public transport in London is, barring the Croydon tram.

 

[Gramsci]

Ed has put my photos of march up on Urban75 blog

 

[Gramsci]

re #166 protest at Guiness Trust.

I was there this morning at nine ( puncture disaster made me a bit late so not my photo)

From Lambeth Housing Activists FB page

These are some of the people who have lived on the estate for years without security of tenure plus members of Unite Community and Lambeth Housing Activist group.

The Guinness Trust AST "shortlife" are all under serious threat now of eviction. Saw one eviction notice that came in last few days.

They have lived on the estate for years in some cases but Guinness are refusing to rehouse them in the new flats that are replacing the old blocks of flats they are in at the moment. Lambeth are also not helping. They are likely to end up living in private accommodation outside Brixton. As its to costly in this area.

As can be seen from photo many have young children whose lives will be disrupted by changing schools and losing networks of friends.

As one mother said its hard to explain to her kids that the new housing on the estate will not be for them.

I do think that Guinness could keep these families onsite in the the new build. They are a part of the local community.

Petition here

Guinness Trust AST facebook page here

If you want u can "like it"

 

[Gramsci]

South London but not Brixton. But the issues are relevant. ie Cressingham Gardens.

Part of Aylesbury estate has been squatted as political protest.

They need water and biscuits etc if anyone wants to drop by.

Since the “March for Homes” demo on 31st January, we have re-opened and occupied a part of the Aylesbury Estate in Southwark, South London.

We are tenants, squatters, and other people who care about how our city is being grabbed by the rich, by developers and corrupt politicians, socially cleansed and sold off for profit.

The Aylesbury Estate is where Tony Blair made his first speech as Prime Minister in 1997, making empty promises about social housing. Since then, for the past 18 years, Southwark Council and their developer friends have come up with one misguided scheme after another. All with the same result: to dispossess the residents, demolish their homes, and dispose of the land.

In 2001 Aylesbury tenants fought and won a campaign against demolition and voted down the original scheme in a ballot. But now big areas of the estate are emptied and sealed up awaiting the bulldozers, while residents are “decanted” away from the area.

The same bullshit that we have seen on the nearby Heygate estate, and all across London

 

[Gramsci]

And this is coming up soon:

 

[CH1]

And this is coming up soon:

Can someone explain how this works? I mean there are apparently 12 Labour, 9 Conservative, 2 Liberal Democrat and 2 Green GLA members on £53,439 p.a. salaries each.
1. Do they have the power to block the budget?
2. Is it conceivable that they would - Lib Dems presumably are shackled by their national alliance with the Tories, Labour seem very capitalist lately so IMHO would either not block on such an issue, or would split. The only 2 GLA members who would support this without reservation are the Greens I guess.

Or am I barking up the wrong tree here?

 

[boohoo]

Actually I have a bigger question. It's is good to continue the fight for communities to remained housed in their area, rents to be capped and social housing built, however in the meantime what do we do when our wages stay static, our bills increase and landlords ask for more rent?

Are people finding alternatives? What about community Land trusts? (is this all something for a separate thread?)

 

[Dexter Deadwood]

What we can't do is to allow markets to continue allocating resources, the housing market is fundamentally broken. There is strong support for rent controls but even that modest intervention would be met with fierce resistance. I would go further and support a windfall capital gains tax on landlords especially the buy to let mob; but even that is pissing in the wind and will not alleviate the suffering in the short term. The wind is blowing in the opposite direct with plans to relax the "affordable housing" rules developers are currently subjected to.

There is no political will to solve the housing crisis because there is no profit in social housing, local authorities have washed their hands of the issue and only use their energy to shunt the problem elsewhere.

Democracy, on a local and national level, isn't working. Hierarchical protest, marching from a to b with a placard doesn't work either. Direct action in the form of occupation and liberation of homes is met with state violence. There are no solutions under the current economic paradigm, neither should there be, it's not the function of the markets to care or be fair; that's why we need a new paradigm.

 

[Gramsci]

Actually I have a bigger question. It's is good to continue the fight for communities to remained housed in their area, rents to be capped and social housing built, however in the meantime what do we do when our wages stay static, our bills increase and landlords ask for more rent?

Are people finding alternatives? What about community Land trusts? (is this all something for a separate thread?)

The March for Homes and this upcoming demo are dealing with the big question.

Rent controls are practical solution to wages staying static and bill increasing.

Community Land Trusts would only work to provide truly affordable housing if the land is obtained cheaply. Coin Street development got land cheap from GLC under Ken. A CLT working in the present climate is liable to find it will have big problems building housing at truly affordable rates.

There is a naive belief that if one puts the word "community" in front of something then it must mean affordable housing.

The alternative is not selling off any more publicly owned land and building social housing on it.

 

[Gramsci]

Can someone explain how this works? .

Or am I barking up the wrong tree here?

I think the word "Block" is more to do with the type of demo. Surrounding City Hall.

 

[Gramsci]

Actually I have a bigger question. It's is good to continue the fight for communities to remained housed in their area, rents to be capped and social housing built, however in the meantime what do we do when our wages stay static, our bills increase and landlords ask for more rent?

Are people finding alternatives? What about community Land trusts? (is this all something for a separate thread?)

To add Brixton Green went on about CLT for Somerleyton road. I always knew it was a non starter. There was no way they would raise the money to buy the land off the Council and build truly affordable housing.I have been proved right. But BG have got what they want which is future control of site except for the theatre and hopefully Carlton Mansions.

In the end its the Council building on Somerleyton road. Council own the land and can borrow cheaply.