Young mothers evicted from London hostel may be rehoused 200 miles away

[editor]

Great work, you despicable Tory shitebags.

Twenty-nine young single mothers facing eviction from the UK's largest hostel for homeless young people in London have been told they may be rehoused as far away as Manchester, Birmingham and Hastings as a result of cuts and welfare reforms.

The exodus, which represents potentially one of the largest displacements of vulnerable people since the coalition's social security reform programme began, was triggered after housing support funding for young parents at Focus E15, a specialist hostel in east London, was cut by Newham council.

The mothers and mothers-to-be – all under 25, many of them teenagers – have been served with eviction notices by the housing association that runs the hostel. They have been warned that the scarcity of affordable homes locally means they may have to move to temporary accommodation between 70 and 200 miles away from their home borough.

Newham council said that although it would do everything it could to rehouse the women locally, the pressure of welfare reform coupled with high housing demand meant it would have to look outside the borough.

A spokesperson said: "The government's benefit cap has made London unaffordable for some people and this is why offers of accommodation may be outside London."

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/oct/14/young-single-mothers-focus-e15-newham-rehoused

 

[Puddy_Tat]

"What we will not see, we will not accept, is any kind of Kosovo-style social cleansing. You are not going to see on my watch thousands of families being evicted from the place where they have been living and have put down roots,"

- Boris Johnson, October 2010

My arse.

 

[Frances Lengel]

It doesn't bear thinking about - Imagine just being arbitarily dropped into a town where you don't know anyone. And at their age. With a kid to look after as well.

 

[ItWillNeverWork]

As one of the comments on the article points out, Newham council recently spunked £111,000,000 on a new head quarters. The families facing eviction are having this done to them because of a £41,000 cut. That's 2707 years of caring for fellow human beings thrown out the window in favour of sparkly light fittings costing £1800 a piece and trendy sofas.

 

[FNG]

Ivory Towers?

 

[gabi]

And meanwhile, I can see this out my window... (I can assure you my rent's a little lower, oh and i pay for it myself)..

The Foreign office said that Caroline Wilson, the Consul General in the former British colony, had taken up residence in a £35 million four-bedroom flat in the exclusive Opus Hong Kong building in April.

A spokesman said the luxury property which occupies the entire third floor of the complex and has spectacular views over Victoria Harbour is used for a range of purposes including hosting official function.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...g-Kong-Consul-General-in-35-million-flat.html

 

[purenarcotic]

There is no housing here in Birmingham, where are they planning to put these poor women ffs. The last stats i saw there were 11,000 people on the waiting list for a one bed, 8,000 of whom are homeless.

Not to mention how sickening it is to remove them from friends, family and other potential support networks.

 

[stethoscope]

As one of the comments on the article points out, Newham council recently spunked £111,000,000 on a new head quarters. The families facing eviction are having this done to them because of a £41,000 cut. That's 2707 years of caring for fellow human beings thrown out the window in favour of sparkly light fittings costing £1800 a piece and trendy sofas.

I remember this going up and the question marks over the cost at the time - especially given being the poorest borough in London - see this BBC news piece from 2011...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-12160921

Newham Council's £111m building 'savings' claim mocked

In December Newham Council in east London was criticised for spending the nine-figure sum on Building 1000. Bosses paid £1,800 each for five designer lights.

The council said the move would save money because it would enable the organisation to merge staff from 26 buildings under one roof.

Newham Council began moving into Building 1000 in the middle of 2008.

But a senior council officer has now provided the BBC with a list showing that at least 18 of the 26 buildings are either still used by council staff or lying empty, at a cost to the taxpayer.

The council, on which all 60 sitting councillors are Labour members, says selling the buildings now would be unwise given the "depressed" state of the market.

Newham Council, run by directly-elected mayor Sir Robin Wales, has been questioned by the BBC about the continued use of the buildings and has not disputed the accuracy of the list.

Mike Law, a former Labour councillor at the borough who left with concerns as to how it was being governed, said: "The rationale for purchasing Building 1000 was financial savings - this information makes a mockery of that claim.

"The mayor has yet to offer up any evidence of where savings have taken place and how they have been made."

'No improvement'

In November the BBC reported that Newham had outspent every London borough in producing its council-run newspaper and town show, which was rebranded under the mayor's name.

Mr Law, said: "Be it from a glitzy multi-million pound office block or a number of Nissen huts, the council's primary function is to deliver services while spending public funds wisely.
"There has been no demonstrable improvement in council services during the mayor's eight years in office with the exception of increasingly costly PR events to raise Sir Robin's profile."

Local Government Minister Bob Neill said: "In the interests of transparency, Newham need to come clean about what's happening with these buildings.

"They need to understand that the era of excess in local government is over."

During the last decade Newham Council received a higher grant per head from central government than almost any other authority in the UK, to take into account high levels of deprivation.

The council spent £18.7m refurbishing Building 1000. Mr Neill criticised the outlay, saying the headquarters now resembled a "glitzy West End nightclub".

Newham Council is now considering making 1,600 staff redundant.

Responding to the BBC's questions on Building 1000, a spokesman for Newham Council said: "Staff were previously working in a large number of smaller buildings, some of which were not fit for purpose or expensive to lease.

"Leaving them for a single building and introducing better ways of working has created economies of scale that are saving taxpayers almost £7m per year.

"Financial pressures on the council from the government's spending review means it is now more important than ever to get maximum value from our property assets."

For the cost of three Building 1000s you could get an Emirates Stadium
He continued: "We will not sell if values are depressed as clearly this is not a sensible approach in the interests of residents.

"We have a good record of delivering efficiencies in Newham."

A spokesman for commercial property estate agents Noble Harris said that, despite the downturn, well-located office blocks in Newham - which is near Canary Wharf and home to the Olympic Village - could still attract good prices.

The council officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, added that the council spent nearly £5m refurbishing another building, 292 Barking Road, only to move out after two years. The building is currently leased to a college. The council has not commented on this claim.

Meanwhile, they can only stump up £4m for an 'affordable' home scheme (that's 'affordable' meaning '80% of market value'). Oh, and what's this?! - 'could see the local authority set up a Private Rented Vehicle to build and purchase homes to let'

http://www.newhamrecorder.co.uk/new...build_affordable_homes_in_stratford_1_2162452

Council approves pilot to build ‘affordable’ homes in Stratford

Councillors agreed to fund a £4m pilot scheme on Thursday that could see the council set up its own lettings company.

At a Cabinet meeting, Newham Council approved the construction of a small block of flats on an undeveloped area of land at Leather Gardens, Abbey Road, Stratford that will be offered to residents as “affordable” rented homes.

The building, which will include a mixture of one and two bedroom flats at an estimated 80 per cent market rent levels, is a pilot project that could see the local authority set up a Private Rented Vehicle to build and purchase homes to let.

This is the first council-initiated building scheme of this scale in over a decade apart from its recent expansion of primary schools in the borough.

The council hope the scheme will complement its compulsory licensing of private properties as it will look to buy homes from failing landlords, with plans to aquire more than 2,000 homes over the next five to ten years.

Cllr Andrew Baikie, executive member for housing and customer service, said: “This ambitious scheme will provide quality affordable homes for hard working people on low incomes as well as creating dozens of jobs for the borough in its construction.

“If it is a success, we hope to expand the scheme across Newham, building new homes and buying properties from failing landlords who want to sell.

“Becoming a player in the private rented sector will enable us to increase the quality housing options available to our residents and raise standards across the industry.”

Around the same time, I remember fighting for two years to keep some local projects/services open but 'there wasn't any money'

 

[stethoscope]

There is no housing here in Birmingham, where are they planning to put these poor women ffs. The last stats i saw there were 11,000 people on the waiting list for a one bed, 8,000 of whom are homeless.

It really is fucking sickening

 

[Mr.Bishie]

Brighton's solution to the growing homeless problem has arrived!

The city's first shipping containers set to be used as houses will arrive in Brighton on Monday.

The converted containers will provide temporary homes for 36 men and women with a history of homelessness.

http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/1073...twt&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Not enough face palms.

 

[SikhWarrioR]

Is this another step towards the Ghettos, the Railway Wagons and the "Work Sets You Free" camps ???

 

[Yelkcub]

As one of the comments on the article points out, Newham council recently spunked £111,000,000 on a new head quarters. The families facing eviction are having this done to them because of a £41,000 cut. That's 2707 years of caring for fellow human beings thrown out the window in favour of sparkly light fittings costing £1800 a piece and trendy sofas.

As I've said on Facebook, even a capitalist pigdog like me is disgusted by this. Nevermind Champagne and Fromage - this is worthy of revolt.

 

[treelover]

It doesn't bear thinking about - Imagine just being arbitarily dropped into a town where you don't know anyone. And at their age. With a kid to look after as well.

people have to move for work all the time, but this is different, they have no work, its happening at great speed whereas someone moving with work will be able to plan, etc.

 

[dessiato]

- Boris Johnson, October 2010

My arse.

He is keeping his word though, he isn't watching thousands being removed, it's only a couple of hundred. He is, therefore, innocent of being a Tory scum-bag. At the moment.

 

[treelover]

Apparently, Newham is a completely Labour council, that's sixty councillors, all labour, all who have accepted the Tory benefit regime and are attacking the most vulnerable, etc.

 

[dessiato]

Apparently, Newham is a completely Labour council, that's sixty councillors, all labour, all who have accepted the Tory benefit regime and are attacking the most vulnerable, etc.

I once voted Labour because it was like a Tory lite. They are not so Tory Lite anymore though. How do these people not understand the damage they are doing to the victims claimants they are "helping"? How do they sleep at night? I suppose one "benefit" of doing this is that they'll be able to claim that they have improved the area by reducing the number of claimants in the area.

 

[Greebo]

FFS if there's one thing which single parents need, it's stability and a good social network - this isn't just pulling the rug from under their feet, it's removing the floor as well.

 

[_angel_]

vote labour

 

[ViolentPanda]

Great work, you despicable Tory shitebags.

There have been a fair handful of stories over the past month or so, of specialist hostels being forced to close down, so hostels specifically for men and women dealing with their substance abuse problems, for example, are also being shut.

 

[ViolentPanda]

vote labour

Not even on a bet, and before you ask why, because they're highly unlikely to boost local authority spending, so this situation will just carry on.

Same shit, different arseholes.

 

[_angel_]

Not even on a bet, and before you ask why, because they're highly unlikely to boost local authority spending, so this situation will just carry on.

Same shit, different arseholes.

you might have noticed the sarcasm, as to what the very first thing Blair did when elected was to take money off single parents.

 

[Fuchs66]

Brighton's solution to the growing homeless problem has arrived!

Not saying this is the answer to everything but I did live in container accommodation for over 5 years and it was OK (was supposed to be temporary accommodation, only for a maximum of 3 years, built about 4 years before I moved in)

 

[ViolentPanda]

you might have noticed the sarcasm, as to what the very first thing Blair did when elected was to take money off single parents.

Second thing. Apparently the first thing he did was have one off the wrist in Downing Street.

 

[ViolentPanda]

Not saying this is the answer to everything but I did live in container accommodation for over 5 years and it was OK (was supposed to be temporary accommodation, only for a maximum of 3 years, built about 4 years before I moved in)

Container accommodation is a damn good interim/semi-permanent solution. I've been reading up on it the last year or so, and if the units are insulated decently, and clad, they're supposedly more thermally efficient than some new-build conventional housing.

 

[likesfish]

Hastings is frankly a bit of a shithole.
The hong kong thing might be defendable uk gov probably got a good deal and if your trying to persuade the chinese to invest in the uk you cant really do that from a shoddy building.
Newham council wtf its a fucking london borough council wtf were they thinking?

 

[Enviro]

Container accommodation is a damn good interim/semi-permanent solution. I've been reading up on it the last year or so, and if the units are insulated decently, and clad, they're supposedly more thermally efficient than some new-build conventional housing.

This is all well and good, and is certainly better than nothing, but does it achieve much in the long term? Why can't everyone have a decent home to live in, of the type that we're all used to, constructed from bricks and cement?

 

[Crispy]

sick

 

[ViolentPanda]

This is all well and good, and is certainly better than nothing, but does it achieve much in the long term? Why can't everyone have a decent home to live in, of the type that we're all used to, constructed from bricks and cement?

Because there's no political will to undertake a massive set of construction projects (despite there being plenty of rather desperate need among the electorate), and given the predicates of the neoliberal economics that all of our major political parties are tied to, there's no will to do anything to "expand the state", only to further shrink it.
There's also the issue that the Treasury will shy away from funding any project that will impact on the price bubble in housing, because that bubble is part of what's making the economy appear to be growing. Any significant upsurge in building, social or private, will see housing prices either plateau or fall eventually, and that can't be allowed.

 

[ViolentPanda]

sick

Sure, but utterly predictable too.
The LA "austerity cuts" has meant just about every LA retrenching service provision into the most generic form possible. It was pretty obvious to most LAs that they'd have to do this a couple of years ago, but instead of making a stand against Jabba the Pickles, they've just gone along with it meekly, and fucked over many thousands of the most vulnerable homeless people at the same time.

I'm getting that stabby feeling again.

 

[Fuchs66]

Container accommodation is a damn good interim/semi-permanent solution. I've been reading up on it the last year or so, and if the units are insulated decently, and clad, they're supposedly more thermally efficient than some new-build conventional housing.

Great for roof parties too