Join us at our online rally on the 19th February 2021 and our summit the following day on the 20th February to discuss the current housing and health emergency the UK is facing. The rally will take place on our Youtube and Facebook pages and the summit will be held via Zoom. Email us for the Zoom login details.
Our next organising meeting is Saturday 16th January at 11am via Zoom.
Login details will be emailed to our mailing list – sign up today.
These are very difficult times, but it’s essential we keep up the fight to win Homes for All, not just during a pandemic, but always. So we are looking to link up and involve others in a determined campaign to prevent more distress, insecurity and homelessness.
Get in touch if there are housing issues we can help with, or if you need a hand.
Action plans from the previous meetings can be found in our Resources.
It’s clear whose interests Government is lining up with: Housing minister Lord Greenhalgh says more evictions are how to end lockdown, and the Government is pushing owners to convert more commercial buildings into homes without planning approval and the safety controls involved. But tenants also won a victory this week, when a district Court said it’s illegal for landlords to ban tenants claiming housing benefit (though Government is trying to overturn this by appeal).
We want to step up pressure for Government action to stop a wave of evictions, suspend rents for those losing income, pay housing and other benefits from day one, and start work to create 100,000 new council homes. The Prime Minister is promising more investment in public infrastructure – but still leaving council housing off his list. We will work out ways to step up the pressure for investment in new and reclaimed council homes.
Homes for All is delighted that Ken Loach will be joining us for an online meeting to discuss building resistance to the growing threat of evictions and poverty.
Loach will join us on 25th November 2020, showing clips from his films to highlight the threat of austerity and evictions.
Then he will take part in a panel discussion with Acorn tenant campaigners, Berlin tenants on winning rent cuts, and others. We hope you can join in, and get others to do the same. See the Facebook event here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1035799210217477
Consultation on the government’s Planning White Paper is still open. Homes for All has been involved in preparing a collective response to this “developer’s charter” which would lead to even fewer homes working class people can afford.
To build the fight against the Planning White Paper, we’re holding a dedicated online meeting to discuss how to fight back against this injustice on November 7th 2020 at 11:00 AM. The meeting will be held via Zoom, meeting details will be sent to our database – email us if you would like to join.
Despite the scale of the housing crisis, public land and money is still being handed to private developers, instead of being used to build the homes we need. A shocking example is at the ex- Holloway Prison in north London, where Peabody Housing Association, who made £197 million last year, have acquired a 10-acre site where 1,000 council homes could be built. Peabody got the site for £81 million thanks to loans and grants from the Mayor of London. But now they’re trying to renege on their promise that at least 42% of the new homes will be for social rent.
On Saturday 26th 11,30am, we have a Homes For All workshop on the government’s planned White Paper, and how to raise objections effectively. The meeting will be held online via Zoom and all are welcome. Sign up to our mailing list to receive invitation details.
The gloomy prospect of job losses and the resumption of evictions and home repossessions, makes it more important to organise opposition and demand action. Please support the Generation Rent petition on ending the rent debt crisis: https://www.generationrent.org/coronavirusdebt
On Wednesday 16th September from 11am – 12.30pm, we are co-ordinating a “No Evictions” protest in Parliament Square, to coincide with Prime Minister’s Question Time.
The government said “no-one will lose their home because of a pandemic”. But unless it changes course, that’s what will start happening on Monday 21st September, when courts are due to begin eviction cases again. We’ve heard vague noises about more protection for tenants, but nothing definite, so it’s time to make our voices heard.
We hope MPs will ask questions about how we avoid what Shelter has called the threat of a “tidal wave” of homelessness.
The protest will be socially-distanced and people are encouraged to wear a face mask. Bring your banner or signs.
On Thursday 17th September, we’re holding an online public meeting to discuss how to build the No Evictions campaign, with Generation Rent, Ian Hodson of the Bakers Union, housing workers, John McDonnell MP and others.
The meeting will be live streamed on our Facebook page and YouTube channel, with questions and comments welcome.
Please get in touch if you’d like more information.
The Government has issued a four-week extension on plans to resume legal evictions – now from late September 2020. Such a proposal will escalate the housing crisis. Tenants are at the front end of this crisis. Millions are broke, insecure and hungry, as inequality is aggravated by the health and economic crisis.
There are nationwide protests planned to stop Covid-19 Evictions:
Government plans to resume legal evictions from 23 August 2020 will escalate the housing crisis.
We posted an open letter to the Prime Minister, arguing “It’s not too late to step back from the brink, and ensure no-one loses their home due to the Coronavirus crisis”. The letter was co-signed by housing activists from across the county and organisations such as Shelter, the Big Issue, John McDonnell MP, Ken Loach, several Black Lives Matter groups, unions and others.
At the Grenfell inquiry this week, a QC for the families said “Grenfell is inextricably linked with race. It is the elephant in the room.” That’s why, on Tuesday 14th July 2020 at 7pm on the monthly anniversary of the atrocity, we’re holding an online public meeting, “Grenfell, Housing and Racism”.
Our speakers will be Apsana Begum (MP for Poplar and Limehouse), Abbas Dadou (Chair of a Residents Association near the tower), Kasim Ali (Kensington and Chelsea Councillor), Tanya Murat (Defend Council Housing) and Moyra Samuels (local resident and Stand Up to Racism). We’ll also be joined from the USA by Chivona Newsome, co-founder of Black Lives Matter in New York City.
It promises to be a really interesting and inspiring meeting. Please try to come along and help spread the word. The meeting will be live streamed on the Homes for All Facebook page and YouTube channel, links below:
Also earlier this week, the influential National Infrastructure Commission, which advises the government, said council houses are the “only way to reach 300,000 homes goal” (The Times, 8.7.20). In response, Defend Council Housing sent out the following press release:
