October 9th 2021, 11am Day of Action – We are in a climate, health and housing emergency!
We have decided to bring together all the organisations that took part in our first successful Day of Action in April 2021 and draw more local and national organisations into a national coalition called ‘Campaign Against Empty Homes’. Whether it is a local community group or a national organisation, we want everyone on board for 9 October, who wants empty homes to be brought back into use.
Unite have kindly donated some money so we can produce publicity and get the message out. We have lots of leaflets you can use to promote the day of action., and you can give out the same leaflets on the day of action itself. Scroll down to see a pdf of the leaflet. Our main partners, Action on Empty Homes are working hard with us to plan for the day. We will be doing a press launch very soon.
We will be having an online rally on YouTube and Facebook on 9th October, just like we did on 17th April, and we are inviting you to live stream your local protest into the rally.
We are calling the 9th October Day of Action for four reasons:
1) Over 100,000 families are living in Temporary Accommodation while over half a million homes have no permanent resident.
2) The wrong kind of housing is being built across the country – they are unaffordable to anyone on an average income to either rent or buy. These new builds are also being sold off-plan and ending up as Airbnb short lets, second homes or buy to leave empty wealth investments with no permanent residents.
3) Communities are being broken up as council estates that could be refurbished are being left to decline, to be replaced by yet more unaffordable new build.
4) The Climate emergency demands refurbishment, not demolition. Retrofitting 270,000 long term empty homes and council estates can help solve the climate crisis.
We will hold street actions highlighting all of these issues and hold a national rally calling for empty homes to be used by those living in temporary and overcrowded accommodation and to meet the climate emergency.
The Day of Action is also to raise public awareness of the rising number of long-term empty homes and homes without a permanent resident in England. Government and market data show there are around:
*270,000 long-term empty homes
*260,000 second-homes with no permanent resident
*120,000 Airbnb type short-lets (London Councils estimate there are over 70,000 short-lets in London alone)
We also want a national register of landlords and beneficial owners and much tighter regulation of Airbnb.
If you want to call a street protest to be part of the day of action on 9th October, please let us know. We can live stream your protest into an online rally.
Local street protests will be POSTED HERE
- Southwark: Campaign Against Empty Homes: Repopulate the Aylesbury Estate! Fill Empty Council Homes, 10:45am, Saturday 9th October, Outside Thurlow Lodge, 1 Thurlow Street, SE17 2US Facebook event here: https://www.facebook.com/events/405314640978545/
2. Empty Homes Day of Action at Pentonville Prison. Islington Homes for All – Saturday 9th October
Meet at the Breakout Café on Caledonian Road at 10:45 to go to Pentonville Prison Empty Flats on Roman Way for 11am. Twitter: https://twitter.com/home
3.
Everything you need to plan a street protest and live stream it is here
https://www.actiononemptyhomes.org/News/day-of-action-october-9th
If you are a TRADE UNIONIST or part of another campaign and would like to propose support in your organisation, please use this MODEL RESOLUTION
Stream links:
Home4AllUK
Facebook 👉 facebook.com/Homes4AllUK/live
YouTube 👉 youtube.com/channel/UCMh2QRvMoz2w3hX3Tmaka-A/live
Action On Empty Homes
Facebook 👉 facebook.com/emptyhomes/live