The recent H4A summit debated inequalities in housing, health & wealth and a government that has failed to offer any long-term solutions during and beyond the Covid crisis. The Mayoral and local elections are looming and we have an opportunity to make housing a key issue. We will be discussing:
Update from workshops & proposed activities over coming weeks Action around Mayoral/local elections Steering Group – need more volunteers Empty Homes Day of Action 17th April – stay on zoom to join meeting AOB
We are joining with Action on Empty Homes for an ‘Empty Homes Day of Action’ on Saturday April 17th 2021 Join us!
Rally 11am to 12pm, Saturday 17th April
Online rally with national speakers 11am – 12noon John Bird Founder Big Issue, Steve Turner Assistant General Secretary Unite Will McMahon, Action on Empty Homes, Tanya Murat, Homes For All, Jon Glackin, Streets Kitchen, Ellen Clifford Author, Disabled People Against Cuts, Moyra Samuels Grenfell Campaigner, Tyrone Scott Shelter, Hannah Berry Greater Manchester Housing Action
3. East London People Before Profit Facebook Event here EVERYONE WELCOME: please join the protest/photoshoot on Saturday 17th April 11am-12 Meet Morrison’s car park, Silvertown Way, Canning Town, E16 1ED. #thewronghousing
4. Haringey action: Saturday 17th April – 11.15 for 11.30 live stream to #EmptyHomes Rally outside Apex Gardens Seven Sisters Road / Junction Tottenham High Road Facebook event
Other events taking place include Harlow, Rochdale, Milton Keynes.
The Day of Action on 17th April aims 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 without no permanent resident
120,000 Airbnb type short-lets (London Councils estimate there are 80,000 short-lets in London alone)
We are calling this Day of Action for three reasons:
The pandemic has highlighted the health impacts of Temporary Accommodation and overcrowding – it has created a health emergency.
The wrong kind of housing is being built in metropolitan areas.
Building the wrong kind of housing has created a crisis of affordability.
What will happen on the Day of Action?
Campaigners will be staging photoshoots using campaign banners and placards outside new developments that do not contain any social housing, decanted council homes, housing association empty homes and older large residential properties that are long term empty.
We will gather all the photoshoots and put them on our national websites and issue both local and national press releases for publicity purposes and demonstrate the breadth of support for the Day of Action. We aim to build a national picture of the problem.
How you can get involved
1. Organise your own local photoshoot or selfie for the Day of Action. Send your photos to info@emptyhomes.com See below a step by step guide to organising your local event.
2. Order some of Day of Action posters for your photoshoot from Will at Action on Empty Homes – make a £10 donation to Action on Empty Homes to help us cover our costs – they will be available on Monday 22 March.
To order posters: E-mail info@emptyhomes.com
The posters will carry the following messages and hashtags:
‘We are in a housing & health emergency!’ ‘Take Action on Empty Homes’ ‘Why is this home empty?’
3. Put out a local press release – there will be a template on the AEH website for you to use if you want to.
4. To find how many empty homes there are in your council area click here. This tells you a lot about empty homes in your area. E.g. one in 9 homes in Kensington and Chelsea are “out of use”.
4. To find out about whole house Airbnbs in your council area visit here: https://www.airdna.co/
5. Use your social media to advertise the Day of Action.
We will post resources on our webpages to help you make the best impact on the day.
Southwark Defend Council Housing has been leading the campaign to #RequisitionEmptyHomes #FillEmptyCouncilHomes since Spring 2020 when it became obvious that the Coronavirus pandemic was killing people in overcrowded housing and homeless people at a much greater rate than the general population. Now, following the successful Homes 4 All Summit in February, Homes 4 All have agreed to take this campaign forward in collaboration with Action on Empty Homes.
To see the Southwark DCH petition and open letter to Southwark Council click here
To see the Southwark DCH arguments for councils to requisition empty homes click here
For more exciting facts about the successful post war peoples’ movement to requisition empty homes by Sam Burgum click here
Resources
Interested in organising an empty homes photoshoot your area? Below are all the resources you will need.
Letter to candidates in local elections on May 6th CLICK HERE FOR LETTER– if an election is taking place in your area, the letter invites candidates to support the campaign
The meeting will be an opportunity to take stock of where we go after our summit, and build on the energy and ideas that emerged. Please join us.
The size and level of involvement at our Rally & Summit gave a clear indication of people’s huge concerns about housing, especially during these past 12 months of Covid-19. These include many issues: from the threat of mass evictions to cladding and building safety in the wake of Grenfell, health & wealth inequality and a government that has failed to offer any long-term solutions during and beyond the Covid crisis.
The Mayoral and local elections are looming and we have an opportunity to make housing a key issue. We will be discussing:
Update from workshops & proposed activities over coming weeks Action around Mayoral/local elections Steering Group – need more volunteers Filling the Empties – stay on zoom to join meeting AOB
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 13th February 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.