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:
Sunday 14th June marks three years since the fire at Grenfell Tower. Victims and survivors do not all have permanent homes yet – and three years on, still no-one has been held to account for what happened.
Around the country hundreds more blocks are still unsafe. Some people will mark the anniversary from home. Join through: https://www.grenfellunited.org.uk/
For those who can’t get there, at 6pm 80 London churches will ring bells 72 times to mark those who died. If you are in London, can you organise with others to take banners or posters and stand outside while the bells ring?
Or organise something where you are – making sure you safely observing 2m distancing. Or hold up a solidarity sign from your home or doorstep – and send a selfie photos and messages to Grenfell, and to us here, or on our Facebook page or through Twitter.
Join our online meeting on Tuesday 2nd June, 6.30pm with Mark Slater of Rochdale Seven Sisters campaign; Will McMahon Action on Empty Homes; Labour Homelessness campaign, and Tanya Murat Southwark DCH.
Despite the crisis and lockdown, Housing Association landlords are pushing through rent rises; NottingHill Genesis (NHG) is threatening outrageous 25% rises for NHS staff, teachers and other key workers. Tenant protests have forced NHG to delay these – but tenants are determined to stop this rank profiteering. Do get in touch if you or people you know are affected, or if you can help their campaign.
And you can write to Housing Minister Robert Jenrick, and copy it to your own MP, council leader (and us!). We need to keep up pressure to ensure thousands don’t face evictions at the end of June, and to get funding for a new generation of council homes.
This letter from a Minister dated 18 May 2020, says ‘landlords should be able to carry out routine as well as essential repairs’, making prior arrangements with any households isolating or shielding sick and vulnerable people. It includes guidelines for how work should be done and tenants protected: see links in the document including Coronavirus (Covid19) Guidance for Landlords and Tenants.
We can’t leave our safety to chance – so demand your landlord agrees in advance to stick to the guidelines, and agree a procedure if these are broken. All workers in our blocks and homes need to work safely or not at all.
Work on high rise blocks with unsafe cladding or insufficient fire safety, ‘remains a top priority for the Government’, it claims. (So why are there still at least 357 blocks still with Grenfell-style cladding, and 11,000 blocks with risky cladding, two years on from the Grenfell fire?)
This letter, with important information, has not been sent to any of the 4 million+ tenants so far – so we are publishing it to ensure we can prepare and protect ourselves.
