Category Archives: #housingcrisis

Housing Justice for All! Free Palestine!

#housingcrisis, Focus E15 Campaign, housing struggles, intentional homelessness, racism, , , ,

On Saturday 7 June Focus E15 campaign is joining the Housing Bloc on the People’s
Assembly national demonstration, with a clear message Welfare not Warfare.

Join us!

Since our inception, Focus E15 has sought to draw international links between the struggle
for land and housing in London/Britain and struggles abroad.


Nowhere is this more significant than in the struggle against settler colonialism and Zionism
in Palestine, which has seen Israel’s ongoing genocidal campaign destroy or damage 92% of
homes in the Gaza strip (UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, January
2025), as well as bomb hospitals, schools, universities and deliberately murder journalists,
paramedics, doctors, nurses, teachers, target civilians and, since 2 March, block all aid
entering Gaza, including food, water, fuel, in flagrant violation of international humanitarian
law.


Israeli occupation forces have also increased their repression in the West Bank, where over
40,000 people were displaced from their homes in the first two months of 2025 alone, while
house demolitions continue.


As a housing campaign based in Britain—the country responsible for the British Mandate in
Palestine and the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine— we recognise that the
political system that keeps families in Britain in slum housing is the same system that is
funding and arming the genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza, through continued
financial, military, and political support for the Israeli state. The same shameless capitalist
and imperialist Labour Party we’ve opposed locally in Newham has revealed its true face in
government.


We cannot fight for housing justice in Britain in isolation, we are internationalists, who fight
racism at home and abroad.


We will continue to raise the Palestinian flag as we have done over the last 12 years. We
encourage all housing campaigners to do so as well.

Together we are stronger.


Victory to the resistance in Palestine – let’s Educate! Agitate! Organise! here in Britain!

Join us on Saturday 7 June, on the housing bloc, details here:
https://www.axethehousingact.org.uk/news/join-the-housing-and-planning-bloc-on-the-
peoples-assembly-demo-7-june/

COUNCIL HOUSING, NOT COUNCIL CLEANSING

#housingcrisis, class, social cleansing, , , , , ,

We want council rent housing, not council-led social cleansing

New report commissioned by Public Interest Law Centre and authored by Dr Joe Penny of UCL’s Urban Laboratory shows how government and council defined ‘Affordable housing’ drives up the cost of homes for working-class communities.

The report finds that estate regeneration projects which feature demolition routinely underproduce truly affordable* housing for those on low incomes, and increase rents of council and social housing by an average of more than £80 per week.  It reveals that the unaffordability of “affordable” housing options, replacing council-rent homes after estate demolition, is worsening the housing crisis for working-class Londoners.  At the same time, councils are playing ‘property developer’ driving forward gentrification. Therefore the call for ‘council housing, not council cleansing’ is arguably more fitting today than ‘social housing, not social cleansing’.

*Truly affordable housing is the term benchmarked in the report using the UN-Habitat’s definition of affordability: rent that costs no more than 30% of a household’s total monthly income. The report found that for some tenures on redeveloped sites, so-called “affordable” rent could be as high as 76% of a household’s income.

Main findings of the report

The report studies six of the ‘best’ and ‘worst’ regeneration projects across three London Boroughs including the Aylesbury Estate and the Heygate Estate.

It considered three different models of cross-subsidy estate regeneration: developer-led approach, local-housing company approach, and council-led approach.

Across all three cross-subsidy models in the report:

  • The loss of social and council housing and the displacement of low-income working-class tenants are embedded features of regeneration projects that involve demolition
  • All underproduce the housing that Londoners need the most (council rent and social rent)
  • All overproduce the type of housing London has the least need for (market sale and rent)
  • The total number of council and social housing was reduced by all but one of the regeneration projects
  • Demolition and redevelopment of council estates increases the rents of council and social housing by more than £80 per week on average
  • 23,551 new homes have been or are expected to be delivered by 2035
  • 8,629 council rented homes have been or will be demolished across the six cases
  • There will be a net loss of 2,151 truly affordable council homes
  • Of the homes due to be built, just 6,478 (27%) of these homes are replacement social rented homes
  • Almost double the amount of social or council homes will be for private market sale or rent (11,961, 51%).

Cross-subsidy models don’t produce affordable housing

The cross-subsidy approach to estate regeneration has been the dominant model of estate regeneration for the past two decades and looks set to continue under the Labour government.

This is when council estates are demolished to make way for expensive properties which are put on the market or rented privately. In theory, the new private homes fund the construction of “affordable” homes on the sites.

However, the report has found that the word “affordable” is used with no consideration for what is truly affordable for people who need these housing options the most.  It is being used to platform affordable housing solutions for middle-income earners being prioritised over housing solutions for the record levels of people in temporary accommodation – 145,800 children in temporary accommodation – up 15% in a year.

Just open the door!

At the report launch, a member of Focus E15 housing campaign and resident from the Carpenters Estate in Newham, East London, gave a fitting analogy for the housing crisis from the position of a temporary tenant  living on an estate facing cross-subsidy redevelopment: “it’s like you’re watching a film and there’s a car on the train tracks with someone inside struggling to get out as a train speeds towards them…they are trying everything but the door handle…and you are screaming at the screen for them tojust open the door!  We need to open the door!”

Download the report:

Download The promise of cross-subsidy: Why estate demolition cannot solve London’s housing emergency.

Download the guide to the report:

To make the evidence as accessible as possible, PILC have created a guide to the report called What Golden Era: A guide to help challenge estate demolition plans with hard facts.

Watch PILC’s short film:

What Golden Era? 5 things you need to know about council house building in London – YouTube

On Saturday 19th October Focus E15 campaign will be holding a speak out demanding an end to temporary accommodation, and calling for safe secure truly affordable council housing!  Join us!

12pm-2pm / outside former Wilkos on the Stratford Broadway, Newham E15.

Newham housing campaigners join forces in lively demo

#housingcrisis, Focus E15 Campaign, housing struggles, Newham council, News, public action

Monday 22 May, Newham’s annual full council meeting in the Old Town Hall Stratford.

Focus E15 campaign joined members of London Renters Union (LRU) and PEACH outside the town hall. With placards, banners and flags flying there were speeches and chants on the megaphone. It was lively and militant. Every councillor who went in got a leaflet about the LRU campaign SafeHomesNow. Newham council must take action against landlords who rent unsafe homes, who don’t respond to tenants’ issues and who share details with the Home Office of a tenant who is a migrant.

We are now near the end of May 2023 – the month when the Labour Mayor and council promised that every family with children would have moved out of 10 Victoria Street. But no, over 50 families are still stuck in the substandard overcrowded inappropriate accommodation, sharing beds, no space to play, and with no space to do homework.

Banners by Andrew Cooper

So we decided to go in to the meeting to make sure all the councillors and members of the public present are up to date with this matter. They would have preferred to have continued the chats in the corridor but we thought it time to go in with people directly effected by housing insecurity and living in overcrowded housing misery.

As instructed, members of the town hall security staff were heavy-handed and pushed pulled and dragged the protesters out. After the meeting resumed, Mayor Rokhsana Fiaz was forced to comment, reaffirming her commitment to move families with children out from Victoria Street, with all the excuses the council repeatedly gives as to why it is so difficult, and then spoke of the millions of pounds the council is going to spend for ‘option appraisals’ and the ‘reconceptualising of the building’ at 10 Victoria Street.

We chanted Deeds not Words as we left the council chamber, our heads held high, determined to fight on for housing justice for all.

If you want to take action on housing, join Focus E15 campaign on the weekly Saturday stall 12-2pm outside Wilko’s on Stratford Broadway, follow us on facebook for the latest information about meetings and events.

Look up London Renters Union and support their demands to the council:
https://londonrentersunion.org/

*BREAKING NEWS* Carpenters estate: Newham buy a Yes vote to demolition

#housingcrisis, Carpenters Estate, class, evictions, families, Focus E15 Campaign, gender, Newham council, Olympics, public action

RESIDENTS ACCUSE NEWHAM LABOUR COUNCIL OF SPENDING PUBLIC MONEY TO FORCE THROUGH A VOTE FOR DEMOLITION

On Tuesday 14 December 2021, a resident ballot on the Carpenters Estate in Newham, East London, returned a Yes vote in favour of the council’s regeneration plans, meaning almost 60% of the estate will be demolished for ‘regeneration’.  This is a deep blow for residents who want to refurbish and save the existing estate as it is.

Residents have called out the whole of the ballot process as being deeply biased in favour of the council’s plans. Newham council and the council’s housing company, Populo Living have spent at least £350,000 on campaigning for a Yes vote, whilst campaigners had no access to public funds.

Throughout the consultation and ballot process, Carpenters’ residents and supporters of Focus E15 campaign have complained of underhand tactics used by Newham Council and Populo Living. Blatant propaganda posed the council’s plans as the only viable option.                                       

For example, Populo Living’s newsletter of October 2021, states:

  • The future of The Carpenters is up to you – if you want to build a stronger estate, you need to vote YES in the ballot at the end of October.

‘Vote Yes’ graphics have been seen on billboards, newsletters, community spaces and in the Landlord Offer document which the vote was based on. Residents have told of continual door-knocking on the estate by both Populo Living and Source Partnership employees who are the Independent Resident and Tenants Advisors.

A huge amount of public money has been spent in the process of canvassing for a yes vote. A Freedom of Information request found out that at least:

  1. £146,275 has been spent by Newham Council on running consultancy services
  2. £224,000 has been sent by Populo Living on running consultancy services
  3. £4,400 was spent on a Community fun day

Newham Council has followed the GLA’s Good Guide to Estate Regeneration in order to secure funding for future development.

However from July 2018 to March 2020, all of the ballots held on estates in London have resulted in ‘Yes’ votes for regeneration – in every case this resulted in demolition.  

Councillors in Haringey have been so outraged by this process that they have called for an independent inquiry into the regeneration ballot carried out on the Love Lane Estate, following allegations of pressure put on residents.

Under GLA guidance, neither Newham Council nor Populo Living is required to put forward a balanced argument and they are allowed to lobby with huge resources for their preferred position. Residents who wish to lobby against the council have no resources made available to them.

Such one-sided campaigning and clear inequality are unlawful in referendums and elections.

The Greater London Authority and Local Authorities’ ballots are a cover, using the voting and the notion of democracy for ultimately destroying council homes. This corrupt and unequal process must end.

Focus E15 campaign and residents will be meeting on the Carpenters Estate, Newham, London E15, from 12-2pm on Saturday 18 December (next to the shop in the middle of the estate) to discuss the next steps in our campaigning, to shine a spotlight on housing issues in East London and say to the council and Populo Living:

Hands off the Carpenters Estate! Join us and residents to make more plans on Saturday 18 on the estate. Together we are stronger.

Top image courtesy of Andrew Cooper

Why are 3 empty tower blocks next door to an overcrowded hostel in Newham?

#housingcrisis, Carpenters Estate, Coronavirus, Covid-19, event, Focus E15 Campaign, hostel, Newham council, public action,

Focus E15 campaign organised a physically distanced action on Saturday 27 June which linked the 1km from an overcrowded hostel in Newham (known as Brimstone House) to the 400 empty flats on a council estate (Carpenters Estate) and highlighted the fact that the 3 tower blocks on the estate have been deliberately abandoned by Newham Labour Council for over 13 years whilst people struggle to live in the cramped hostel.

The human solidarity ‘chain of power’ marked out the 1km distance by placing people on temporary markings along the way and by chanting political slogans up and down the line, urging everyone not to forget about the empty homes on Carpenters Estate which was originally built for the people of Newham as life long secure housing.

Egwolo, a former resident of Brimstone House who has recently been moved onto Carpenters Estate after protesting about the lack of space in Brimstone House hostel explained:

It is important to use our democratic right to safely protest against the clear injustice of having 28,000 people on a council housing waiting list, whilst leaving 400 plus Council homes empty. Families have been forced to isolate for months in one room. Refurbish these empty flats and open up the homes so people can have long term housing security and enough space to live safely.

Ayesha, a Focus E15 campaigner went on to say:

’Newham council has the worst record on homelessness in the country and one of the highest mortality rates for COVID 19 – how dare Newham Labour council leave homes empty during a pandemic. The tower blocks should be opened up as 100% council housing as that is what the people need’’.

Social media platforms shared our video of the action which you can watch below:

Watch the video of the ‘chain of power’ protest.

Let’s get organised!

Many who took part in the ‘chain of power’ event were chanting ‘BLACK LIVES MATTER’. Newham’s deprivation and diversity makes it particularly vulnerable to the spread of COVID-19. More than half of children live in poverty, while the rate of households in temporary accommodation is one of the highest in England. Newham also has the most diverse population profile of any local authority in the country: 78% of residents are from minority ethnic communities and many live in inter-generational households. There are longstanding health inequalities across the borough.

Therefore there is no time to lose and our remaining council housing must be saved and put to good use. Refurbish the empty flats on Carpenters Estate and open up the homes, so people can have long term housing security and enough space to live safely.

Join Focus E15 campaign every Saturday outside Wilko’s on the Broadway in Stratford from 12-2pm, bring your mask, stay safe and stand up for housing justice for all. Together we are stronger. More pictures of the demonstration can be found in the slide show below.

Continue reading Why are 3 empty tower blocks next door to an overcrowded hostel in Newham? →

Why I displayed a resistance banner in my temporary accommodation (Brimstone House)

#housingcrisis, Carpenters Estate, Coronavirus, Covid-19, families, Focus E15 Campaign, housing crisis, Newham council, overcrowding, women


”On the 1st of May I decided to make a resistance banner. This is my way to make stand about how I feel  living in temporary accommodation/bedsit provided by Newham council. I feel it is the only way to get public attention and for people to understand about living in such conditions in the midst of the Coronavirus pandemic.” 

”People from deprived and over-populated areas such as Newham are more likely to catch the virus. My thoughts behind making the banner and hanging it up on the balcony of Brimstone House was to simply say I have had enough. I am angry and frustrated that for myself and many other families living in temporary accommodation, we have been disregarded by the Council.

With so many empty homes around Newham such as those on the Carpenters Estate, it is totally inhumane and unacceptable to have families living in one room with children.

We are scared for our lives and our children lives. There is not enough being done by Newham Council to protect us as residents with so many empty flats lying empty.

The least they can do is open them up.”

By Marsha from the Focus E15 campaign

RADIO INTERVIEW ON HOUSING DURING CORONAVIRUS

Listen to Focus E15 campaigner Egwolo being interviewed by Pete Day from ”NuSound Radio 92FM” here: http://radiopete.org/home/nusound-radio-92fm-140520-focus-e15/

TAKE ACTION ON MAYDAY TO DEMAND EMPTY HOMES ARE OPENED!

#housingcrisis, Covid-19, families, Focus E15 Campaign, housing crisis, overcrowding

Following our online meeting with Moms 4 Housing, Focus E15 have decided to call for action on Friday 1st May, in the form of creating and displaying banners to demand that empty homes are opened because housing should be a human right.

Get creative and make your banner – walk down the street with it, hang it out a window, whatever you prefer. But make sure to take a picture and hashtag: #OpenEmptyHomes and #HousingIsAHumanRight

Our friends and comrades in the USA and around the world will also be doing action to highlight the same message. Follow Moms4Housing here: https://moms4housing.org/

Remember to check out the Moms4Housing meeting podcast: https://focuse15.org/2020/04/26/moms4housing-webinar-released/

Give solidarity, take action this Mayday!

RECLAIM HOMES FROM THE USA TO THE UK – ONLINE PUBLIC MEETING – REGISTER NOW

#housingcrisis, class, Coronavirus, Covid-19, E15 Occupation, eviction resistance, evictions, families, Focus E15 Campaign, focus E15 mums, homelessness, hostel, housing crisis, housing struggles, intentional homelessness, overcrowding, private landlords, public action, race, racism, refugee, single mothers, social cleansing, women, , ,

On Sunday 19th April at 6pm London  / 10am California join us for this meeting co-hosted by Focus E15 Campaign in London, England and Moms 4 Housing in Oakland, California, USA https://moms4housing.org/ 

There are four times as many empty homes in Oakland as there are people without homes, and in the UK there are double the amount of empty homes as homeless people.

 

The Covid-19 crisis has escalated the need for action to allow everyone to be housed and live in dignity and safety.

This session will hear from grassroots organisations either side of the Atlantic who are taking action against this same problem. We are using this time of crisis to share experience, education and ideas for action.

These people need homes, these homes need people!

REGISTER HERE:

https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_whmQYqKTT72mg06iZtxrcw 

 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

 

 

Stranded in Southend: expectant mother told by Newham Council that she hasn’t been moved far enough away yet

#housingcrisis, class, E15 Occupation, families, Focus E15 Campaign, housing crisis, housing struggles, intentional homelessness, mothers, Newham council, personal story, public action, racism, single mothers, social cleansing, women

‘If anything happens to me, it’s on Newham (council). I’ve told you my situation!’

A mother of two young children with a third on the way, shook the walls of Stratford Town Hall last Monday evening as she addressed the full Cabinet meeting of Newham Council and outlined her increasingly dangerous and unmanageable housing situation. She is due to give birth in little over a month.

Newham council left this expectant mother and her children stranded and isolated when they forced the family to move from temporary accommodation in Newham in Brimstone House to Southend on Sea by threatening her with ‘intentional homelessness’ if she did not accept an offer of accommodation out of London. She states:

‘’I cannot describe this as a choice, as a mother cannot choose to make their children ‘intentionally homeless’. So I was forced to accept this offer and have been in Southend-on-Sea since July 2018.”

She further explains that:

“The flat I am in is on the second floor and the building has no lift. I have to climb 30 stairs with my two young children, as well as my shopping and with my double buggy, in an advanced stage of pregnancy. I regularly injure myself because of this, and I fear that something worse could happen. I feel scared to leave my children in my flat (when I leave to go get my shopping & buggy from downstairs) as they are very young.  This will become even more difficult after the birth of my 3rd child.

I have absolutely no support networks in Southend-on-Sea, and when I go into labour I worry that I have nobody who can stay at home with my young children. All my support networks are in Newham where I lived for 6 years.’’

After trying to contact Newham Council and getting little response, she reached out to Focus E15 Campaign as an ex-resident of Brimstone House and joined forces with current Brimstone House residents who have just submitted a legal complaint to Newham Council about the awful living conditions in the hostel.

However, a worrying development is that following her speech at the cabinet meeting, she was contacted by a housing officer in Newham the next day, and told that ‘she would have to be moved even further than Southend to find affordable housing’. This is threatening and abhorrent.

We call on the Mayor and the Council to immediately move this mother and her children back to Newham. She is asking for her right to be housed in her community for the long term benefit of her children.  A pregnant mother should not be left to give birth alone or be cast out.  She needs to be back in her community so that she can get the support she needs at this vulnerable time in her life just before she goes into labour. The issues of class, race and gender are present in this case and Newham have left her in a very precarious situation far away from all those she knows and trusts.

Focus E15 Campaign says:

Newham council bring this mother and her children back home to Newham!

Stop making women and children isolated, depressed and afraid.

Keep our communities together!

Social housing, not social cleansing!

Join us on the street stall this Saturday from 12-2pm outside Wilko’s on the Broadway in Stratford, London E15.

Newham Council offers single mother slum housing or the street

#housingcrisis, families, Focus E15 Campaign, homelessness, housing crisis, housing struggles, mothers, private landlords, social cleansing, women, , ,

Marsha, a brave single mother who has been living in temporary accommodation in Brimstone House for over a year with her 6 year old daughter, was yesterday contacted by Housing Options and told that she would be offered housing in Woolwich.  She was informed in a threatening manner that this would be the last time she would be offered housing, and that she had to view and accept the property today.

Marsha managed to get some pictures when viewing the property.  These speak for themselves.

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The Agent who was showing the property agreed he would never house his family in this flat.

IMG-20190220-WA0018

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This is private accommodation offered by Newham Council.  What a disgrace from a Council that prides itself on tackling slum private landlords.

 

IMG-20190220-WA0019

 

Marsha has not only suffered Council threats in relation to her housing, but has been verbally threatened by social services in relation to her child being rehoused without her.

Journalist Kate Belgrave has documented Marsha’s full story in more detail. Please read about this here:

Do Councils actually try to drive homeless mothers to breakdown so they can remove their kids?

Do councils actually try to drive homeless mothers to breakdown so they can remove their kids?

Focus E15 stands as one with Marsha and her daughter.  We demand that Newham Council retracts this housing offer and rehouses Marsha in suitable, clean, long term, council accommodation in Newham .

We demand an end to vulnerable families being threatened and bullied into accepting accommodation that no Councillor would spend the night in.

We demand people are housed with dignity in one of the richest Countries in the world!