Category Archives: public action

Evicted by Newham Labour council after 20 years, we say Jane Come Home

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Jane Come Home
Friends, family and campaigners support Jane outside her newly occupied flat

Jane is occupying her former council home as a political protest after she was evicted by Newham Labour council in March 2015. On Saturday 11th April, with full support from the Focus E15 campaign and many others, the doors of her former council flat were flung open and Jane threw a surprise house warming party. She was warmly welcomed back by her neighbours, family and friends. Jane was quick to hang up a newly made banner which states ‘Jane Come Home’ to the delight of her many well wishers and supporters who partied alongside her.

Jane has a daughter who is 14 years old. They were both evicted from their home on the 24 March 2015 after being a tenant of Newham council for 20 years. Another victim of the government’s harsh benefit sanctions, she fell into rent arrears when her Employment Support Allowance was suddenly stopped and her housing benefit cut. She was evicted because she owes the council about 5 months rent of £2,569 (this figure includes some court costs). She missed the court date due to a combination of depression, illiteracy and fear.

Help was in hand when her family offered to pay the full amount of rent owing but the council point blank refused the offer and said it was too late. On the day of the eviction Jane passed out with the stress and became another part of the tragic statistics for the amount of homeless families in Newham: almost 5,000 children are living in temporary accommodation. In the last two years alone, Newham has seen a 42 per cent increase in the amount of homeless familes, according to the  figures analysed by Labour MP Dame Tessa Jowell and released from the Department for Communities and Local Government. This injustice has to stop.People need homes. The council should start to address these shocking statistics by giving Jane and her daughter their home back.

After all, the amount or rent that is due is not much more than the monthly rent of one of the new luxury apartments that are mushrooming all over Stratford.We are asking the council to accept Jane’s family’s offer to pay the rent, clear the debt and allow Jane and her 14 year old daughter back into their home so that normal family life can resume. Jane’s daughter needs to attend her local school where she is due to sit her GCSEs.

After 50 years since Ken Loach made the film Cathy Come Home, we  are raising the issues of evictions and social cleansing in our community with the slogan Jane Come Home. Victory to Jane and all those who face the brutality of being ripped from their homes by council enforced bailiffs.

What you can do to help.

Contact Jane’s Labour MP Lyn Brown to ask her to put pressure on the council  for Jane to Come Home.

Telephone Lyn Brown: 0208 470 3463 Email: lyn@lynbrown.org.uk

Post: Lyn Brown, 306 High Street, Stratford, London, E15 1AJ

Tweet: @lynbrownmp

Share this story on  Facebook and twitter. Tweet Newham Labour Council @newhamlondon

Tweet the local councillor Terry Paul @terrympaul

Come to the next street stall on Saturday April 18th, on the Broadway outside Wilkos from 12pm-2pm in Stratford and then our open campaign meeting afterwards at the Carpenters Arms pub.

Shining a light on the shadowy soldiers of social cleansing

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Photo from #EvictTheBailiffs by @orpen_m on Twitter, used by permission.
Mock eviction photo by @orpen_m on Twitter, used by permission.

Focus E15 would like to thank those who took part in the #EvictTheBailiffs mock eviction at the British Credit Awards last night. The obscenity of the credit industry coming together at £4,000-per-table to celebrate the bailiffs and debt collectors that prey on and profit off of people who are struggling through the housing crisis should not pass unnoticed. At a time of unprecedented eviction rates, we felt an urgent need to shine a light on this predatory industry, which is profiting immensely from the suffering of others.

We feel the array of responses amongst participants was a very real reflection of the rage that exists over the hardship and misery of poor and working class families, which was being gratuitously celebrated inside the venue. Add to this the juxtaposition between £4,000 for a table at this dinner and people who are having to use food banks to feed their family.

We were encouraged by many of the comments from passers-by who clearly understood the story that was playing out:

“In my opinion it’s like something off the Hunger Games; London will be cleansed of poor people.”

“It’s great that you’re doing something so they don’t feel comfortable celebrating their industry.”

The Sheriff’s Office – the company that evicted Focus E15 member and school teacher Nazrah Ismail, her 3 young children and disabled husband just before Christmas – once again won the award for ‘Enforcement Team of the Year.’ We will continue to shine a light on their vicious and inhumane practices at every opportunity in our ongoing fight for social housing and against social cleansing.

#EvictTheBailiffs at the British Credit Awards! 11.02.15, 18:00 SHARP!

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READ THE PRESS RELEASE HERE.

Focus E15 invite you to the Brewery (52 Chiswell Street, EC1Y 4SD) for 6pm sharp on Weds. Feb. 11, to welcome those arriving at the 2015 British Credit Awards’ £4,000-per-table black-tie affair, in which bailiffs and debt collectors will be receiving awards for making families homeless.

Since companies like ‘The Sherriff’s Office’ receive nominations by throwing people and their belongings out onto the cold streets of London, we intend to turn the front entrance of the Brewery into a mock eviction site for attendees to experience before an evening of champagne, three-course dinners, and the kudos of their peers.

We encourage anyone concerned with social cleansing and the criminalisation of poverty to bring rubbish bags, boxes, and broken pieces of furniture to scatter across the front entrance of the Brewery as guests arrive to receive awards like ‘Enforcement Team of the Year,’ ‘Third Party Debt Collection Team of the Year’ and ‘Consumer Collections Team of the Year.’

We encourage a peaceful but outraged action, and particularly hope those with first-hand experience of bailiff evictions will come out and share their stories with attendees as they enter the venue.

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/318363071706933/

Twitter: #EvictTheBailiffs

READ THE PRESS RELEASE HERE.

SPREAD THE WORD! EVICT THE BAILIFFS!

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