Join the Focus E15 campaign this Friday to support Nmah Kamara, her husband and children who have been evicted from their home and face being moved out of Newham.
Friday 22 May 9.30am
Outside Bridge House
320 High Street, Stratford, London E15 1EP
One of the children writes clearly and movingly how this will effect the whole family:
“After a long complicated housing story we have an Eviction Notice for the 22 May 2015 to leave our present and only accommodation at 8am but with nowhere to go.
If the Council relocate me from Newham at this stage of my life I will definitely fail to complete my education which is my future due to the physical, emotional and psychological transition I have to undergo, which is also true for my sister.
I have lived in Newham since my parents moved to Britain. My mum works for Newham Council.
My sister, brother and I have completed primary and secondary schools in Newham, we are now in further education (currently busy with projects and exams) and through UCAS we have already enrolled at Universities in London starting from 2015/16 with the hope that I will still live in Newham.
We have our friends and we are well associated with our borough making it very difficult to move away without affecting our continuity of education and network support”.
Please support this family on Friday. Social Housing! Not Social Cleansing!
On 13 April, Jasmin Stone of Focus E15 campaign was arrested on suspicion of squatting in a raid organised by Newham council and police. There followed a loud and militant demonstration at the police station where she was held and she was bailed to attend a police station in mid May. We have just heard that no charges will be brought against her.
The lead up to the police and council action was Focus E15 campaign supporting Jane Wood who had lived in Newham council accommodation, east London, for almost 21 years. On 24 March she and her 14-year-old daughter were evicted by bailiffs for rent arrears resulting from complex personal and medical circumstances leading to her Employment Support Allowance being stopped. At the last minute, when her family rallied around and offered to pay the outstanding debt, the Labour council refused to take the money, call off the bailiffs or allow Jane to keep her home.
Newham council is led by Labour Mayor Robin Wales, an unashamed advocate of gentrification, supporter of sanctioning and kicking out the poor and most vulnerable. Under his rule, 400 homes on the Carpenters’ Estate remain empty, while homeless people whom the council is compelled to house are forced to move out of London.
This is an example of political policing and a targeted arrest in an attempt to silence and intimidate political activists.
We will not accept the criminalisation of those who fight for social housing and against social cleansing.
Focus E15 campaign will be celebrating this victory on the weekly Focus E15 stall this Saturday 16 May from 12-2pm on The Broadway, Stratford E15, outside Wilko’s.
Supporters of the Focus E15 Campaign celebrate after the release of Jasmin Stone
The Focus E15 campaign is appalled by the recent bullying tactics of Newham Labour council and the police who worked hand in hand to intimidate peaceful housing protesters involved in the ‘Jane Come Home’ political occupation. We proudly stand by Jane Wood who bravely reoccupied her home on Saturday 11 April after being tossed aside by Newham council. The flat was raided by police on Monday 13 April. It is clear that by arresting Jasmin Stone, one of the most prominent members of our campaign, the authorities in Newham are trying to intimidate us.
What happened?
Jane Wood, a Newham resident, was evicted from her flat by the council on the 24 of March alongside her 14 year old daughter. The eviction was a terrible shock for Jane, she had been living in the flat for 21 years. Now she was homeless. Jane decided that the only way that Newham council would listen to her was if she took direct action. On Saturday 11 April, with chants of ‘Jane Come Home’, we marched to a house-warming party in Jane’s old flat. The brief occupation of the flat was a joyfully defiant gesture attracting press attention. Jane was deeply touched by the support from the community around her who were quick to show their solidarity by bringing all types of food, furniture and cooking equipment into the occupied flat.
Jane Come Home. Stop the evictions!
On the same day the local Labour MP, Lyn Brown, responding to growing pressure, tweeted that Jane should phone her. Jane did, twice, but only got an answermachine. By Monday 13 April the authorities in Newham were furious and running scared of the powerful message of direct action embodied by Jane and the other campaigners. The council then acted in the most underhand way possible: they asked Jane to attend a housing appointment, whilst at the same time unleashing police and council officials in order to break into the flat. A terrifying ordeal for the people left inside the flat.
After over ten minutes of violence, smashing through the front door, with children screaming, the police began intimidating the women – aggressive and threatening to take the children into care. It was at this point that Jasmin Stone from Focus E15 was arrested inside the flat, on suspicion of squatting, a ridiculous charge on many fronts especially when considering the council knows exactly where Jasmin lives. We have been advised that the police and council have acted unlawfully: they did not acquire a possession order from a court to enter the flat. Jane may also have had some rights as a former tenant but Newham Labour council just wanted to shut down the protest by any means possible. Fast.
Jasmin was taken in an unmarked police car to Waltham Forest Custody Centre outside which a growing crowd gathered. A banner was unfurled with the clear message ‘Free Jasmin Stone – Let Jane Come Home’. Whilst the solicitor negotiated inside, Focus E15 campaign supporters chanted, danced and sang outside.
Supporters of the Focus E15 Campaign celebrate after the release of Jasmin Stone
Jasmin was greeted with a huge cheer when she stepped free from the custody centre, bailed pending further enquiries to a date in mid May and banned from attending Jane’s former flat, a clear sign of the political nature of this arrest.
What about Jane? Jane’s first offer from the council was an uninhabitable temporary flat in a neighbouring borough that she rejected as unfit for her and her teenage daughter to live in. By the time of the next discussion with the council housing department, the staff had obviously seen the news and read the papers and started to make offers of a longer term council tenancy, this is yet to be confirmed.
The campaign is overwhelmed by all the support that has come flooding in since Jane’s second eviction and Jasmin’s release. Thank you to all those who have sent messages of solidarity. We will not be shaken in our belief that housing is a human right. Everyone deserves a decent home to live in.
No more evictions!
No to political intimidation!
Stop social cleansing!
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.
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.
Focus E15 campaign invites you to a Secret housing action
onSaturday 11 April 2015 Come to the weekly stall to get directions and bring your oyster card….. 12–2pm outside Wilko’s on the Broadway, Stratford E15 1NG
Artist Gina Lundy has taken the slogan ‘social housing not social cleansing’ to make some great posters to help fundraise for our campaign. They are now on sale via her website
The posters read ‘social housing not social cleansing’ which has now become the rallying cry for many different housing campaigns across London and the world!
The posters were created on behalf of Focus E15 as part of the ‘Real Estates’ exhibition at PEER gallery, which was a project that was run by Fugitive Images, from March 18 -21st 2015.
The posters cost £12.00 + £5.50 p&p. All the posters are limited edition, signed, screen printed exhibition posters, 840 x 604 mm.
Profits from poster sales go directly to Focus E15 campaign.
*please note that colours will vary for each print.
Please see Gina Lundy’s website to purchase a poster.
On 26 March housing activists from the Focus E15 campaign, HASL and FRFI joined together outside Bridge House, which is the housing office in Stratford E15 (in the London borough of Newham) to support Shelica, a homeless single mother of two. The Focus E15 campaign met Shelica at our weekly street stall in Stratford and offered to support her. She had been told she was likely to be moved out of London to Hastings and would never come back. This is Newham Labour council operating a policy of social cleansing.
Social cleansing causes a great deal of distress for the people targeted.Such a move for Shelica, away from her family and support networks would prove to be disastrous for her and her two young children, almost certainly leading to social isolation and stress. However under pressure and with publicity, the council changed its mind and realised that they could find temporary accommodation for Shelica in London after all.
See the video below with an interview with Shelica:
During the protest, all the housing activists acted peacefully and made sure that anyone going into the housing office was allowed to do so. We are extremely concerned that Bridge House decided to shut down the housing office, turning its back on Newham residents in housing need. Newham Labour council is also responsible for boarding up flats on the Carpenters Estate, which is right next to the housing office. These homes need people.
Below is Focus E15’s response to yesterday’s Homes for Britain rally in Westminster.
Yesterday there were two rallies to end the housing crisis.
One was in Westminster led by Labour, Conservative, Lib Dem, Greens and of course Nigel Farage and his UKIP party – a rally hastily called before the party scramble for the upcoming election. The other was in an estate in Barnet where hundreds of members and supporters of grassroots campaigns came out to fight for the Sweets Way Estate, debated housing and opened up 2 more homes for residents to re-occupy. ‘Homes for Britain’ had contacted Focus E15 campaign not to speak on their rally alongside these parties, but to ‘borrow’ one of our banners. We do not exist to legitimise false campaigns.
Sweets Way Resists, with Russell Brand and Jasmin
These demonstrations represent two different fights in Britain – the fight being led by those who already have a voice and the fight being led by those who don’t. The Focus E15 Campaign call on people not to vote for any party which has pledged to continue austerity. This fight will not begin and end with a few broken pledges in parliament, with a few choice words spoken at a rally in Westminster. It has already begun with the Sweets Way Estate, Focus E15 Campaign, with New Era, Our West Hendon, The Aylesbury Estate and many more. The fight will continue with every eviction resisted and petition created, house occupied and banner made. It will be led by those directly affected and it will win.
VICTORY FOR ASHA AND HER CHILDREN – three bedroom home in Newham confirmed today! Asha and children were threatened with eviction and being moved out of London on 16 March, but she stood firm and with the support of the Focus E15 campaign the family have been housed in Newham. This proves that there are homes locally.
There has been a dramatic increase in evictions
Outside flats on the Carpenters Estate, that Newham Council had allowed to be boarded up. September 2014
whilst the Carpenters Estate in Stratford remains mostly empty -so let’s keep up the pressure – and demand that councils work for the people they serve. Social housing not social cleansing!
Focus E15 Campaign 