Tag Archives: homelessness

Celebrating the women of Barking hotel/Lyon house Hotel on International Women’s Day 8 March 2025

housing crisis, , , , , , , ,

Social Cleansing, overcrowding, not safe or suitable for children! Newham council shame on you!

On Saturday 8 March, Focus E15 campaign held a speak-out outside Barking Hotel, used by Newham Council to house homeless families in emergency and temporary accommodation for months at a time. 

With the women from Barking Hotel (and its extension Lyon House Hotel just up the road) we handed out flowers and leaflets about the horrifying conditions residents are subjected to in this sham accommodation, which – adding insult to injury – is raking in thousands of pounds a month for private landlords. 

Many families are homeless as the result of Section 21 no fault eviction from the private rented sector, yet they are repeatedly told to look for housing in the private rented sector.

One resident showed us the breakdown of her monthly bill, almost £900 per month, including £9.24 per week for breakfast of which there is never enough and not what some families want for breakfast.

Brimstone House, 10 Victoria Street in Stratford, Newham, was previously used by Newham Council to house homeless families as emergency and temporary accommodation. Under pressure from residents and campaigns including Focus E15, Mayor Rokhsana Fiaz eventually moved families out of what was appalling conditions for children with overcrowding, bedsharing, no space for children to grow and develop, nor do homework or have space to play.

The Barking and Lyon House Hotels show us that Newham Labour Council has never stopped this abusive practice, continuing it out of borough, an additional difficulty for families sent away from their family members, friends and support networks, schools, nurseries and workplaces.

Barking Hotel and Lyon House Hotel conditions:

  • Families are living in cramped and overcrowded conditions – children sharing beds with parents, unsafe washing for babies and toddlers with only showers, no baths, unsafe heaters in rooms where the radiators don’t work, no storage facilities in many of the rooms (shelves or cupboards), some families with young children having to walk outside to get to the kitchen.
  • Lyon House Hotel is a building site out of sight at the back (as seen in the attached photos) where they are building more and more small rooms. 
  • There are over 25 families using a kitchen with three hob rings. 
  • There are no washing machines – one resident reports spending £25 per week on week on washing her and her son’s clothes at the launderette. 
  • Families are checked up on every week with an evening knock on their room door to prove they are there, with the fear of losing their accommodation if accused of staying out.  

Residents of Lyon House Hotel told us: 

“It feels like a prison.“

“The kitchen is small, it’s not easy, seriously not easy. We are tired. It’s not suitable for children.“

“I’m pregnant and also have a 13-year-old son and we sleep in one single bed. It’s not easy for me, I have to sleep on one side. I have let the council know and they said the officer is waiting to speak to their manager. So please, I need the council to look through my case for me urgently. It’s not easy for me and it’s not good for my health.“

Freedom of Information request result

Focus E15 campaign submitted a Freedom of Information request to Newham council about Barking Hotel/Lyon House Hotel. 

The response included:

  • When residents are offered Barking Hotel but are housed in Lyon House (which is down the road) they are told it’s an extension of Barking Hotel at the time of the offer.  Not the case from those we have spoken to.
  • On average, residents live in Barking Hotel for 188 days and in Lyon House for 102 days. Well over the time frame for emergency accommodation. 
  • Both buildings are owned by two private landlords: Ms Parisa Jahanpanah and Mr Ali Kadkhodayi-Kholghi. Payments from Newham council to house homeless residents are paid as a joint sum for Barking Hotel and Lyon House to these two landlords, registered as Hungerburger Ltd/Barking Hotel. From the response received, we have calculated that in December 2024, Newham council paid these private landlords in the region of £170,000, equating to over £2m a year. 

This accommodation is not safe or suitable for children.

Families need to be moved out urgently, to decent, secure, council/social housing in areas where they have support from family and friends, in the case of most people, this is back to Newham.

Public money is cascading into private pockets…this needs to be used to reopen and refurbish council homes!

Stop social cleansing! Shame on Newham Labour Council!

No more children in Barking Hotel or Lyon House Hotel!

Long-term, safe, secure, decent council/social housing for all families now!

The struggle for housing justice goes on!

*Join us for an open, public meeting on Sat 29 March 2025 at Sylvia’s Corner (97 Aldworth Rd,E15 4DN) at 2.30pm to hear more about the Barking Hotel fiasco and the financilisation of social housing *

Urgent Open Letter to Waltham Forest Officials: Secure Housing for Vulnerable Children

families, Focus E15 Campaign, housing crisis, letter, london, public action, Waltham Forest, , , ,

Read our open letter to Waltham Forest Council officials and local Labour MP.

Children with disabilities must be respected: we need safe and secure homes for families.

Dear Waltham Forest Housing department, MP Stella Creasy,
Chief Executive Linzi Roberts Egan and Councillor Richard Sweden,

We all came to the town hall on Thursday 18 July 2024 to deliver our message to the council meeting – one family, their support network and housing campaigners from Focus E15 campaign – to express our serious concern.

This is because a family of two parents, five children, two with autism and learning disabilities, are living in a two-bedroom flat on the seventh floor with dangerous windows.

Disabled children need more space.
These children are not safe.

The housing review said it was suitable.

A housing meeting with the Council that was held in June, that we had to fight to obtain, concluded that the solution to the overcrowding and dangerous windows, was to agree to give up our secure council tenancy and be moved into temporary accommodation again and start once more in the vicious circle of temporary accommodation/private rented sector/insecurity and constant moving.

You have asked us repeatedly for information and forms to be filled in and details to be completed. We have given you all the necessary documents for bidding. We have done this and done it again, we have the email trail and the reference numbers. Despite all the evidence in front of you, you ask us to do it again. We need certainty that you have the correct information and that we will be able to bid.

We ask, as parents of children with autism and learning disabilities to be listened to. Our children need security.

We ask that you listen to the health professionals, many of whom have written letters to say this housing situation is unsuitable and dangerous.

We ask that you listen to the contractors, three of whom who have come to the flat have said that the windows cannot be made safe for children who have no understanding of danger.

We ask that you meet with us again to discuss options that mean we are housed safely and securely in appropriate suitable council housing for our family’s needs.

No excuses please.

From
The family from Northwood Tower E17
Their friends and support network
Focus E15 housing campaign

We will not be silenced about the housing crisis

#housingcrisis, event, Newham council, political policing, , , ,

East London night of resistance – resistance goes on undeterred….

On Wednesday 28 October, Focus E15 campaign, East London Radical Assembly and Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! organised a night of resistance in a local Stratford pub. After a great evening of film showings, discussion, poetry and music, the plan was to join the rough sleepers and homeless people overnight in the old Stratford Centre/mall to highlight the fact that rough sleepers are regularly kicked out of the mall and often spend the night in the grounds of the local church.

Suspiciously however, on the day of the event, a notice went up to say that the Stratford Centre would be closed from 11pm to 5am for ‘maintenance works’.  We  then found out that the police had been on the phone to the pub all afternoon, hassling them to cancel our social event and discussion about the escalating housing crisis. The pub realised that this was absurd and said no.  We are clear that this is Newham Labour council and the police  working together to intimidate the pub and silence our campaign. We also saw police ‘guarding’ the grounds of the local church at night, presumably to stop people from sleeping there.  Of course, when we arrived at the mall there was absolutely no sign of any maintenance work. The police guarded all entrances but we led a lively and noisy demonstration just outside and told passersby what was going on. A home made quilted banner declared our solidarity with homeless people and  as one Focus E15 campaigner clearly explained, ‘we are in solidarity with people facing homelessness and no intimidation by council or police will stop our campaign growing’.

What is happening to people with their housing is unacceptable. More and more people are sleeping rough or left in temporary accommodation for years on end whilst at the same time many homes are sitting empty, such as the 400 or so homes on the Carpenters Estate.  Robin Wales and Newham council encourage an Olympic legacy of gentrification on the one hand and evictions and social cleansing on the other. Let us not forget that Newham is one of  the  least affordable boroughs for private renting in the country and has one of the worst records in London for rehousing people out of the borough: last year Newham moved 423 homeless families out of London altogether.

It is not good enough to leave people to sleep rough on our streets. Say no to street homelessness and join our campaign by getting involved in organising with us and by coming down to our weekly street stall in Stratford on the Broadway outside Wilkos from 12-2pm. Make your voice count.

image