More than 100 activists gathered in person and online on the 11th October to plan a national tenants and residents (housing) union. The event was organised by SHAC as the basis for forming an independent action group that can transform the vision into reality. Attendees included those leading local action on their estates, regional groups… Continue reading Conference Agrees to Build a Housing Union
By Arti Dillon My experience tells me that having people shipped off to expensive locations isn't new. As a teenager, we were placed in a hotel room in central London because we couldn't afford a rent deposit after cuts to benefits that would have previously provided rent deposits for low income families. Our new, temporary… Continue reading A Million Empty Homes and a Housing Shortage
Or: The passive optionalisation of the Equality Act 2010 and the need for proactive Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) compliance and enforcement. By Carl Davis The passive ‘optionalisation’ of the Equality Act 2010 within social housing is a subtle but dangerous form of regulatory failure. It occurs where laws designed to protect disabled residents are… Continue reading The Equality Act: Option or Obligation?
SHAC has heard many accounts of victimising by landlords when things go wrong. Typically, this arises when tenants and residents report leaks, damp and mould in their homes and are told that their own 'lifestyle choices' lie at fault, and that action may be taken against them for failing to properly maintain their homes. On… Continue reading Clarion’s Victimisation Culture
Democratising social housing : health and wellbeing, tenants' rights, resistance, and collective action. By Carl Davis Last week, I found myself wandering round the Hard Graft exhibition at the Wellcome Collection. Hard Graft looks at the impact of work on health. It mainly considers the physical impact on exploited and underrepresented workers, who they are,… Continue reading Hard Graft – Challenging Social Housing Conditions
A seasonal satirical offering from Carl Davis It was Christmas Eve and snowing heavily as Capital Quarter housing association boss Briona Arrowsmith-Wright tumbled out of the Bolt taxi and lurched up the steps of her Chelsea town house. She fumbled in the dark with the door keys to let herself in. The journey home from the… Continue reading A Christmas Social Housing Carol
By Carl Davis In their ground-breaking report Stigma and Social Housing in England, Dr Amanze Ejiogu and Dr Mercy Denedo looked at the nature and extent of the previously little understood stigmatisation of social housing. Those involved in the social housing sector in England, including politicians and social landlords, contribute to the construction of stigma.… Continue reading Ending Social Housing Stigma Together
By Carl Davis In December 2020 the social housing sector was rocked by a county court judgement. The court’s findings were scathingly critical of leading G15 housing association L&Q's handling of a case involving serious racial harassment. L&Q's treatment of a young black female resident had breached a code of practice on protecting tenants from… Continue reading Lara Tate: Lessons for the Sector
