| In this edition: – SHAC in The Big Issue – Housing Crisis Workplace Impact Survey – Riverside Complaints – Clarion Harassment: Letter, Article & Action – Interview Requests – March Marching Date |
 Read it Here SHAC In the News: Social housing waiting lists to soar to two million people in 10 years The Big Issue has continued to cover the growing crisis of council housing waiting lists. SHAC was invited to comment on their piece highlighting that it would take 21 years to clear just the existing households. In our comment, we emphasise that government policy will do nothing to stem the housing crisis because they are doing nothing to tackle soaring rents. There are no proposals for rent controls in the private sector, and social landlords are being allowed above-inflation rent increases. Please like and share: Facebook – BlueSky – Twitter – Instagram |
 Call to Action! Housing Crisis Workplace Impact Survey To aid our engagement with trade unions, and to expose a well-hidden aspect of the housing crisis, we have a survey about the impact of the housing crisis in the workplace. The survey is completely anonymous. It asks about the impact of rising rents, as well as stress, illness and injury triggered by bad housing which in turn leads to workplace absences. The survey closes on 31st March 2025. Please help by filling in the survey if you are in work, and for all to circulate within your networks. www.shaction.org/housing-in-the-workplace-survey/ |
  Riverside Action – SHAC & Greater Manchester Tenants’ Union If you have an outstanding complaint with Riverside Housing and believe it is not being dealt with properly or with enough urgency, please fill out the landlord chaser form here. SHAC will collate the complaints and submit them to the chief executive and members of the board in one bundle asking for them to resolve the problems and make the complaints system more effective. This will allow us to achieve three things. Hopefully, it will get the issues fixed. Secondly, we will use the information in a collective complaint to the Regulator of Social Housing to show how Riverside is failing its tenants and residents, and ask them to launch a full investigation. Finally, we will use anonymised data to get press interest in Riverside’s failures. This is a joint project with Greater Manchester Tenants Union, but it doesn’t matter where you are in the country. |
 Please like and share: Article – Bluesky – Twitter – Facebook – Instagram Clarion Letter, Article and Action Clarion Victimisation – Clarion appears to have gone even further down the victim-blaming and intimidation path than other landlords by automatically adding those who complain of service failures to a ‘Risk to Staff’ register, even when there have been no incidents to warrant such an action. SHAC Complaint to Clarion – SHAC wrote to Clare Miller, Clarion’s chief executive, objecting to the practice as a breach of data protection laws. We were informed that Richard Pettifar, Director of Customer Services, will investigate the matter. Please see the article for full text. Housing Ombudsman – We shared our complaint with the Housing Ombudsman which has a role in regulating the Complaints Handling Code. ITV Interest – Interviewee Call Out – ITV is interested in covering Clarion’s actions. If you have received one of these letters, please contact shac.action@gmail.com. Challenging Victimisation – All Landlords – If you’ve been unjustly accused of inappropriate behaviour by any landlord, or unfairly added to a Risk to Staff register, we recommend submitting a Subject Access Request (SAR) to your landlord, asking for the following: Copies of any notes or recordings relating to your interactions with their staff; Correspondence between staff staff relating to you. By law, they must share this information with you. See the SHAC guide to SAR here, and a template here. |
 Interview Requests Jo Maney would like to interview private renters struggling with the affordability and quality of private rental properties in London. Renters would not have to be filmed themselves or reveal the exact location of the property. The filming is for a Channel 4 documentary. If you are interested, please email Jo Maney at jo.maney@expectationtv.com. Kaly Cerqueira is a student journalist at City at the University of London and is researching an article about social housing conditions which are making residents ill. If you are affected and interested in having your story in the article, please email Kaly.De-Oliveira-Cerqueira@city.ac.uk or or call 07964383643. |
| 2025 Meeting and Protest Dates |
 Meeting: 6.30pm ~ Wednesday 5th March Social Housing Online Exhibition Inspired by Carl Davis’s article on the Hard Graft exhibition, we aim to curate an online exhibition showing both the positive and negative impact on tenants and residents of living in social housing. Our meeting will begin the planning process and is open to all interested. 6.30pm ~ Wednesday 5th March Zoom Link ~ ID: 832 8333 4555 ~ Passcode: 337269 Add to calendar |
 Housing Protest: 11am, Wednesday 26th March, Parliament Housing coalition Homes for All is inviting everyone to join a housing protest and lobby of Parliament. The coalition, which includes SHAC, is calling for government action to ease the housing crisis such as rent controls and mass council house building, fully funded through a wealth tax. You can download the flyer here. |
 SHAC Campaign Update Meeting Our monthly SHAC meetings report on progress across all campaigns and allow members to share actions and events: 6.30pm, Thursday 27th February 2025 Zoom link ~ ID: 823 4952 0596 ~ Passcode: 656982 Add to calendar The times and dates for all 2025 monthly meetings are all available on our Events page. |
 Join Nextdoor Nextdoor Network Posting a message on the Nextdoor app is one great way to encourage tenants and residents from your landlord (or other housing associations) to join SHAC and build critical strength. Nextdoor is a Facebook-style social networking site that links people in the same locality. You can find out more and get set up here. Some of our members have been very successful in using it to raise awareness of SHAC’s work, in one case getting 1,800 views for a single post, and recruiting neighbours who are also residents of her landlord. |
| Join our themed and landlord WhatsApp groups SHAC Campaigns | Tribunals Support | SHAC Leaseholders & Shared OwnersClarion | Hyde | MTVHA | Notting Hill Genesis | Riverside / One Housing | L&Q Southern | Peabody | Guinness | Home Group | Councils | THCH | A2 Dominion | Housing Ombudsman Action |