Archive for the ‘articles’ Category

Eviction nation: The hidden reality of court possession hearings

Posted: October 10, 2018 in articles, housing, social affairs
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It’s 9:30am outside the county court and Mary is about to discover her fate. Before the day is done, 169 people will be evicted across Britain. This grandparent, who has been a housing association tenant for 25-years, is about to find out if she will be one of them.

Read the full story here.

Northampton homeless deaths

Posted: October 10, 2018 in articles, housing, social affairs
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This story was commissioned as part of the Bureau’s Local Reporting Fund – a grant that supports the reporting of untold stories across the UK.

Last winter as temperatures plummeted, a homeless man with learning disabilities found his way to a severe weather emergency facility in Northampton. The cold had already taken effect. The man ended up with such severe frostbite that he had eight toes amputated.

Before getting this emergency care he had tried to gain access to a newly set up night shelter in the town, but was only allowed to stay for one night before being turned away because he had rent arrears at former temporary accommodation.

Read the full story here.

Victoria Derbyshire story – Victims of serious crime face arrest over immigration status

Posted: May 17, 2018 in articles, social affairs
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The latest in my work on the hostile environment. It was amazing to work with Catrin Nye, the team at Victoria Derbyshire and my long-term collaborator on hostile environment issues, Natalie Bloomer, to reveal a truly shocking story.

“More than half of UK police forces are handing over victims of crime to the Home Office for immigration enforcement, new figures show. One woman who was beaten by her partner was then herself arrested by police. There are fears the approach is stopping vulnerable people – including rape victims – reporting crimes, playing into the hands of traffickers.” Read the story here and watch the TV package here.

New Statesman feature: 169 evictions in Britain a day

Posted: April 13, 2018 in articles, housing, social affairs
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For the past year I’ve been working on the issue of evictions in the UK. This piece in the New Statesman should be the first of several on the topic. It looks at the impact of eviction on a single person and her family.

“Iwona is early. She is always early for appointments, including being interviewed by a journalist. This is no easy task. She is a lone parent and a carer to her mother who both has dementia and uses a wheelchair. Iwona works in a supermarket, volunteers at a local food bank, and is studying part time to become a social worker.”

Read the full article here.

Hostile environment series on Politics.co.uk

Posted: September 20, 2017 in articles, social affairs
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The ‘hostile environment’ for migrants is impinging on everyday life for the public and for people in public and (increasingly) private services. Immigration checks at the border have now been extended in housing, education, health, and employment. Natalie Bloomer and I have been looking at the impact on people of these policies and just how far ‘everyday bordering’ has reached into our lives. I’ve been a big fan of Natalie’s work since I read a piece she did a few years back on ‘Baby Banks‘ (like a food bank, but for baby stuff like nappies, wipes, formula, clothes), so it’s a real privilege to be working with her on this. I’ll be adding to this series as we publish more.

Met police hands victims of crime over to the Home Office for immigration enforcement

Sadiq Khan says police are “duty bound” to report victims of crime to the Home Office

Revealed: MPs using immigration enforcement hotline to report people to the Home Office

Big Brother state: How May’s obsession with immigration turned Britain into a surveillance state

Why does our national debate on integration ignore segregation by wealth?

Posted: June 30, 2017 in articles, social affairs
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A major part of what leads to segregation in society, by wealth and power, is not part of our integration debate. Why not? Today our society is more divided by wealth than it has been in a century. Mostly this divide between people who own housing, and those who do not.

Read the full article here.

DESTRUCTION BY DEREGULATION: THE GRENFELL TOWER FIRE

Posted: June 30, 2017 in articles, housing, local government, social affairs
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Grenfell Tower, a huge block of social housing flats in West London, caught fire on the 14th June 2017, killing almost 80 people. This national tragedy, which has seen Londoners mobilise to help those displaced and bereaved, has also elicited protests and anger across the capital due to the fact that the incident might have been prevented if warning signs hadn’t been ignored.

Read the full article here.

After the Grenfell Tower tragedy, the Government cannot ignore the UK’s millions of renters any longer

Posted: June 14, 2017 in articles, housing, local government, social affairs
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The Grenfell Tower tragedy is still unfolding. What we know now is at least six people are dead and 74 injured, 20 critically. Going by previous disasters such as this, it will take months or perhaps years for the full story to emerge, longer still for any individuals to be held accountable if they are found to be at fault.

Read the full article here.

Met police hands victims of crime over to the Home Office for immigration enforcement

Posted: April 5, 2017 in articles, social affairs
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Fears have been raised that criminal offences could go unreported after it was revealed that the Metropolitan police has been referring victims of crime over to the Home Office for immigration enforcement.

Read the full article here.

If the government won’t deal with the housing crisis, maybe we should

Posted: February 23, 2016 in articles, housing
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“In the race to rent?” That’s what the advert from Rightmove asked at my local bus stop. It made me angry – housing is a right, not a race. But in the last two decades, instead of building housing for people, we’ve built a housing crisis. One which renters are at the sharp end of.

Read the full article here.

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