Archive for the ‘housing’ Category

THE NEW URBAN CRISIS: A MANIFESTO FOR THE STATUS QUO

Posted: October 10, 2018 in articles, housing, local government
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If you want to understand the liberal narrative and response to the crisis, this is a readable and clear start. The limitation is that inequality, exclusion, and poverty are seen as growing problems to be solved through reform, rather than leading to the rejection of the economic model.

Read more here.

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.

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.

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.

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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