http://www.politics.co.uk/news/2016/09/15/homeless-charities-complicit-in-rough-sleeper-deportations

“Homeless individuals are sitting ducks for immigration enforcement”
By Natalie BloomerThursday, 15 September 2016

Two well-known homeless charities are accused of being ‘complicit’ with the deportation of foreign rough sleepers from the UK, Politics.co.uk can reveal.

Leading homelessness charities St Mungo’s and Thames Reach worked on a scheme to tackle ‘entrenched’ rough sleeping in London, which also involved immigration enforcement teams removing people from the country against their will.

Documents released by the Greater London Authority suggest the charities supported the ‘administrative removal’ of some foreign rough sleepers.

Administrative removals are deportations carried out against people who may have breached the conditions of their stay in the UK. Under government guidance announced this year, just being seen sleeping rough is considered a breach.

Campaigners today hit out at the charities for being ‘complicit’ with deportations.

“Homeless individuals are sitting ducks for immigration enforcement,” Rita Chadha, the chief executive of Ramfel, a refugee and migrant group, said.

“The fact that some homelessness charities can be complicit in such work is to our collective shame.

“People need to start questioning where their donations to some homeless charities are going. Are they really helping individuals or are they subsidising state-sanctioned enforcement?”

Former mayor of London Boris Johnson asked the homeless charities to work on a ‘payment by results’ basis, in order to help fulfil his promise to eradicate rough sleeping from London’s streets.

GLA documents reveal that in 2012, Thames Reach and St Mungo’s were commissioned to provide a number of services to around 800 so-called “entrenched” rough sleepers. But the programme, which was called a Social Impact Bond (SIB), also aimed to “reconnect” EU nationals with their home countries.

“Reconnections” are usually described as voluntary help for people who want to return home. But an update on the SIB in 2015, suggests they can also refer to forced removals from the country.

In the update, the GLA told the Investment & Performance Board (IPB) that “the number of reconnections abroad had fallen short of the providers’ targets” but that “with ten SIB clients having recently been referred to the Home Office for administrative removal, the number of reconnections in this year may well exceed the providers’ in-year target”.

The SIB is just one of several GLA projects to tackle rough sleeping in the capital. In the authority’s commissioning framework they make it clear that any charity wanting to provide their rough sleeping services would be expected to cooperate with immigration officials to remove EU nationals.

The framework comments on their “notable success” in working with Immigration Compliance Enforcement (ICE) teams, who liaise with “local authorities, service providers and the police” to deal with EU nationals who are neither employed or self-sufficient.

The document goes on to say: “This has involved testing a process of administrative removal for those individuals overstaying or not exercising their treaty rights. The GLA has supported this response and will continue to support similar initiatives in the future.”

Charities co-operated with scheme to remove ‘entrenched’ rough sleepers

Thames Reach’s contract to carry out the GLA’s ‘reconnection’ work ended earlier this year. However, in a response to the Communities and Local Government (CLG) Committee homeless inquiry they confirmed they support the practice of forced removals. They said:

“For different reasons there is a reluctance to take up this voluntary reconnection and for some, inevitably, an administrative removal carried out by the Immigration Compliance and Enforcement (ICE) service becomes necessary.”

They also suggested that a solution to reduce the flow of migrants to the UK who end up sleeping rough would be to increase “enforcement by ICE teams” where EU treaty obligations are not met.

Ramfel has raised concerns about the GLA’s reliance on charities to assess immigration cases and questioned whether their staff have the necessary skills and experience to provide accurate advice.

“We have seen a number of individuals who have felt pressured to leave the UK or have been told they have no alternative but to return home, when actually there are a variety of options available to them to remain here,” Chadha said.

St Mungo’s confirmed that they had worked with other agencies to ‘reconnect’ foreign rough sleepers. The director of the Street Outreach Service at St Mungo’s, Petra Salva said:

“St Mungo’s does not remove rough sleepers who are not exercising their treaty rights. Our work is with vulnerable people sleeping rough. We support people to move away from the streets, have a place to call home and to rebuild their lives. We consider the person and the best route off the street for them. That can involve working with other agencies, including reconnection within other London boroughs, to other parts of the UK or overseas.”

When contacted by Politics.co.uk, Thames Reach said that they were only currently engaged with assisting voluntary reconnections. A spokesperson said:

“We know that rough sleeping is dangerous and can kill.  At least 83 verified rough sleepers died last year in London. Where it is needed, we make sure that vulnerable people get the support they need to make a successful return home, and get the help they need when they get there.”

By Hannah Richardson BBC News social affairs reporter

Nearly half of all housing benefit claimants are now in work

Private landlords in the UK received twice as much in housing benefit last year – £9.3bn – as they did a decade ago, a report says.

The National Housing Federation (NHF) study said the increase was due to a big rise in the number of private tenants claiming housing benefit.

The NHF said this particular group of people had grown by 42% since 2008.

In 2006, some £4.6bn in housing benefit was paid to private landlords, a figure which had more than doubled by 2015.

NHF chief executive David Orr said: “It is madness to spend £9bn of taxpayers’ money lining the pockets of private landlords rather than investing in affordable homes.”

“The lack of affordable housing available means that a wider group of people need housing benefit,” he added.

Working poor

Had these housing benefit claimants been living in social housing instead of renting from private landlords, taxpayers would have saved huge sums of money over seven years, the NHF report estimated.

It said that taxpayers paid £1,000 more per year, per family renting in the private rented sector, than they did for those in social housing.

This amounted to an average of £2.2bn a year extra being handed over to private landlords, at a cumulative additional cost of £15.6bn over the past seven years, the NHF analysis says.

If this extra housing benefit bill for just one year had been spent on creating new affordable housing, the NHF added, then nearly 50,000 new homes could have been built.

The report also points out that a larger proportion of families claiming housing benefit in the private rented sector are now in work.

“Today, nearly half (47%) of all families claiming housing benefit in the private rented sector are in work – this is nearly double the proportion it was six years ago (26%),” the NHF said.

‘Tenants failed’

A government spokesman said it had been taking action to bring the housing benefit bill under control.

He said: “Since 2012 the amount going to private sector landlords has actually been falling – something which the National Housing Federation fails to recognise.”

“We are also committed to building the homes this country needs and investing £8bn to build 400,000 more affordable homes.”

Chris Norris, head of policy at the National Landlords Association, said the private rented sector was responding to the increasing demand for homes from a growing proportion of tenants who are being failed by the social housing sector and housing associations.

“The NHF is clearly still reeling from the news that its members have been ordered by government to reduce spending over the next four years, so it comes as no surprise that they are looking to shift the emphasis and point the finger elsewhere,” he said.

“However, the private rented sector plays a pivotal role in providing much-needed homes for tenants so there seems no real purpose in the NHF taking a cheap shot at landlords for what is a failure on behalf of successive governments to adequately allocate its housing budget and to incentivise the building of new homes.”

Tony Gosling Jun 12, 2012 At last making some real headway with this vexing question of who owns the shares of the Bank of England. This ain’t nationalisation ma’am!

2 Extracts from

WAR OF THE WINDSORS A Century of Unconstitutional Monarchy

By Lynne Picnett, Clive Prince and Stephen Prior With additional historical research by Robert Brydon Mainstream publishing – 2003 ISBN: 1 84018 766 2

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2012/06/496942.html

http://www.911forum.org.uk/board/viewtopic.php?p=161285#161285

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Diggers350/conversations/messages/4291

Empty Homes in England

04 March 2016

Many cities across Britain are becoming more and more like ghost towns as absentee owners push up property prices but fail to contribute to the local economy.
Many cities across Britain are becoming more and more like ghost towns as absentee owners push up property prices but fail to contribute to the local economy.

There are multiple reasons as to why properties are left empty on a long term basis with the top four being:

• Landlords are unable to afford repairs for it to be suitable for a new tenant
• It’s an inherited property and the new owners are unsure what to do with it
• Renovations are taking a long time or they have stalled
• The owners are waiting for the market value to increase before a sale

Unsurprisingly, more than three quarters of British adults (78%) think that the Government should place a higher priority on tackling empty homes.

In addition, with cuts to housing benefit, welfare reform and a huge lack of affordable housing, homelessness is a crisis that has seen a 26% rise in the last four years. Statistics have shown that if empty homes were put back into use, there would be the equivalent of eleven homes per person registered as being accepted as homeless and in priority need.

Whilst public perception and the vast numbers of homelessness and empty homes instill a sense of urgency, official statistics show that numbers of empty homes have been consistently decreasing over the last 10 years. There’s still much to be done; however, it’s positive that the cities and community groups are making a stronger effort to reduce both numbers.

We are on hand to support new owners with selling their homes in a swift and effective manner to get properties back on the market and inhabited as soon as possible.

To show further support to the campaign to prevent homelessness and support those without homes, we have made a donation to “Homes from Empty Homes”.

For further information support regarding empty homes in England, you can visit:

• Empty Homes Toolkit
• Empty Homes Network
• Homes from Empty Homes

For further information about homelessness in England, you can find out more at:

• Crisis
• Shelter

You can download our data visualisations as a PDF by clicking here

08 August 2016 – Sam Gelder

http://www.hackneygazette.co.uk/news/crime-court/passing_clouds_eviction_supporters_of_dalston_music_venue_protest_outside_court_1_4648379

Passing Clouds supporters outside court. (Picture: Polly Hancock).

Eleanor Wilson (right) heading into court for the hearing. (Picture: Polly Hancock).

Anyone who’s walked around Hackney in the last few months will have seen signs in shop windows reading “Passing Clouds forever”.

Passing Clouds is an independent music venue in Dalston, one of the few left in the whole of London. More than 5,000 musicians from 100 countries have performed there in the last 10 years and it’s got huge support from the community, politicians and the music industry.

Jack Yglesias a musician, artist was showing his support. (Picture: Polly Hancock).

On Friday morning, that support was out in force at Clerkenwell and Shoreditch County Court, where the landlord, Landhold Developments, was making an application to evict Passing Clouds from the building.

Spirits were high as dozens of protesters lined Gee Street and director Eleanor Wilson was given a rousing reception on her arrival.

Passing Clouds staff Freddy Burls and Sophia Lysaczenko. (Picture: Polly Hancock).

There were people of all ages outside as musicians strummed away and others tried their best to create a genuine carnival atmosphere complete with face painting and fancy dress.

The only thing missing was records playing as people danced (and hula-hooped) in the street in front of bemused builders.

The group celebrate after their show of people power. Picture: www.borisaustin.com

Some then went into court for the hearing, which was swiftly adjourned until Friday.

Sadly, this is just the latest development in a long legal battle between the two parties that started with the “secret sale” of the venue in November – after management had spent years trying to buy it from the previous landlord.

The scheduled events went ahead as planned after the venue was reclaimed. Picture: www.borisaustin.com

A lease extension was initially granted until August, but on the night of June 16 bailiffs were sent in to change the locks.

What they didn’t count on was 200 people, mostly musicians, arriving within hours of the discovery to force them back out in a defiant act of people power.

The building has been occupied 24/7 ever since by the Passing Clouds community, who are desperate to stop it going the way of so many other independent music venues. A three-month, 10th birthday celebration featuring concerts from Mercury-prize winning artist Speech Debelle, Lee Scratch Perry, and Maxi Jazz of Faithless has carried on as planned.

Gary McKenzie is the private hire boss at Passing Clouds. Speaking outside the court, he told the Gazette: “It [the venue] is so important for the community and for world music.

“Venues like ours are what attracts people to the area. No one would have wanted to come if the culture wasn’t here in the first place and now they want to destroy it for flats. It’s not just us either, there’s lots of us going under. Everywhere is gonna look like Canary Wharf.”

Supporter Paul Clarke has been going to Passing Clouds since it opened and has witnessed Dalston become a hive of creativity in the last 10 years.

He said: “The transformation of the area is largely down to a small number of businesses that acted as catalysts and Passing Clouds is the longest running, most successful of those. The regeneration is down to them.”

A petition to save the venue has gathered almost 13,000 signatures so far, while a crowdfunder has received £10,000 in donations.

MP Meg Hillier has also thrown her weight behind the campaign, saying the venue was part of what made Dalston a “magnet for creatives”.

She said: “It is vital developers and planners recognise it is venues like these that contribute so much to make areas desirable. If these are lost, some of the very reasons why Hackney is such a popular place to live and work are undermined.”

Hidden expenses make UK monarchy world’s most expensive govt institution

Charities say soaring housing rental costs, unhealthy conditions in homes, and rising levels of homelessness mean UK is in violation of UN commitment on homes

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/apr/28/uk-housing-crisis-in-breach-of-human-rights

Robert Booth Tuesday 28 April 2015 00.54 BST

The UK is in breach of its own United Nations human rights commitment to provide people with adequate homes because the housing crisis is so serious, a consortium of leading housing charities has warned. They cite soaring housing rental costs, unhealthy conditions in homes, and rising levels of homelessness and warn of “profound issues of lack of supply, increasing housing costs, lack of security of tenure and homes of such poor quality that they are unfit for habitation”.

Called Just Fair, the group’s members include Crisis, Oxfam, Amnesty International, Save the Children and Unicef UK. Their document describes the right to housing in England as in “crisis”.

“It is quite clear we are in breach of our UN obligations,” said the report’s author, Dr Jessie Hohmann, law lecturer at Queen Mary University of London. “It is possible to take policy steps to protect the most vulnerable and marginalised, but the UK government has decided not to do that. Since the 1980s we have lost any concept of housing’s social function, and that is why protest movements are gaining ground. Without decent housing, you can’t experience an adequate life in society, but now housing is seen just as an asset.”

In a 40-page report, Just Fair concluded:

Private rents are at double the level of council properties, at £163 a week, and a quarter of those renting rely on housing benefit to meet the cost
A third of homes in the private rented sector do not meet basic standards of health, safety and habitability
Rough sleeping in London increased by more than a third between autumn 2013 and autumn 2014, while funding for shelters fell
Last December there were almost 62,000 households in England living in temporary accommodation, the highest number for five years, and 280,000 households are at risk of homelessness
The number of families living in bed and breakfasts more than tripled from 630 in 2010 to 2,040 last year
“Exceptionally high” levels of rising homelessness and the growing number of households at risk of homelessness represent “a serious failing in the government’s obligations”, it concludes.
According to Just Fair, the UN agreement to “recognise the the right of everyone to an adequate standard of living … including housing” only allows reduction in rights to housing in cases of “force majeure”, including natural disaster and war, and cuts executed during financial crises must be ended when the crisis is over.

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The report cames as party leaders trade blows over housing in the general election campaign. Jon Sparkes, chief executive of the homeless charity Crisis, said the report “should be a wake-up call for all political leaders”. On Sunday, Labour announced plans for rent controls in the private sector, while the previous week the Conservatives said they would extend the right-to-buy to housing association tenants.Grassroots residents’ rebellions against evictions and social housing sell-offs have also focused public anger on the state of the housing market.

Just Fair is overtly critical of coalition policy on housing. Its report said: “Problems in realising the right to housing are linked to a political climate of austerity, and attendant cuts to state social security and other benefits. The resulting situation is accurately identified as one of crisis.” It also says one of the most serious issues is the failure to build enough new homes, which dates back through successive Labour, as well as Conservative, governments.

Among the causes of the worsening crisis, the report also cites the government’s removal of the “spare room subsidy”, also known as the bedroom tax, the “stark undersupply” of new homes, and insecurity of tenure in the private rented market as a result of a the lack of protections in tenancy agreements. “It should be a matter of significant concern that one-third of households in the private rental sector are living in housing that is substandard to the point that is unsafe or unhealthy,” the report states.

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The report suggested that so called “Revenge evictions”, where tenants lose their homes when they complain about standards, are so widespread that as many as 200,000 happening in 2013. That, Just Fair argued, amounted to a breach of the UN covenant’s prohibition against arbitrary eviction.

Responding to the report, Conservative housing minister, Brandon Lewis, said: “We inherited a broken housing market after Labour’s housing crash.” He added that “there is more to do”, but said his party would deliver 275,000 new affordable homes in the next parliament.

“Despite the need to pay off Labour’s deficit, Conservatives in government have worked to increase housebuilding to its highest since 2007 and delivered 217,000 new affordable homes,” he said. “We will ensure economic growth and stability to allow continued investment in frontline services for homeless and the vulnerable.”

For Labour, Emma Reynolds said: “Under David Cameron, housebuilding is at its lowest levels in peacetime since the 1920s, there is a severe lack of affordable homes, families face growing insecurity in the private rented sector, and there has been a dramatic rise in homelessness and rough sleeping. Labour will take action to tackle this crisis.

“We will get 200,000 homes built a year by 2020, boost the number of affordable homes built year on year, reform the private rented sector, and we will set out a long-term strategy to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping.”

“Rough sleeping has risen by 55% in the past five years,” said Sparkes. “This dreadful state of affairs is the result of successive governments’ failure to tackle the housing crisis, combined with severe cuts to housing benefit that have left growing numbers of people struggling to keep a roof over their heads. The housing crisis will not solve itself. We desperately need more affordable homes as well as political action to fix our broken private rented sector.”

The report is intended to inform a UN audit of housing in England starting this autumn. It was largely funded by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust