Homes for All urges supporters to join our banner on Saturday in solidarity with the St Mungo’s strikers.
St Johns Church, Waterloo Road, SE1 8TY, at 11.30, Saturday 2 September
The strikers should hold their heads high as they return to work. The St Mungo’s strikers have been an inspiration to the trade union movement and so much more. It is unfortunate that they did not resolve all their demands but they can return to a more united workplace. They have helped highlight the scale of homelessness and a housing sector that is now in crisis and exposed the disproportionate salaries of senior managers and the prestigious trustee jobs while low paid staff have been striking to save services for clients.
Housing campaigners and Housing Rebellion climate campaigners took over empty Ministry of Justice flats on Saturday as part of the weekend of housing action workshops. A block of flats owned by the Ministry of Justice in Islington, that has been lying empty for ten years, was taken over by protesters. Supporters included Islington Homes for All, who have been campaigning for years to get the MoJ to allow Islington Council to take them over.
The Islington Citizen noted ‘Campaigners said it was a “disgrace” that the government has paid £600k for homes sitting empty near Pentonville prison for years, despite calls for them to be used to house families in need. The Ministry of Justice has paid £604,355 on council tax for the three- and four-bedroom former prison officers’ homes off Roman Way since 2016. Islington Council wants to see families living there and is calling on the government to sit down and talk about the flats’ future.’
Architects Journal also covered the protest, and included these words from Homes for All Coordinator Morag:
‘Islington Council has a waiting list of more than 15,000 households needing to access social housing.’ The flats ‘could be renovated, retrofitted, and [used to] get local families off the waiting list back into the local community. We don’t want private developers coming in. That will just gentrify the area or push working-class people out of the area, which is already happening through temporary accommodation because there is no council housing. We want everybody to have access to council housing.’
The BBC covered the occupation with an article on their website ‘Activists occupy homes left empty for a decade’
London Live interview (on Facebook) with Islington Homes for All on the 28 Empty, ex prison warden flats
It is that time of the year again when North Kensington welcomes over a million people from across the country and internationally to the Notting Hill carnival. The carnival takes place in the streets, in the borough Grenfell Tower. On both days there will be a 3-minute silence to remember the 72+ who died needlessly in the fire in 2017.
Love Music Hate Racism will be one of the floats on Sunday who will be partying with a purpose – racism played a role in the causes of the Grenfell Tower fire as well as the crisis that migrants and refugees face without a safe and secure home.
Homes for All will join Housing Rebellion this bank holiday weekend to help with hosting housing action workshops. Housing Rebellion will bring activists together, share experiences and learn new skills and information. Housing Rebellion is bringing together housing and climate campaigners to fight for everyone to have a secure home on a liveable planet.
On 8th of July we took part in a national day of action on ‘Housing for Need Not Greed’, which included working with residents on estates facing demolition, residents fighting to stop development on vital green spaces, and protesters against empty homes.
On Saturday and Monday the workshops will be in the House of Annetta, 25 Princelet St in Brick Lane and on Sunday in the Girdlestone community centre, 151 Salisbury Walk in Archway.
On Saturday 26 August, 1pm to 3pm Homes for All will be hosting a workshop The case for Council Housing – Solutions to the Housing Crisis
