{"id":1646,"date":"2014-09-30T16:24:46","date_gmt":"2014-09-30T15:24:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=1646"},"modified":"2014-09-30T16:24:46","modified_gmt":"2014-09-30T15:24:46","slug":"real-estate-wars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=1646","title":{"rendered":"Real estate wars"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A group of 29 single, homeless mums have succeeded where political parties and campaign groups have lost and created a real campaign with a real solution to Newham\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s housing crisis.<\/p>\n

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During this past weekend\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s (September 27) Open House event in London, which gives the public the chance to go inside buildings across the capital that are usually closed to the public, the group of young mothers decided to join in and removed the boards from one of the houses on the Carpenters Estate.<\/p>\n

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They invited people inside and what greeted them was a house in perfectly liveable condition with running water, a power shower, working electricity and an oven.<\/p>\n

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The Carpenters Estate is a housing estate in Newham, consisting of about 600 properties that all lay empty and have boards across the windows. The estate was cleared out and families evicted after the Olympics when the council thought they could cash in on the value of the land.<\/p>\n

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But the houses still lay empty, while 24,000 households in the borough are waiting for somewhere to live.Last winter the shopping centre was full of people sleeping rough.<\/p>\n

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The 29 mothers met while living in the nearby E15 Focus hostel. Then its funding was cut and unable to find any social housing in the area or to afford private rents, the mum\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s and their children were told they would have to be rehoused in Birmingham, Manchester or Hastings cutting them off from their friends and family, who support them and help out with childcare.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhen we met Newham\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Labour mayor, Sir Robin Wales, he told us \u00e2\u20ac\u015bif you can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t afford to live in Newham, you can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t afford to live in Newham\u00e2\u20ac\u0165,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Jasmin Stone, one of the E15 mothers.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe grew up in Newham. We find this attitude disgusting. No one on low wages or benefits, or even an average income, can afford to live here.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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The root of the housing crisis, not just in Newham but the rest of London and the UK, comes from Maggie Thatcher\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0098right-to-buy-scheme\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 introduced by the Tories in 1979 which enabled council tenants to buy their homes and sell them on. It changed the demographics. According to housing charity Shelter, 42 per cent of the population lived in council houses in 1979 but by 2000 it had shrunk to 12 per cent.<\/p>\n

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Working class prisoners<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re now beginning to realise that they have made prisoners out of the working class. In the hostel, my dad couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t visit me because every visitor needed a photo ID. He didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have one,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Jasmin.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bMy mum could come and visit me three times a week, and if she wanted to stay beyond that she couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t because my visiting hours were used up.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIf we complained about anything they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d say we were about to make ourselves \u00e2\u20ac\u0098intentionally homeless\u00e2\u20ac\u2122. They said they wanted to shift us where they wanted, like prisoners. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s London, Birmingham, Manchester, wherever there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s space.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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The only contact the mothers have had from the council was a visit from crime reduction manager David Johnson along with a plumber and an electrician who he ordered to turn off the buildings water and electricity. On Friday a judge ruled in their favour at a hearing over a last minute eviction order placed by the council. The judge ruled the council\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s procedures were \u00e2\u20ac\u015bunlawful and unjust\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 and postponed the hearing to benefit the mums.<\/p>\n

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Social housing and not social cleansing<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThere\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no doubt that these young mothers are an inspiration,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 believes Pilgrim Tucker, a community coordinator for Unite.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIn the face of adversity they have come together and formed a tight knit campaign group working for the benefit of every low income family in Newham with a proper solution to the housing crisis in their area.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bSadly their case is not a one-off and these conditions spread right across the capital, where lower income families are being forced from the areas they have called home for generations as house prices rocket and private landlords cash in.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s community team are working with these families. What this country needs is more social housing, not so-called affordable housing. As the Focus E15 mothers would say; \u00e2\u20ac\u0098social housing and not social cleansing\u00e2\u20ac\u2122.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Join the E15 mothers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Facebook campaign and show your support<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A group of 29 single, homeless mums have succeeded where political parties and campaign groups have lost and created a real campaign with a real solution to Newham\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s housing crisis.   During this past weekend\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s (September 27) Open House event in London, which gives the public the chance to go inside buildings across the capital […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1647,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[109],"wps_subtitle":"E15 mums fighting the real war for homes ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1646"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1646"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1646\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1649,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1646\/revisions\/1649"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}