The Housing Crisis in Brighton & Hove has hit the point of no return and this Saturday the people affected and left behind finally have a voice with a radical new housing conference set to launch a movement to push for more accountability and transparency from Brighton and Hove City Council.
This is a new vibrant campaign launched based on action not words
Caroline Lucas MP and Lloyd Russell-Moyle MP will lead off at the launch of the Brighton and Hove Housing Coalition this Saturday by answering questions from more than 200 housing activists in Brighton.
Around 20 organisations are coming together to establish a Housing Coalition that will challenge the moribund policies of our City Council and national Government.
Steve Parry, acting Chair of the Coalition, said “With co-operation on this scale we intend to challenge in a real way homelessness, housing squalor, housing for profit rather than for people, and the payment of £millions to overseas tax havens for so-called emergency and temporary accommodation”
He emphasised that “the Coalition is bringing together those that build homes with those that occupy empty properties, those that help feed the homeless and those that will be opening up community night shelters, those that have a vision for all to have a right to shelter and those who are advocating for those discriminated against by our local authority due to vulnerability or disability.”
It is a welcome sign of possible change that Larissa Reed, the newly appointed Executive Director for Neighbourhoods, Communities and Housing at the City Council will be spending an hour discussing the policy and practice of the council.
Local housing campaigner Daniel Harris said ” The time has come for change, for too long vulnerable people have been exploited and neglected, all whilst greedy landlords line their pockets at the expense of people’s lives.
Standards in some places have improved recently but we have a huge crisis with government funding cuts which are hitting the most vulnerable, recent government figures show Brighton and Hove already underperform against national average standards, this is a great concern”.
Council residents, leaseholders, private renters, the homeless, and those in temporary accommodation will be working together and participating in workshops ranging from Community led housing to ‘Alternative housing choices and well-being in later life’, from Living Rents to the horrors of some privately rented housing, from accessibility to the need for respect to be shown to those who are disabled or vulnerable.
To Book Tickets To The Housing Coalition Be Quick.
Organisations involved include:
a. B&HCC Tenants
b. Brighton and Hove Pensioners Group
c. Brighton Benefits Campaign
d. Brighton People’s Assembly
e. Bunker Self-Build Housing Co-operative
f. Community Land Trust
g. Community Night Shelter
h. Co-operative Housing in Brighton and Hove (CHIBAH)
i. ETHRAG
j. Good Health Projects
k. Invisible Voices
l. Justice for Tenants
m. Living Rents Campaign
n. Love Activists
o. Mutual Aid in Sussex (MAIS)
p. NFA Residents Association
q. Opsafe
r. Sussex Economic Partnership