Housing campaigners from across the capital are gathering to demand that all mayoral candidates commit to investing in social housing as the only real solution to the housing crisis.
Housing campaigners from across the capital are gathering to demand that all mayoral candidates commit to investing in social housing as the only real solution to the housing crisis.
Co-ordinated by Housing Rebellion, a direct action network for housing and climate justice, the action takes aim at the political consensus between all the main parties, who are only promising to promote more private house building, amounting only to more polluting and unaffordable “luxury” flats that only benefit corporate investors and developers.
From Sunday 28th 5pm to Monday 29th April at 10am, campaigners will occupy the space outside City Hall with a symbolic tent city to demand that Mayor of London refurbish and fill empty homes and focus on social housing provision, rather than continuing to subsidise so-called “affordable” homes in luxury developments.
As private rents skyrocket and the government refuses to stop no-fault evictions, private renting has become completely unsustainable, and councils are buckling under the costs of temporary accommodation for homeless people, which is also sourced from the private sector due to chronic shortage of social homes.
The protest will set up at 5pm, with participants installing 32 tents for each London borough. Figures show there are currently over 85,000 empty and unused homes in London. At the London average of 2.6 people per household, this would be enough to house more than 220,000 people. Therefore a 33rd tent will be pitched to represent the London Borough of Empty Homes.
At 7pm, a People’s Assembly on housing will invite participants to discuss solutions to the housing crisis centred on people and planet rather than profit. The evening will continue with entertainment leading to an overnight occupation, with protesters staying to meet and greet staff as they come into the office in the morning. From 9am, a rally and speeches will begin, with representatives from the Social Housing Action Campaign, Homes for All, Streets Kitchen, Gypsy and Traveller League, Disabled People Against Cuts, UNITE Community, PEACH E16, Lesnes Resistance, and others.
Participants are invited to bring their own tents along with messages and testimonies on housing issues such as fuel poverty, damp and mould, homelessness, gentrification, social cleansing and other issues affecting housing and communities across London and the UK.
The tents will be donated to Care for Calais and Streets Kitchen after the event.
