05/03/14 PHOTO OP with VIVIENNE WESTWOOD, MARK THOMAS, KATE HOEY MP and MAGGI HAMBLING
Stop selling social housing in Lambeth!
PHOTO OP with
VIVIENNE WESTWOOD, MARK THOMAS, KATE HOEY MP and MAGGI HAMBLING
Wednesday 5th March, 11am
22 Lillieshall Road, London SW4
On Wednesday 5th March Lambeth residents and campaigners, including designer and activist Vivienne Westwood, comedian and activist Mark Thomas, artist Maggi Hambling and Kate Hoey MP, will meet in Lillieshall Road, London SW4 to protest against Lambeth Council’s sale of long-standing housing co-operatives.
All those gathered for this photo op have pledged to defend residents of these housing co-ops against evictions, and have stated:
We will stand with housing co-op residents when they refuse to leave their home, if Lambeth go through with their threat to send bailiffs to evict them.
What is happening in Lambeth?
Lambeth’s so-called ‘co-operative’ council is evicting members of housing co-operatives who have lived in the borough for periods of up to 40 years, with some residents in their 70s who have lived in their homes since the 1970s. This community purge is also a triple whammy for housing with social housing stock sold off, more people added to the waiting list and no new housing built as a result.
Case study – Maritza Tschepp
Maritza Tschepp and her family have lived in their home for 33 years. Their house was among those compulsory purchased by Lambeth for demolition for a couple of thousand pounds in the 1970s and left to rot. The council allowed ‘shortlife’ co-ops to be set up, run by the people like Maritza who were occupying and maintaining the houses. But Lambeth are now destroying these co-ops and selling off the properties with no acknowledgement of the blood, sweat and tears of the ‘short lifers’, who saved these homes from dereliction.
Maritza has also invested in her community, setting up a local youth group and running it as an unpaid volunteer for over 20 years, but Lambeth has shown no concern about keeping people in homes and communities where they have lived and worked for so long.
At a time when waiting lists for council housing are at record levels it is a crime for Lambeth to sell social housing.
Pledge your support to stop the eviction by contacting:
Lambeth Housing Activists
lambethhousingactivists@gmail.com
www.housingactivists.co.uk
07834 828 292
Lambeth United Housing Co-operative
lambethunitedhousingco-op.org.uk
Twitter: @LUHousingCoop
facebook.com/LambethUnited
Petition: http://chn.ge/16PkKwv
Lewisham People Before Profit