Housing crisis in Colchester and beyond

1. Daily Mirror story about Benefit-Capped homeless family in Colchester
2. Social housing, not social cleansing’ – the case of the Focus E15 Mums

Daily Mirror story about Benefit-Capped homeless family in Colchester 

First victims of Tory welfare cap: Family of 9 evicted from their home by bailiffs: A family of nine were evicted from their home [on Thursday 28 May 2015] and moved into two separate flats by a council.

Lee and Katrina Parker, 42 and 40, and their seven children were allocated a four-bed property six years ago as ‘temporary accommodation’. They lived happily there until the Tories introduced the Benefits Cap - leaving them unable to afford the rent and feed their family. Just one week ago the family learned they were being evicted and today bailiffs drilled the lock on their front door and led the tearful Parkers from their home.

Lee, Katrina and their kids Bradley, 19, Holly, 14, Autumn, 12, Stanley, 10, Honey, six, Bluebelle, six, and India, three, had faced living five to a room in a two-bedroom flat.Only after the Mirror stepped in did the council housing team agree to provide them with a second two-bedroom flat. But despite the extra room, the family now face living apart.

Lee said: “We’re going to have to split our family across two flats - it’s far from ideal. Katrina will sleep in one flat with half of our kids and I’ll be in the other with the rest. We plan to meet up as a family during the day.”

The couple have been told they may be moved into a three-bedroom house in the next fortnight.Lee added: “We shouldn’t have to fit our family into a tiny home in this day and age. We live in Britain, not a Third World country. The benefits cap introduced by the Tories is almost criminal. It’s just not designed for families as large as ours. All I want for me and my family is a home.”

Lee and Katrina were moved into the property in Colchester, Essex, in 2009 by Colchester Borough Council. Around the same time Lee, who had worked at Asda for 13 years, was made redundant shortly after switching jobs.Since then he has struggled to find work despite applying for hundreds of posts. Council workers promised the accommodation was only temporary while a more suitable home was found.

But the Parkers spent six years there and had to make do with sharing one shower between nine people. Katrina said: “We have been living in limbo for the last six years - it’s been really difficult. They said they would find us a home within two years so we haven’t had the stability other people take for granted. Living without a bath has been tough - we are forced to bathe our younger kids in a plastic storage box. Some of the girls sleep three to a room and my eldest son lives in the room downstairs.”

The rent on the £950-a-month property, which is privately owned, was initially paid for via housing benefits. But in 2013 the coalition Government introduced a benefits cap of £26,000 a year per household. This meant Lee and Katrina had to feed and clothe their nine-strong family, pay all bills and run two cars on £500 a week.

Covering the rent was impossible, so the council stepped in and met the bill with discretionary housing payments. But these were suddenly halted last Autumn, leaving Lee and Katrina in a dire financial position. Last Thursday the Parkers were informed they were being evicted and bailiffs arrived at 11am [on Thursday 28 May 2015].

Katrina says providing for her large family was a balancing act even before the Benefits Cap came in. She said: “On a day-to-day basis it’s hard work, but it’s no harder than life for any other parent. They do look after each other and themselves to a certain extent. I should probably say it’s been difficult to survive on £500 a week but we are very responsible with our finances. The children wear second-hand clothes and shoes and we don’t ever drink, smoke, go out or have holidays. Our primary concern is the kids - they are gifted and talented, Holly’s currently doing GCSEs and she’s capable of As and A*s. Everything we have is spent on them.”

Even the couple’s landlord wanted them to remain rather than be evicted. Hayward Frost, 56, said: “I wanted to resolve this amicably but I couldn’t because the housing team wouldn’t engage with me. I don’t want to evict anybody but I’m being forced to because the council have stopped paying the rent. It’s a political thing to be brutally honest. It’s the benefits cap and it’s only going to get worse.”

Lee and Katrina made headlines last year after winning a court battle for custody of their granddaughter. Their eldest daughter, who is aged 21 and does not live with them, could not care for India because of mental health problems. The toddler was within 48 hours of forced adoption by strangers when the Parkers began their legal fight. Following an 18-month battle they won custody in August 2013 after a top judge ruled in their favour.

On Wednesday it was announced in the Queen’s Speech that David Cameron will reduce the controversial benefits cap further to £23,000.
Katrina said: “Our eviction is completely down to the benefits cap, it’s a disgrace. There are families like us across the country who have individual circumstances yet the rules don’t take that into account.”  

A spokesman for Colchester Borough Council said: “We have helped Mr and Mrs Parker along with their family for a number of years. Due to their imminent eviction we have placed the family into one of our spacious temporary accommodation flats which has been agreed as suitable by Mr Parker’s representative from Shelter. Because of the size of the family we have had to make these emergency arrangements but this will only be temporary and we have identified another large property which will be available in a fortnight.”

‘Social housing, not social cleansing’ – the case of the Focus E15 Mums

From Bright Green blog - News and comment for the green and progressive movement, Samir Jeraj 1 June 2015, reposted with permission from the Green European Journal, where it first appeared on 22 May 2015.

The UK faces a housing crisis. It is this crisis, and the growing number of evictions that are mobilising people to campaign on housing. A group of young mothers fights back with direct action.

The roots of the UK housing crisis go back to the 1980s, when Conservative Governments sold off social housing, removed rent controls and security of tenure in the private sector, and unleashed a wave of cheap credit to encourage home ownership. This was part of a vision to create a ‘property-owning democracy’, but also a political strategy to attract working class voters and undermine the opposition. It was also designed to disempower local government, who provided most social housing, but received a fraction of the money from sales and were prevented from replacing the homes lost through privatisation.

Since then, social housing has shrunk and private renting and home ownership have grown in the UK. Thus, people have started investing more and more in housing, and the idea of owning your home has become a national obsession. In the meantime, prices for housing have gone up by a huge amount. Research from the charity Shelter found that the cost of the average home has risen from £5632 in 1971 to £245 319 in 2011. If the price of bread had risen by the same percentage as did housing , then a basic loaf of bread would today cost £4.36. This increase in house prices means fewer people can afford to buy apartments and that rents in the private sector have increased beyond wages. What this has left us with is a housing system that only works for those who can afford to buy a home, and even they recognises the system is unsustainable.