Rent

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Re: Rent

Postby Cordelia » Thu Jun 22, 2017 2:52 pm

An informative interview with a woman who lived at Grenfell Tower for 34 years

.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZ32tQAb1Y0

Also, I don't know if videos from 'Real News 24' can be embedded, though it came up when previewed (may have to subscribe) but well worth watching.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3b6vlKJfD8

(Another one I tried to post came up as 'private' for subscribers :shrug: )
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Re: Rent

Postby Sounder » Thu Jun 22, 2017 10:12 pm

https://www.opendemocracy.net/uk/simon- ... ing-crisis
Resisting the housing crisis
Simon Roach 19 June 2017
British housing is a dangerous mess. But people are organising to protect themselves – like they always have.

Glasgow rent strike
In 1915 in Govan, just south of the river Clyde in Glasgow, bands of women torpedoed flour bombs at creeping eviction enforcers from the towering windows of their tenements. Exasperated by increasingly predacious landlords and the rising rate of evictions for those that couldn’t make their rent, and armed with a sound understanding of the sticky power of flour in the UK’s rainiest city, the women organised. A carefully coordinated eight month rent strike followed, and working class women paved the way for the Rent Restrictions Act 1915, Britain’s first form of rent control.

Such regulation of private landlords survived throughout the majority of the 20th century, and maintained a delicate balance of power between them and renters. The costs facing private tenants grew roughly in line with those of buyers. Rents, on the whole, were affordable. Margaret Thatcher soon sorted this, however, when in 1988 she introduced the Housing Act which deregulated the private rental sector and effectively killed off rent control in the UK.

Thanks also to financial deregulation and easy credit, houses became not only homes but huge money-makers for those with spare cash. A long term increase in house prices ensued and since 1998 houses prices have leapt from five to ten times average earnings. The UK is struggling to deal with the consequences, as the bloated profits of private landlords have propped up the slow growth of an otherwise hollow economy, and the scores of renters helping pay off those landlord’s cheaply credited mortgages have lost out. Much of the rhetoric from politicians still fits within an aspirational homeowner narrative, where voters are told their ultimate goal should be to transcend the renter’s quagmire through hard work and home ownership. But with house prices rising out of reach and with wages stagnant, the old idea of progression from renter-to-buyer is fading on the horizon, crowded out by the yachts of speculative investors and buy-to-let landlords. A coalition of London-based housing groups have been working out how best to protect tenants in this new permanent rental paradigm.

The Renter’s Power Project (RPP) came together in 2016 to think about how to develop a sense of collective identity for renters: as a basis for organising, as a platform for developing bargaining power, as a means to winning increased legal protection for renters and, ultimately, as a way to transform the housing market. Constituted by an ecology of members working at various levels of housing and community campaigning, from national government lobbyists to local eviction resistance groups, the aim is to help renters realise their own collective power.

Beth Stratford is a housing activist and RPP steering group member. “Slowly people are realising that whether you inherent enough wealth to buy a house or not is now a major faultline that determines your life opportunities,” she said. “I guess that’s the basis upon which this identity can start to be built.”
All these things will continue as long as coercion remains a central element of our mentality.
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Re: Rent

Postby Cordelia » Sat Jun 24, 2017 6:31 pm

Imaging also, the desperation, lack of sleep, stress, etc..., endured by thousands since the fire.

Hundreds evacuated from London tower blocks over fears of Grenfell repeat

Chalcots estate residents moved overnight into temporary accommodation after council said it could not guarantee safety

“Hundreds of residents of a housing estate in north London have been evacuated overnight after fire inspectors said five tower blocks were at risk following the Grenfell Tower blaze.

People living on Chalcots estate in Swiss Cottage were woken during the night and told to leave their homes immediately after Camden council became the first in the country to order an evacuation of blocks at risk of a similar fire.

Those affected described scenes of confusion as they were told the council was unable to guarantee residents’ safety, They are asked to find alternative accommodation or report to a local leisure centre, where hundreds of mattresses had been laid out. Others were offered hotel rooms for the night.

Speaking on Saturday morning, the leader of Camden council, Georgia Gould, said: “We’ve had a huge effort overnight to evacuate people. We have had 650 households who have moved out of the tower blocks. We’ve had everyone, council staff, volunteers, different councillors, all coming together with the fire service to move people safely out of their accommodation.”

She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “The last thing I wanted to do was ask residents late on a Friday night to leave their homes. I have been with them all night and people are distressed, angry and scared. It’s such a difficult decision.

“But I said to fire services, is there anything I can do to make this block safe tonight? I offered to pay for fire services to be stationed outside those blocks just so we could have a couple of days to get the works done, but the message was [that there was] nothing to do to make blocks safe that night.”

Gould had announced the evacuation after a review of the blocks found cladding similar to that which had been on Grenfell Tower, as well as fire risks on insulation surrounding gas piping.

Continued....
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/201 ... l-disaster
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Re: Rent

Postby AhabsOtherLeg » Sat Jul 01, 2017 12:13 am

Everyone here has probably seen it already - I reckon you get bombarded with it automatically on Youtube if you've watched the Ismahil Blagrove interview - but this surprisingly sedate chat with Frankie Boyle is pretty powerful (or seemed so, to me).

It feels a bit arsey to post a vid of a celebrity "pontificating" on the disaster in a thread where videos of actual residents and locals have so far predominated, but I think it's worth watching. You have to be able to stomach a wee bit of Owen Jones though. I think the interview went a bit deeper and darker than he had been expecting, which is good.



Boyle's comments on Grenfell start at about 4 minutes in, but the lead-up to that is not without interest (and relevance).
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Re: Rent

Postby AhabsOtherLeg » Sat Jul 01, 2017 12:32 am

In 1915 in Govan, just south of the river Clyde in Glasgow, bands of women torpedoed flour bombs at creeping eviction enforcers from the towering windows of their tenements.


Speaking of disaster capitalism... The reason the landlords felt so free to jack up their prices and forcibly evict those who couldn't pay in 1915 was because the majority of the working class male population were away fighting in the First World War. The landlords saw an irresistible opportunity in their absence.

They expected little resistance from the women and children left behind. They were wrong.

After the men returned from the war as veterans, to face mass unemployment and the same old exploitative games from the same unrepentant landlords, they began to organize themselves, and in 1919 staged a massive strike/demonstration which culminated in the Battle of George Square. The UK Government deployed tanks and troops against them.

Such are the rewards of loyal service to King and Country...

Around a century before the Battle of George Square, just as an aside, three men were hung and then beheaded by the authorities for leading a movement (albeit a very militant one) which had as it's principle demand... the institution of a 40 hour working week.
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Re: Rent

Postby Cordelia » Sun Jul 02, 2017 2:09 pm

Mental health suffering of Grenfell survivors and its surrounding community 2 weeks+ on...........


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AdlEgSG3A0


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24avj81WxKI


Grenfell locals describe fire's impact on mental health

27 Jun 2017

Layla and Hassin, who live near Grenfell tower, describe how living in its shadow is having a detrimental effect on their mental health.

Speaking to 5 live Breakfast’s Rachel Burden, Layla says her neighbours are struggling to cope, and they are "seeing counselling, but clearly it’s not enough because this has scarred us for life".

Hassin adds that he and his neighbours "feel lost".

Chelsea and Kensington Council said it is offering support to survivors and residents living near Grenfell Tower, where at least 79 people died.

Continued..........
http://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-40415935/ ... tal-health
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Re: Rent

Postby Cordelia » Sun Jul 02, 2017 7:54 pm

AhabsOtherLeg » Sat Jul 01, 2017 3:32 am wrote:

Around a century before the Battle of George Square, just as an aside, three men were hung and then beheaded by the authorities for leading a movement (albeit a very militant one) which had as it's principle demand... the institution of a 40 hour working week.



Also, fwiw, back in England in 1381, mass protests against a poll tax led to the 'Peasants' Revolt’ May 30—Sept. 30, brought the protestors (led by Wat Tyler) to London. Rebels penetrated The Tower of London (where King Richard II--only 14 years old-- had retreated) 636 years to-the-day before the June 14 Grenfell Tower fire:

On the 14th June (unopposed by the sizable garrison) the rebels entered the Tower of London and summarily executed the Archibshop of Canterbury, Simon of Sudbury (who was also Chancellor) along with three others.
His head was carried in triumph to London Bridge and displayed there
.

More....
https://faculty.history.wisc.edu/sommer ... Revolt.htm


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Simon of Sudbury's skull
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Re: Rent

Postby Elvis » Sun Jul 02, 2017 8:59 pm

I'm a month behind in rent. I'm in no danger of eviction because my landlord is a good human being. If I was renting through one of the many "property management" companies, I'd be in big trouble. Big trouble.
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Re: Rent

Postby MacCruiskeen » Mon Jul 03, 2017 7:06 am

Aaron Bastani‏ @AaronBastani 20 hours ago

'Highest guaranteed rent'. This isn't about offering a service - its legal extortion.

Image


Richard Abbott 20 hours ago

Legal extortion. It's called capitalism. Really, really sorry my generation failed to squash it.


Thread: https://twitter.com/AaronBastani/status ... 5960462338
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Re: Rent

Postby Cordelia » Mon Jul 03, 2017 2:21 pm

2015 statistical survey on just some of the ways evictions impact children and families

As millions of families in the United States experience eviction, little research exists of the impact of eviction on their lives
. In a study published by Social Forces, researchers analyzed the material, mental and physical impacts of eviction. The researchers centered their study on low-income urban mothers, a group with the highest likelihood of eviction. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS), they uncovered a strong relationship between recent evictions and material hardship, and that eviction has long-term negative consequences for mothers’ economic well-being and mental health.

FFCWS is a nationally-representative longitudinal survey of parents with young children conducted in four waves (birth, year 1, year 3, and year 5). Each wave inquired about eviction from the home or apartment in the prior year. The survey, which oversampled unmarried mothers, had 2,676 mothers who were renting at baseline and still in they study at year 5. Mothers who exited the survey before the fourth wave were more likely to be Hispanic, less likely to be black, no more likely to have experienced eviction by year 3, and otherwise similar to the mothers who remained in the study.

Major findings include:

Seven percent of the sample experienced an eviction by the time their child was age 5. Five percent had been evicted when their child was age 3 or younger. A small number of families (n=23) experienced more than one eviction during the child’s first five years.

Mothers who were evicted in the previous year experienced higher levels of material hardship and parenting stress, leading to an increased likelihood of depression.

Evicted mothers are more than twice as likely to report that their children to be in poor health, compared with mothers who have not experienced eviction.

The year following its occurrence, eviction undermines the efforts of social assistance programs by negatively affecting mothers’ material, physical and mental well-being.

Evidence was uncovered that at least two years after their eviction, mothers still experienced significantly higher rates of material hardship and depression than their peers.

Mothers have higher rates of depression even several years after eviction, suggesting that eviction has a lasting effect on mothers’ happiness and quality of life.

By preventing the health impacts found in this study, eviction prevention assistance can reduce healthcare costs for at-risk families.

https://howhousingmatters.org/articles/ ... sequences/

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Re: Rent

Postby Elvis » Thu Jul 27, 2017 8:51 pm

Today

RENT BhamHerald 7-27-17.jpg



Lately around this area, "subsidized housing for the poor" really means subsidizing builders and developers. My view of the bay—what is left of it after earlier nearby apartment-house construction—is about to be obliterated by another multi-story monstrosity, into which a few poor will be admitted as part of the development deal.
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Re: Rent

Postby Cordelia » Sun Aug 27, 2017 1:54 pm

Grenfell survivors worry Notting Hill Carnival will overshadow latest council failure

'It's yet another kick in the teeth for those affected'


Image

As Notting Hill Carnival attendees pay their respects to the people who died in the Grenfell Tower fire, survivors and local residents are dealing with the latest failure by the local council to respond to their concerns.

For the past five weeks, the central west London branch of care consumer watchdog Healthwatch has been collecting questions and complaints from local people and submitting them weekly to Kensington and Chelsea Council (RBKC) - who are required to respond in 20 working days.

But last week the council missed their deadline to respond to the first submission, which it received on 28 July.

Healthwatch has statutory power to hold both the NHS and the local council to account.

"It's yet another kick in the teeth for those affected by Grenfell," Clare Maloney told The Independent.

The volunteer running the Grenfell Humanitarian Information Report (GHIR), which provides up-to-date information for survivors, added that the people affected by Grenfell had used this mechanism as a platform to voice their questions and concerns in good faith.

"For RBKC to not even respond after so many grave errors and missteps on their part is a travesty and shows a monumental disregard for those affected and those whose lives were lost," she said.

The three-page document is seeking answers to a range of questions about the still uncertain death toll, rehousing options, rent payments for people still living in the neighbourhood and queries about what support is available for the families of the dead.

Local people are concerned about air quality after experiencing dizziness, getting nose bleeds, and suffering from chest pains and insomnia, it reads.

Some people living in the area are worried about an increased risk of suicide and have been requesting access to trauma counsellors.

There are also concerns about the protection of vulnerable survivors who are being pressured by self-styled "community leaders" to sign up with particular law firms, the document says.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/ho ... 15141.html
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Re: Rent

Postby Cordelia » Thu Jun 14, 2018 5:44 pm

One year anniversary of Grenfell.The queen wore green to show her solidarity. How touching.

Image


The Touching Way Meghan Markle and the Queen Marked the Grenfell Tower Fire Anniversary


Today is the one year anniversary of the tragic fire in London.

By Caroline Hallemann

Jun 14, 2018

Meghan Markle and the Queen appear to be having a lovely time on this morning's royal visit to Cheshire. But the day of events also featured one sadly poignant moment. Meghan and the Queen observed a national moment of silence at noon in memory of the people who died in the Grenfell Tower tragedy.

https://www.townandcountrymag.com/socie ... niversary/



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Re: Rent

Postby Cordelia » Fri Jun 22, 2018 4:39 pm

Washington, D.C. Set To Battle $1 Billion Gentrification Lawsuit

Lydia Arevalo | June 18, 2018 - 6:13 pm

Seven years ago, The New York Times reported that, for the first time in history, black residents no longer comprised the majority population of our nation’s capital. Within the last month, civil rights lawyer Aristotle Theresa filed the lawsuit against the district on behalf native D.C. residents for the discrimination of age, source of income, race, family, religion, and matriculation in their agenda to “attract the Creative Class.”

According to the lawsuit, over the last 12 years “planning agencies have used land-use policy as a primary tool to implement this agenda.” Rather than implementing city-wide initiatives that cater to the needs of current residents, “these land-use policies leverage amenities to attract the targeted [anti-black] demographic group.”

More specifically, “new attractions such as the Wharf, a $2.5 billion mix of luxury housing, hotels and fine dining along the Southwest Waterfront” are being added in locations that are better suited for family units and affordable housing, wrote The Washington Post. In the pursuit to attract the creative class, the D.C. zoning commission, housing authority office of planning and office of the deputy mayor for planning and economic development are being sought after for damages and displacement that are expected to exceed $1 billion.

The City has no comment at the time. Their response is reportedly due to be filed by June 25.

https://www.vibe.com/2018/06/washington ... n-lawsuit/



David facing the Goliath that is Government & Greed in Washington DC.

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Aristotle Theresa

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The Wharf
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Re: Rent

Postby Cordelia » Thu Mar 28, 2019 10:42 am

Excellent, heart-rending expose headlined in online WaPo earlier this week. Read and noted the cruel, heartless irony that when Post owner Jeff Bezos opens his other Amazon headquarter in nearby No. VA, even tent ‘housing’ on sacred D.C streets will become unattainable. Where will homeless people go?

‘This is not me’

The rise of tent encampments is changing the face of American homelessness. Inside one, Monica Diaz struggles to keep her full-time job — and her dignity.

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Monica Diaz came close to falling asleep while standing as she spoke to a lawyer who offered to help her pro bono with a complaint regarding city workers throwing away her belongings, including her identification cards. She had worked all night and not slept because of construction noise near her tent.

Story by Terrence McCoy
Photos by Michael S. Williamson
March 22, 2019

Before 10 a.m. on another cold Thursday, Monica Diaz stirred in her tent, filled with dread. It had been two weeks since the last cleanup, and city workers would again be here soon, with their dumpster truck and police cars, to clear out the encampment. Every morning was awful, but these were the worst of all, when Monica, who’d otherwise be resting before work, was forced to confront publicly what she did her best to hide: that she’s homeless. That she lives in a tent. That she just turned 40, and that this is somehow her life.

“You ready?” Monica asked her husband, after a sleepless night at the base of Union Station, near CNN’s Washington bureau, where the noise never stopped and they’d huddled together with their dog, Sassy, against the cold.

“Somewhat,” said Pete Etheridge, 31, sighing.

They looked around their tent, which not only held the sum total of their world but also reflected a way of life that has, over the past decade, fundamentally changed the face of American homelessness. As housing costs climb ever higher in booming urban areas, the significant growth in tent encampments nationwide has become one of the most visible signs of the nation’s failure to alleviate widening inequality. In Orange County, Calif., more than 700 people were cleared out of a tent city along the Santa Ana River last year after thousands signed a petition and Anaheim declared a state of emergency. Seattle, meanwhile, has allowed some tent cities to operate as de facto communities — long-term, regulated, even with phone numbers and addresses. And in the District, the number of encampment cleanups has surged, according to city data, rising from 29 in 2015 to 100 in 2018.

Monica, a stout, wavy-haired woman now living in her seventh tent after cleanup crews tossed the others, looked down the busy street and tried to gird herself for the indignities to come. She needed to place her clothing and blankets into black trash bags, take down the blue and gray nylon tent and wheel everything out of eyesight in a shopping cart. Then she would watch as workers wiped away any trace of her from First Street NE, wheel it all back, pitch her tent again, take an ibuprofen p.m. and then sleep it all away until it was time to go to the fast-food restaurant for work.


“We got to take it all the way down there,” she said, pointing toward the next street. Pete looked over everything that needed packing and was quietly shaking his head when a man in a brown coat approached. He’d come to cover the cleanup for Street Sense, a publication about homelessness, but now told them that the move had been canceled. The city was worried about hypothermia. Monica and Pete wouldn’t have to dismantle their lives — at least not today.
“It’s canceled?” Monica said, putting a hand over her mouth and closing her eyes. “Oh my God! We were just about to move all of our stuff!”

She hugged the man, and then Pete, the two of them overcome with such sudden relief that they began to cry.

“I love you, baby,” he said, pressing his face to hers.

“We’re going to make it,” she said, reaching up to wipe the tears away from his face.

Behind them was a sign screwed to a metal post. It showed the date of the next cleanup.

Feb. 28, it now said. Ten a.m. Two weeks from today.


MORE...https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/loc ... 9e26c558a1


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Monica sets up her tent on First Street NE as pedestrians pass by. She and Pete had to take down the tent and remove all of their belongings hours earlier ahead of a regular city sweep of homeless encampments. (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post)

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Colleen, 68, who lives in a tent just yards from Monica and Pete on First Street NE, gathers her belongings after moving them in anticipation of a city cleanup. She was having a tough day, as workers were doing maintenance just a few feet away. (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post)

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“Acknowledge us!” she said. “We’re human beings! Please, just acknowledge us!”


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