social housing

Squatting in London: Precarity and Emergency Crisis Planning

Submitted by Anghamard17 on Jul 26 2017 16:27

Due to sustained attacks from the state, councils, and property owners, squatters in England have developed a capacity for emergency crisis planning whilst neglecting long term organising. This article examines why and briefly looks at attempts to reverse this trend.

Sisterhood and Squatting in the 1970s: Feminism, Housing and Urban Change in Hackney

Submitted by Jacques Roux on Jul 20 2017 15:41

Squat houses, Broughton Road, Hackney, 1983

A detailed look at squatting in 1970s Hackney, East London. Using oral history to recall how women squatting in the 1970s carved out a space for themselves to self organise in a decaying London, neglected by municipal structures. The article argues that by creating a physical space for themselves women in Hackney were able to shape and create the kind of feminist movement they wanted, which in turn helped them to create better places to live in.

The hidden history of housing

Submitted by Steven. on Jun 24 2017 11:08

A grassroots history of housing, by Colin Ward.

The Monopoly board of the city: Grenfell Tower - where was the HCA, government housing regulator??

Submitted by Red Marriott on Jun 19 2017 16:23

The Homes & Community Agency(HCA) is the UK state regulatory body for social housing; its job is to monitor the performance, finances and provision of services of landlords. Missing from the media coverage of the Grenfell Tower fire disaster so far is any discussion of what relation the HCA has to this horror story of corporate murder. Given the years of complaints from Grenfell tenants(1) about their landlord the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation(KCTMO)(2), we can reasonably ask why the HCA never stepped in to investigate the terrible tenant-landlord relationship and the many fire safety complaints tenants had flagged up repeatedly before the fire broke out.