People who have experienced homelessness and insecure housing are due to be among the speakers at a housing conference this week organised by a local grassroots group.
The Action on Homes conference has invited asylum-seekers, the LGBTQ+ community, care leavers, people of colour and those with disabilities to share their stories and ideas.
National issues, like housing benefit caps and private sector rent increases, as well as local issues like empty council-owned and private houses are up for discussion.
Dan Harris, homelessness advocate and activist, said: “This is facilitated by Brighton and Hove Housing Coalition, who are a grassroots coalition of organisations linked to housing and homelessness.
“Since covid, we had the ‘Everyone In’ government initiative, which provided quite a bit of funding to local authorities. I mean, we had millions pumped into Brighton and Hove.
“People were taken off the streets and a lot of contracts were handed out to organisations but what we’re seeing now is a return to visible rough sleeping.
“It seems to me that they tend to be a bit lost in the council. They seem to not really know what to do.
“That’s why we need the conference. We have so many people in the city that do have a lot of ideas.
“These sorts of events are really good for producing reports and then continuing the campaign really.
“It’s about bringing everyone together and tackling those issues and, through our lived experiences, overcoming those.
“Hopefully, it’s the beginning of a bigger conversation. What the council keeps saying to us is ‘we want evidence’ so we’ve been collecting surveys, collecting evidence that we’re going to send to them. After that there’s no more excuses.
“It’s time for action on homes or people need to start possibly thinking about new jobs because they’re not working for the community.”
The Action on Homes housing conference is to be held at Brighthelm Centre, North Road, Brighton, on Wednesday 19 October from 2.30pm to 8.45pm.
Among the speakers scheduled to take part are
- Lord Bob Kerslake, the former head of the civil service and chair of the Kerslake Commission on Homelessness and Rough Sleeping
- Bob Blackman, Conservative MP and sponsor of the Homeless Reduction Act
- Jess and Matt Turtle, the co-founders of the Museum of Homelessness
- Hannah Bradburn, senior housing lawyer, Lawstop
- Peter Apps, deputy editor, Inside Housing
…
One of the local speakers is Tanya Virgoe, who spoke to Brighton and Hove News in August while fighting for accessible accommodation after an accident on the stairs in her temporary home.
Ms Virgoe said: “I’m being used as a case study. I’m willing to help as many people who are in my situation get their voice out there and heard.
“The council are damaging a lot of people mentally and physically. I’m putting my heart and soul out there so other people can come forward as well.”
one of “ideas” conspicuously absent in your report is the idea of building on “green spaces” and pushing-back the boundaries of “precious” Southdown Downs National “Park”.
Mostly because that would be illegal under the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000.
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/areas-of-outstanding-natural-beauty-aonbs-designation-and-management#local-authority-responsibilities
The immediate unpaid seizure and demolition of private homes to replace them with tower blocks is also not being tabled, for the same reason.
Instead of everyone wanting to live in Brighton which is as impractical as everyone wanting to live in zone 1 housing benefit should be restricted in areas where there is high employment to allow only workers with full time jobs to live in the town centre or the disabled who have very long links to the city and pensioners. With less competition for housing rents would go down and this would mean the housing benefit bill was lowered which would allow more investment to build high quality social housing in areas further north where there is more space.
Really? Change the law, then. BTW, your link simply states that the council has to “have regard to the purpose of AONB”