I am a housing campaigner, one of the reasons I support the black lives matter movement is because I am a minority myself, but also because through my advocacy and campaigning work I come across Social Injustice the case study below.
Client A, is 34 weeks pregnant and has a 14 month old child, Client A lived with her asylum seeker partner here in Brighton and Hove, he was black. his parents live on an estate in London. He had no recourse to public funds, and sadly this April Client A’s partner and the father to her unborn child, was sadly murdered in a stabbing right here in the city!
https://www.theargus.co.uk/news/18401736.whitehawk-stavving-two-men-charged-murder/
My client lived in Temporary Accommodation when this happened, as you can imagine this has tuned my clients world upside down. After the initial shock, my client became fearful due to the nature of this traumatic event. She was distressed with living so close to where her partner was murdered.
Approaching The Council For A Move
My Client politely asked Brighton and Hove City Council for help to get moved, somewhere she can grieve and prepare for the arrival of her new child. She wanted this to be handled delicately, with compassion, empathy and understanding.
Initially the council were hellbent on placing Client A and her 14 month son back into an unsupported Emergency Accommodation hostel, they even said “Eastbourne”. This is not an environment to bring up children, and my client had recently been moved out of emergency accommodation into this temp accommodation flat. The council said the offer had to be accepted that day.
After getting some legal advice, my client was clear she would be willing to wait a little while longer in order to be more settled and not have to deal with more unneeded stress. Each and every property the council showed by client had issues.
Property Offer No1:
Property Offer No 2
Final Offer:
Under Duress, Client A took the final offer of Temporary Accommodation, whilst this property was okay, albeit she was worried by the strong smell of damp (which is always a sign winter will be a nightmare) She asked for 14 days to move as she is single and had no one to help (she was given £50 moving budget) The council refused her request and forced her to move within 5 days of viewing. My client has been living in her property (placed by Temporary Accommodations Team at Brighton and Hove City Council) for 6 days now.
Brighton and Hove City Council Temporary Accommodation Team has left my Client without access to:
1. A WORKING BOILER
2. A working cooker
3. Hot Water
4. Central Heating
She has been told ‘nothing can be done until next week minimum’. The council forced her to move in 5 days, when she asked for 14 days.
She was on the phone in tears to me this morning, she said she was so desperate she wanted to go back. She said she spoke to someone called Dave at Brighton and Hove City Council who said that “if she didn’t like it she could always look for private rented accommodation”.
A well known THREAT they often make to people.