Help save our homes - Stop One Housing Group evicting Islington Park Street and Crescent Road Communities

What we want

1) To Stop the eviction process

2) For One Housing Group to engage with us so that we can reach a mutual agreement

3) For Homes Community Agency to monitor and facilitate the recognition of communal living

Why?

We are two London communities, one made up of 18 low-income adults who share a cooperative house in Islington, the other is 21 adults and 3 children who share a similar house in Kingston. Our communities have been in existence for nearly 40 years and some of us have lived in our home for over three decades.

One Housing Group, the housing association that owns our properties, has stated that "group homes" such as ours must be "phased out" and that they intend to "decant" us. Court proceedings are being initiated in an attempt to evict all residents from the properties as soon as possible.

Our residents range in age from 4 to 79 and we are thriving examples of supportive, sustainable communal living. We cook, eat and socialise together, make decisions together about how our houses are run, and collectively provide care and support to those of our residents who are young, elderly or sick.

Many of us are vulnerable and will be seriously affected if we are evicted from our home. One older resident has Parkinson’s disease and is likely to be forced into residential care if he is removed from his house. Another spent his youth in foster care and was placed in his house by social services, aged 16; this is the only home he has known. One resident found her community as a place of safety following years of domestic abuse. Children may have to change their schooling and sole parents will lose their support systems and local contacts.

Our way of life offers a positive vision of sustainable, supportive, affordable communal living and an alternative to the social isolation faced by many in the city. Social landlords should be fostering more communities like ours, not tearing us apart.

Please sign this petition if you agree that these areas need social housing and stop our landlord evicting us from our homes.





Links

http://www.islingtonparkstreet.org

http://www.crescentroadcommunity.org

facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/1583387651934878/

Twitter: CrescentRoadCommunity @StickingHere and Islington Park St @islingtonparkst