Bristol is in the midst of a worsening housing crisis. With over 10,000 on the housing waiting list and private sector rent increases of 25% in just four years the situation is getting desperate. We need more homes of all types to help people onto the property ladder and to ensure there are enough affordable homes for those who need them. Private tenants need protection from extortionate rents and poor living conditions. On 5th May Bristol will elect a new Mayor. Whoever the winning candidate is they must make ending Bristol's housing crisis their number one priority. A new coalition of groups has formed to lead a single, united campaign - A Mayor For Homes. Please join us and make sure that Bristol's next Mayor delivers more, affordable housing and protections for tenants.

Begging is not harmful. Woking Borough Council argue that begging can be intimidating. But if someone feels intimidated, the Police can use existing powers under the Public Order Act. The council also said there is no need to beg in Woking- because there is sufficient help available. However, the waiting lists for NHS mental healthcare, and substance misuse treatment are not short. It is also claimed that many people who beg aren't actually homeless. Of course, lying about your circumstances is fraud and the Police can use existing powers to deal with it. This campaign is based on this information from Woking Council's website: https://www.woking.gov.uk/community/safety/pspo If you have anything that suggests that Woking Borough Council are no longer able to fine people for begging then we'd love to hear more from you, drop us an email at [email protected]

ACORN the Community union is launching this petition to protect Bristols council homes. Council Housing is an essential community asset, that gives less fortunate people a secure home at an actually affordable price. The Mayor claims it will cost too much to refurbish these homes, but any cost would surely be recuperated within a few years of collecting rent on them; and this argument ignores the social cost of selling off another one of our cherished community assets. Earlier this week Labour's Mayoral candidate Marvin Rees did a public service by drawing attention to the planned mass auction of Council Homes by Bristol City Council and the Mayor this coming April the 20th and calling for its halt. Many Greens and progressively minded people from across the political spectrum support this call. Some of our councillor's have objected to the auction of homes when they are in their wards, but as in many things their objections mean nothing when the Mayor is committed to it. That's why we need people power to stop this now before its too late. Please sign and share this petition far and wide and put a stop to Bristol City Council's flogging of yet more of our collective assets. Full list of the homes up for sale available here: https://m.facebook.com/groups/440011226079038?view=permalink&id=977946188952203 [picture taken from Bristol 24/7 article http://www.bristol247.com/channel/news-comment/mayor-election-2016/news/calls-to-halt-council-housing-auction originally from Hollis Morgan of some of the homes going under the hammer.]

The refuge is a safe place for women who's lives have been shattered by rape, sexual assault and domestic violence. Without this safe place, which although only short term, provides much needed breathing space. Not only that it shows these people that not everyone is out to hurt them. The removal of funding for these vital services, gives abused women the message that no one cares and it is ok for them to be abused. Is this a good message to send out across Cumbria?

63 Families on the Butterfields estate in Walthamstow are facing eviction. A private business has bought almost two whole streets in Walthamstow, east London, and put the homes up for auction as vacant properties with the tenants still inside. A first round of eviction notices have been served and more could be just weeks away. These houses are not just bricks and mortar - they are our homes. The Butterfields Estate is a close-knit community, with tenants ranging from London-born, raised, and retired locals, to young migrant families. Until the end of 2015, Butterfields Estate was owned by Glasspool Charitable Trust, set up 75 years ago with the intention of “Helping people out of poverty”. It offered relatively affordable tenancies for people on low incomes. The charity has sold 63 of these homes to private business ‘Butterfields E17 Ltd’ (rather than social landlords) without notifying its tenants. This means that our community is not only facing further gentrification, advertised by estate agents as “a worthy buy-to-let investment”. We are all facing the traumatising prospect of homelessness and misplacement – all in the name of profit. Sukran and Dogan Rashit have been given until 26 March to leave their home of more than ten years. “We don’t know what will happen to us,” Sukran says. “I have no money to put down a deposit on a new place. My husband and I aren’t young and we both have health problems. When you’ve lived in a place for ten years you know all your neighbours. My hospital, my GP and my daughter are all nearby. I can’t move somewhere new now. It’s frightening.” Magda Krol has two sons: the older goes to a local school, and the younger starts pre-school in September. “Yesterday after his homework Johnny started saying ‘I don’t want to move, what’s going to happen to my bed and my room?’, and he started to cry. I was trying to tell him not to worry.” Encouraged by successful campaigns like the New Era estate in Hackney, east London, we are determined to defend our homes and community. Please help us stop the evictions! “The potential for a fight-back is there,” says Nathaniel Andrew. “But only if we all fight together.” We urge you all to show your support for Butterfields Estate tenants by signing this petition to stop the forced evictions, and save our homes and our community!

My dads health is suffering and mine too with worrying it's for his sake

It is a sacrilege and a disgrace to have so many empty buildings (paid and subsidised by us the tax payers) when they could be used for greater good. KCC do the right thing and open up your empty buildings to the homeless now!!!

Because this is forcing low income families to fight to keep their homes as based on household rents this could mean two earners of 15'000 each that equal to the threshhold put in place and therefore could see them homeless or being desperately forced out of london away from their income and their childrens schools. Imagine being a low or even middle income family on social housing living within an area like hoxton or islington and being forced to pay local rents that could mean one whole salary spent on just rent before any other bills such as council tax / elec/ gas etc!!!!

ACORN members have found evidence of discriminatory practices from Bedminster letting agents Taylors. Hypothetically suggesting that he might soon be made redundant, ACORN member Doug Ross was told that "landlords don't want people on the dole with pitbulls moving into their houses when they could get doctors and lawyers.” This seems quite an assumption on the part of Taylors and seems more reflective of their own attitudes than anything else. Doug says “As if searching for a new home wasn’t tough enough in the worsening rent crisis; I find it disgraceful that an estate agent would imply such a stereotypical and prejudiced view of tenants receiving housing benefit. Everyone deserves the right to a home; we can not tolerate the stigmatisation of people due to their personal circumstances. Landlords and letting agents are forcing people from their neighbourhood because “there’s so much demand from London, landlords can be picky”. With “NO DSS” commonly featuring on letting listings, it’s hardly surprising there’s a growing number of homeless people in Bristol.” When ACORN mystery shopper Joanna Ball rang to enquire about letting out a property, she was advised against benefits claimants by Branch Manager Adam Millar. ‘I was shocked by the advice given to me as a landlord. Adam seemed very passionate about not letting to Housing Benefit claimants and strongly advised me against doing so, saying that as Bristol was so booming at the moment and there are so many professionals looking to rent, why I would even bother with “these people”. Even if you were an ethically minded landlord this strong advice would put you off.” Such advice, apparently from top staff condemns thousands of Bristol tenants as unfit to rent to; disproportionately affecting groups such as single-parent families, those with disabilities and working people whose jobs simply don’t pay enough. Not to mention those unlucky enough to be out of work through no fault of their own! Bristol rents have jumped 25% in four years. Our city is experiencing a major housing crisis and property professionals have key influence on affordability. By pushing landlords to let only to the most well off Taylors are complicit in pricing people out of communities such as Bedminster. We say that Taylors have a responsibility not only to their clients but to the sector they work in and to society at large. They do not operate in a vacuum and must also benefit the wider community. Please click the following link to sign up to our direct mailing list and stay updated on all our campaigns. http://www.acorncommunities.org.uk/

My parents have been trying for 10 years to get social housing closer to their immediate family, this will help them with living a better life and be cared for.

Increasing numbers of homeless people are being arrested for begging around the country. In 2013-14, 2771 cases were brought before the courts, a 70% increase on the previous year. Police use an archaic law which deems those found begging to be 'idle and disorderly'. Begging was made a recordable offence in 2003 against the strong criticisms of civil rights groups and homelessness organisations. Those prosecuted can be fined up to £1000 excluding court charges when found with just a few pennies. Those who have 'gathered alms' (that is, accepted money, food or other material goods offered to them) can be prosecuted under this same law with the same consequences. Some people are kept in cells for several nights. Although begging in and of itself is not an imprisonable offence, if the person is already on bail for another case a simple arrest for begging can lead to imprisonment. Those who are fined will inevitably have to beg more to pay off these fines, risking further arrests and fines, a punishment which stands out in its absurdity. Punishing the destitute for trying to survive is both costly and morally abhorrent. It is a waste of tax payers' money which is spent paying police who 'catch people out' in organised undercover operations, as well as on court cases to prosecute them. The minimum cost of bringing one case to the Magistrates' Court is £1000, meaning that in the year 2013-14, bringing begging cases before the courts cost the taxpayer at least £2.777 million. This is money that could be spent helping people rather than punishing them. Police also routinely move homeless people on under part 3 of the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act (2014) which gives police the power to confiscate property and exclude individuals from a particular area for up to 48 hours, with the officer also able to impose by what manner and route the person must leave. Failure to comply is a criminal offence which can result in a £2500 fine or 3 months in prison. Refusing to surrender your property is punishable by a fine of up to £500. The two conditions needed by officers to issue a dispersal order are firstly, that the constable has 'reasonable grounds to suspect that the behaviour of the person in the locality has contributed or is likely to contribute to (a) members of the public in the locality being harassed, alarmed or distressed, or (b) the occurrence in the locality of crime or disorder, and secondly, that the constable considers that giving a direction to the person is necessary for the purpose of removing or reducing the likelihood of (a) or (b)'. Given that begging is a crime considered 'idle and disorderly', the two laws in tandem essentially give police de facto power to exclude any homeless person from any area simply because they think it is likely that the person, being homeless, might beg there. The highly subjective definition of 'anti-social behaviour' as that which contributes or is likely to contribute to members of the public in the locality being harassed, alarmed or distressed reinforces this and even with the decriminalisation of begging, would still give police the power to move on any homeless person from any area simply because they believe doing so is necessary for the purpose of removing or reducing the likelihood of members of the public being distressed by seeing them. Seeing people forced to live on the streets is distressing to much of the public for good reason, but this compassionate distress means that under this definition a homeless person is considered to be exhibiting anti-social behaviour simply by existing visibly. The anti-social behaviour that causes the public distress is not caused by the homeless person however, but by the authorities' failure to provide people with shelter in a country that has 600,000 empty homes. As described by someone living on the street, being asked to move on when you have nowhere to go is like being asked to walk into a brick wall. These laws and their enforcement victimize vulnerable people who are already suffering the daily struggle of life on the streets or in insecure and unstable temporary accommodation. We believe that kicking someone for limping when it is you who cut off their leg is shameless and cruel. We believe that the government should be providing homes for the homeless, not handcuffs. We therefore call on parliament to repeal without replacement section 3 of the Vagrancy Act (1824), to amend part 3 of the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act (2014) to safeguard homeless people from its discriminatory use, and for an ultimate end to the criminalisation of homelessness by any and all other laws that may be newly concocted or dug up for this purpose. If you have an MP who may be sympathetic, get in touch with them to push this issue to parliament. We launched this petition at our demo at Brighton Magistrate's court on the 20th January.

The Housing Bill will take away public funding from affordable homes for rent, instead funnelling money into ‘Starter Homes’ that only the rich can afford. It will make it easier for private landlords to evict renters, and do nothing to control private rents. The bill will also force cash-strapped councils to hand over millions of pounds to housing associations to allow them to sell their properties cheaply, and replace secure tenancies with ones as short as 2 years Social housing has been the bedrock of many communities for the past 70 years. It pays for itself and 30 years ago provided homes to one in three British people, allowing people and communities to thrive. We are not against people buying a home, but this must not be at the expense of social housing for those who can’t afford to buy.