A call has gone out to contact Hackney Homes in protest after a young disabled man has been left fighting for his life shortly after being evicted from his home by the arms length management organisation (ALMO) who manage much of the social housing in Hackney.
“He has spent the last few days on a ventilator in the Royal London Hospital, and doctors are trying out various strong drugs to control his fits – which have still not worked to bring them under control.”
This eviction took place even after medical staff wrote to Hackney Homes warning that the young man needs: “stable surroundings as the likelihood of increased seizures and challenging behaviours will increase over periods of change”.
Despite this warning Hackney Homes pressed ahead with the eviction, which led to the family being moved four times in just two weeks. Speaking in the Hackney Gazette, George’s mother says she believes the instability caused by the families housing situation triggered her son’s deterioration in health:
“George has not had to be ventilated since he was three-years old, so this whole episode from seizures to stopping breathing is not normal for him.
“Although I could never prove it I’m sure all the upheaval and confusion has caused this, but this has happened 100 times worse than any of us expected.”
The family were evicted when Hackney Homes jobsworths ruled they could no longer live in the home her parents had inhabited for the last 40 years, after her father’s death two years ago. This eviction took place despite the family being entitled to social housing and led to them being placed in temporary accommodation whilst they awaited a suitable property with disabled access for Ms Hawkins and her three children.
This is exactly the kind of callous bureaucratic shambles which is likely to take place due to the bedroom tax, when families will be forced to move because a child has left home or even died.
At a time when hundreds of thousands of people stare homelessness in the face due to the bedroom tax, benefit cap and other changes to welfare, it is vital that ALMOs and social housing charities are held to account for their actions.
It is these organisations who will be on the front line of the Government’s vicious demolition of the social housing sector. Every eviction needs to be fought and social housing bosses should be held to account for their connivance in this regime.
Contact Hackney Homes on twitter @HackneyHomes and let them know we are watching their every move.
The Void
