Members hit the streets of Glasgow and Edinburgh demanding a Winter Break on evictions.
Glasgow member Will put together this report on the days actions in Glasgow
Living Rent took to the streets of Partick to raise awareness about the union and its Winter Break campaign. Members braved the weather to set up a stall in Mansfield Square and engage with local residents. Under the trusty Living Rent gazebo members distributed leaflets and collected signatures. In just a few hours over 100 signatures were gathered for the Winter Break petition bringing Living Rent one step closer to implementing the break.
Jack Hanington, a Living Rent member, described the day.
“It was nice to be out talking to the local community and just spreading our message. The winter break is an important campaign and it’s great to see that people are behind us too.”
“The weathers not great yet we’ve got ten or so people out on a Saturday to help get signatures so it really shows the dedication of members.”
Partick is home to one of Living Rent’s largest victories where a massive rent reduction was won from the Housing association. The area has seen rent increases and a shortage of quality affordable housing, a future key battleground in the fight for fair housing.
Linda, Glasgow member defence lead, said
“I’ve put some hard work into this area with Living Rent to win rent reductions and improve the social housing. This stall shows we’re not done yet in Partick and that we’re here to stay.”
“People are stopping and talking about Living Rent and the Winter Break. We’ve sold badges, gathered donations and got a plenty of signatures for the petition. I’d say it was a successful day.”
Living Rent is seeing increasing support across Glasgow as tenants become more aware of rogue landlords and agencies. After a successful direct action against Infinity properties in Finnieston just two days before, the Union has continued to move forward. Glasgow's events lead Joey explained the Union’s appeal.
"We’re out in Patrick today to keep the momentum up, letting folk know that we're building up a union which is already fighting and winning on local issues affecting tenants, and trying to shift the balance of power city-wide.”
“We got a great response in the streets - everyone has a story to tell about getting exploited by a landlord...now we can do something about it!"“
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