Collina street: The occupation continues
Since January 2021, members of the Wyndford and residents across Maryhill have been occupying Collina Street, locally know at 'The Valley', to stop the sale by the Glasgow Council of this former site of public homes for private development. They are occupying the land until their demands for it to be used for community managed, environmentally friendly, housing for social rent are met.
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Will Glasgow City Council stand up for tenants?
Living Rent statement on GCC Full Council meeting, 11 March 2021
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Housing as a feminist issue
Housing is one of the primary sites of social reproduction; a home is made from the unpaid and emotional labour that has historically been carried out by women. The labour that takes place within the home is centred on sustaining life, rather than accruing profit. It should come as no surprise that women have been and continue to be central to the housing movement. Living Rent is no exception.
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Muirhouse News - 6 Blocks Issue 5
Living Rent Union members in the Muirhouse branch have published their 5th issue of 'The Six Blocks' documenting their struggles, concerns, and successes in their ongoing fight against Edinburgh Council for better public housing conditions. Access the fourth issue of this newsletter here.
Glasgow Life: still a closed book on library reopenings
Living Rent demands that Councillor David McDonald gives local communities honest answers on our services!
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Why you should join your tenants' union!
From our member Maria Torres Quevedo:
"As urban planner Raquel Rolnik states in a recent interview on the podcast A World to Win: “A house is a portal to other human rights: access to education, a good environment, access to health, access to cultural and economic opportunities.” Through my experience with Living Rent, I would add to this that a house can connect you to your street, your block, your city, and these, in turn, can help you make your house a home – not just as a building, but as part of a community.
All of this marks a significant shift in our collective narrative about our homes, our cities, the country, even the world we share. The housing market is not a god that should decide our fate; it’s up to us to build a community where people's needs are met. This work isn’t done, but your neighbours are doing it, and you can join them.
Read the entire article here.
Making the case for rent controls
Living Rent built itself notably on the sustained efforts by tenants between 2014 and 2016 to shape the 2016 Private Housing Act. After a two year long campaign for secure, quality and affordable housing, the union won legislation which provided more secure tenancies and a first attempt towards rent controls: the rent pressure zones. This was a real victory for the tenants' movement: after 30 years, rent controls were on the table again as a sensible solution to tackle the housing crisis!
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Living Rent's manifesto: Why our demands matter
Our members wrote for Bella Caledonia about the background to our manifesto's demands:
"Let’s remind ourselves, since we got our parliament back, Scotland demolished 66,000 public homes, and sold off nearly half a million more through right to buy, ultimately leading to the takeover of our public housing in places by rapacious private landlords. We can stop this. We must stop this. Poverty and despair is rising, but we still have opportunity to change this. The only force that ever changed anything is organised people."Read the entire article here.
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Living Rent is recruiting a member defence coordinator for the East Coast!
Living Rent is hiring!
Join our expanding team of organisers to fight for housing that works for people. After a full-on year, we have seen the importance of people coming together and fighting for their rights. As Living Rent grows and expands, so have our member defence teams and we are excited to welcome on board another member defence coordinator, to support member defence teams in Edinburgh and across the East Coast to fight back for their rights. This is a fixed 12 months full time contract at Living Wage.
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Up the standards: Fight for a better standard of repairs
Across our branches, one issues that keeps coming up is the poor standard of repairs across social and public housing. Tenants are made to live in house unfit for occupation: ongoing damp, black mould, leaks and recurring poor standards of repairs leave tenants facing enormous heating bills, health issues from the damp and mould as well as stress of having to live in such conditions. Local member defence teams support tenants to fight for individual repairs, however we know that broader structural changes are needed too.
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