The plight of local people affected by housing issues has been highlighted in a guest lecture delivered by Kent doctoral law student Laura Binger.
The event helped raise awareness of the Canterbury Housing Advice Centre (CHAC) who co-hosted the lecture on the University’s Canterbury campus in association with Kent Law School.
Laura, a graduate of Harvard Law School, is in the second year of her PhD studies at Kent Law School and has extensive experience of supporting people with housing problems both in America and the UK. Her lecture, entitled ‘Activism and Homelessness in Kent’, marked the 50th anniversary of the one-year King Hill Hostel Campaign; a campaign of direct action mounted by residents of a hostel in West Malling, described by Laura as a ‘place of last resort’.
Residents were subject to strict time limits on stays and harsh rules imposed by Kent County Council which meant that husbands and teenage sons were banned from living with their families.
Laura drew attention to the story of the Daniels family, whose threatened eviction from the hostel in 1965 finally provoked the residents into action and drew the attention of national newspapers. She recounted how the residents openly defied the council with eviction blockades, public fasts and numerous demonstrations.
Although the impact of the King Hill Hostel Campaign resonated beyond Kent’s borders with subsequent protests in other parts of the country and ultimately, a change in policy, Laura pointed out that strict time limits on stays still remain a reality today.
CHAC chair Nick Jackson, who is also a senior lecturer at Kent Law School, reported that 1,800 Canterbury residents called upon the free, independent housing help and advice offered by CHAC last year and drew attention to the financial predicament facing the charity following major funding cuts earlier this year.
To help encourage donations to CHAC, which needs to raise more than £40,000 to survive next year, Nick presented committee member Jill White, with a cheque for £500.
Nick said: ‘CHAC is the only source of support on any scale in this area. Our focus is to prevent homelessness and to keep people in housing. We need to expand CHAC’s services to meet the need for housing advice in Canterbury.’
Jill said: ‘CHAC is like a safety net. CHAC enables people to keep their homes and is a massive source of support to people in need. We are putting big efforts into getting grant funding – already with some success – but we also need help from the public and are looking particularly for students and staff at the University of Kent to get involved in supporting us.’
Professor Helen Carr from Kent Law School chaired a discussion following the lecture which was attended by staff, students and supporters of CHAC.
CHAC will be manning a stall at Kent’s Refresher’s Fair on 5/6 February 2015 and the Law School is holding a craft sale for CHAC in the Brian Simpson Room (L42) on the lower floor of Eliot Extension on Friday 5 December.
