Thursday 2nd May @ 6:45 pm – 8:30 pm
Medact’s London Housing & Health Group is organising to improve policies for better access to secure and sustainable housing.
This includes working alongside local groups to support local campaigns, as well as demanding policy change on a national level for better support for social housing, community-owned housing stock and protections for renters.
The New Joiners meeting is a space to meet other Medact members and health workers interested in the intersections of housing and health work. You have the opportunity to hear about:
- What Medact is
- History and function of the London Housing and Health Group
- Our housing and health justice analysis
- Current campaign and organising work
- How to get involved.
If you’re looking for ways to contribute to affect meaningful change to the UK’s housing system to win equal access to good quality housing that doesn’t compromise on people’s health, this is a great way to do it. You don’t have to be a regular member of the EJ&H group or a health worker to get involved—everyone is welcome!
Background
The housing system in the UK is broken. Currently, 1.6 million households are on social housing waiting lists and millions more are struggling to meet unaffordable rents in the private sector. One in five dwellings in England fail to meet decent standards for living, with disregard for basic health and safety measures all too common. Housing is not equitably distributed in the UK: poorer households, ethnic minority groups, the elderly and adults with disabilities are all more likely to live in low-quality, unsafe, insecure housing. Despite all of this, social and private rents are growing faster than the cost of living. Social housing stock is dwindling, yet there are around five times more empty homes in the country than households in need of housing.
As part of the health community, we see and care for the symptoms of an unjust economic system. We are united in struggle with friends and colleagues within and beyond the NHS in organising to end housing-related health inequalities. You can read more in our booklet The Public Health Case for Secure Housing