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Wrong to evict Jim after all these years
• I'M writing in response to your article 'Transplant patient fights to stay in home 30 years', (Nov 16).
First off, I'd like to make clear that the Carol Street Housing Co-operative is in total support of James Higgins', Plume Tarrant's and their son Ami-Jay's battle to avoid being evicted from their home of 30 years at.
Further, I would like to clarify the many inaccuracies made by the council press official in the article regarding both the history of the Carol Street Housing Co-operative and its current status.
For one thing, far from "failing" as the council press official erroneously stated, the Carol Street Housing Co-operative continues to be one of the most successful housing co-operatives in London, with a long history of good management and high maintenance standards.
The Co-op continues to attract interesting people from diverse backgrounds who seek an alternative to market accommodations and it continues to maintain its current properties on Royal College Street and Carol Street at a high
level.
The council took over some of the Co-op's properties on Carol Street, only after members of the Co-op living on Carol Street (and not the entire Co-op) voted to return to council management.
Until that time, the Co-op houses on Carol Street, as well as its other properties, were all maintained at a high standard, and if some of the properties on Carol Street have fallen into disrepair, this has only happened since they have been returned to council management.
It is also incorrect to state that "many of the homes" on Carol Street "were underused".
During the Co-op's management, all of the houses were occupied properly, as it is part of the Co-op's commitment to affordable social housing that its waiting list is rigorously maintained and that when vacancies arise, candidates are housed with minimal delay.
It is also questionable what the council means by stating that the "outgoing residents" are now "living happily in homes more suited for their needs," when the kind of co-operative housing offered by our Co-op, as well as others, is precisely what some people need and prefer, for a variety of reasons, not the least of which, on occasion, includes health and well-being.
On a personal note, I have lived in one of the Co-operative's houses on Carol Street, and the room in question, which the council maintains is a "fourth bedroom," was always used as a storage room.
Having seen these rooms, it is clear that they are not fit to be used as a bedroom. To say they are and, because of this, to seek to evict a long term tenant with severe health disabilities, another who has put an enormous amount of time, effort and energy into the community, and a youth going through a delicate period of age, from the home he has known all his life, strikes me as unthinkable.
Sadly, the council thinks otherwise. For what its worth, I'm a writer and journalist, the author of several books and a frequent contributor to the Guardian and Independent on Sunday, as well as a founding member of the rock group Blondie.
I am also a Development Officer for the Carol Street Housing Co-operative, and in that capacity want again to convey my own, as well as the Co-op's, support to James, Ami-Jay and Plume.
GARY LACHMAN
Carol Street Housing Co-Operative
Royal College Street, NW1
• JIMMY and Plume have lived in Carol Street for 30 years now. It seems very cruel to force them to move over the technical issue of the tenancy being "unsecured". Common decency would seem to dictate that these by-now local people should be allowed to stay in their long-time home.
This has been Amy-Jay's home for all of his life, and it would be most unjust to uproot him from neighbourhood, school and friends. It is noticeable that the only alternative accommodation offered has not been in a friendly neighbourhood such as Plume especially has tried to foster over the years, but on housing estates, where a potentially hostile environment could be highly deleterious to this young man's development.
NAME AND ADDRESS SUPPLIED
• RE: Transplant patient fights to stay in home 30 years (Nov 16).
We agree with Camden housing moving James Higgins into a smaller accommodation and the larger property to a family who needs it most.
As for the son, we are sure he will make new friends at which ever school he goes to.
MARY SMITH
Camden Street, NW1
• I AM writing in response to a letter headed "Housing should be according to need" (Nov 23). Mr John Williams put up a fair but one-sided argument. Let's not forget it was Camden Council that sold off a large number of homes for profit and in doing so has put Camdeners in this position.
So why should people have to give up their homes? I myself was born a Camden tenant, with seven brothers and sisters. We also lived in two rooms and spent two years in B&Bs and yes, it was difficult but at no time would I have ever wished someone to lose their home because I thought I needed it more!
There are people that live in Camden Council homes and have done so all their lives; these are family homes where generations of families have lived and died. I have spent a great deal of time and money keeping my home well maintained, but what would have been the point if our secure tenancy becomes worthless.
I think it shameful and it is truly a sign of the world we live in that we have now feel fear inside our homes as well as outside.
A GALLAGHER
Address supplied
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