Obituary: Rufus Harris | Society | SocietyGuardian.co.uk

Obituary: Rufus Harris | Society | SocietyGuardian.co.uk: "Rufus Harris


Co-founder of Release, the group that gives legal advice to people on drugs charges

Steve Abrams
Monday April 30, 2007
The Guardian

In the summer of 1967 Rufus Harris, who has died of cancer aged 61, and the artist Caroline Coon formed Release, an underground organisation that provided legal advice and welfare services to young people arrested for drugs offences. Jonathan Aitken, who did much to smooth the way for Release, commented at the time that if Release did not exist it would have to be invented. High-profile clients included John Lennon and George Harrison, who donated £5,000 in 1969.

Release gained charitable status in 1972, following a review of its activities by the Rowntree Foundation. By the mid-1970s, Release had become 'official', supported directly by a Home Office grant, without compromising its libertarian principles. In June a conference will celebrate its 40th anniversary.

Rufus was the son of an entrepreneur of Dutch-German extraction born in 1881 and his much younger Finnish wife, a medical student stranded in London at the outbreak of the second world war. Rufus was educated at Brighton College and then studied painting at St Martin's College of Art and at Kingston College of Art. He lived in North Wales for a period before returning to Lon"

Private van guards to assess whether young are tough enough for adult jails | Society | SocietyGuardian.co.uk

Is it April Fool's Day?

Private van guards to assess whether young are tough enough for adult jails | Society | SocietyGuardian.co.uk: "Private van guards to assess whether young are tough enough for adult jails


· Experts fear for safety of remand prisoners
· Move to free up space as crowding hits new high

Alan Travis, home affairs editor
Monday April 30, 2007
The Guardian

Private security staff who operate prison vans will decide from today whether young adults awaiting trial in London are mentally strong enough to survive in the toughest prisons.

Up to 80 youngsters aged 18 to 20 are to be held on remand in Brixton, Wandsworth and Wormwood Scrubs prisons while they await trial or sentence alongside some of the most hardened career criminals for the first time from today as the jail system struggles with overcrowding.

Serco private escort officers staffing the vans which move prisoners between courts and prisons in London will decide whether a young adult on remand is too much of a suicide risk to be held at an adult prison and should be sent instead to Feltham young offender institution.

Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust, said she was horrified that the private escorts were being entrusted with deciding who might not make it through the night in an adult jail when even experienced mental health professionals struggled to assess the ri"

St Mungo's hostel first to benefit through Government funding package

St Mungo's hostel first for refit through Government funding | 24dash.com - Social Housing

St Mungo's hostel first for refit through Government funding

Back to Social Housing

Publisher: Jon Land
Published: 26/04/2007 - 17:18:49 PM print version Printable version
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St Mungo's hostel first to benefit through Government funding package
St Mungo's hostel first to
benefit through Government
funding package
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Minister for the Third Sector Ed Miliband cut the ribbon today on a newly refurbished London hostel for the homeless - the first of 150 centres across the country to be improved through a Government funding package.

The St Mungo's Cromwell Road hostel was revamped with money from the Department of Communities and Local Government's Hostels Capital Improvement Programme.

Under the initiative £90 million will be invested in improvements to 150 hostels and day centres by March 2008.

Residents of the Cromwell Road hostel - which now accommodates 52 homeless men and two couples - were involved in every stage of the project and even helped to interview new staff.

The hostel supports residents as they rebuild their self-esteem and aspirations and helps them to move on with their lives.

Re-opening the building today, Mr Miliband said: "St Mungo's do incredible work with homeless people and this state-of-the-art hostel will prove the vital stepping stone for many vulnerable adults looking to turn their lives around.

"By involving residents in the redesign of their own hostel, St Mungo's have created a powerful demonstration that the best public services need to place the views of those who use them at their heart."

Charles Fraser, chief executive of St Mungo's, added: "We are very proud of the work being carried out at our Cromwell Road hostel.

"St Mungo's work is all about enabling our clients to eventually leave our services.

"Our hostels provide a safe place where homeless people can get the healthcare they need and take the first steps on the road to employment and independent living."

Speaking about the Government's bid to improve hostels nationwide, Minister for Housing and Planning, Yvette Cooper, said: "This investment is making hostels places where homeless people can rebuild their lives and make a permanent move away from the street."

Councillor Fiona Buxton, Kensington and Chelsea Borough Council's Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care, said: "Our aim has always been to sustain independence and to help people change their lives.

"Not everyone is equipped to cope with life changing traumas and social exclusion such as rough sleeping, begging and street drinking can often be the result.

"Working in partnership we have been able to bring new life to this hostel and empower vulnerable adults to make life-changing decisions. This really is a great place for residents to start to rebuild their lives and focus on developing life skills, completing training and gaining employment."

The council provides £790,000 funding a year to pay for support services at the hostel.

New Social Housing

 

the cost of democracy: it requires some effort on our part.

Guardian Unlimited | Comment is free | The best way to give the poor a real voice is through a world parliament

What the scale of these supranational bodies demands is a more participatory democracy than any we have been offered so far. The recent fiasco surrounding the European constitution is a useful demonstration of how not to do it. First the people of Europe were presented with a meaningless question which makes a mockery of democracy. "Here is a document containing hundreds of proposals. Some of them will be good for you, others will be bad for you. You must agree to all of them or none of them. If you agree (and we will keep asking until you do), we will deem that you have consented to every measure it contains." When this pantomime of managed consent fails, the managers announce - as Tony Blair did last week - that a referendum is, after all, unnecessary. We will have a new constitution whether we want one or not, and it will be written and approved on our behalf. Nothing could be better calculated to destroy our remaining enthusiasm for Europe.

'intentionally homeless'

Cold callers 'break rules to lure right-to-buy tenants' | Communities | SocietyGuardian.co.uk

Cold callers 'break rules to lure right-to-buy tenants'


Jill Insley on the firms accused of misleading social housing renters into taking on huge loans

Sunday April 22, 2007
The Observer

Housing association chiefs are warning their social housing tenants to beware cold callers using dubious tactics to persuade them to exercise their right to buy.

Housing associations that have taken over the management of council estates around the country have told The Observer that their tenants are being targeted by cold-calling canvassers knocking on their door. This is a practice that breaks Financial Services Authority mortgage rules if it involves selling, but the firms contacted by The Observer claim that they are simply making tenants aware of their right to buy.

In many cases, the housing associations report that canvassers are making false statements and pressing tenants into signing application forms when they have no real interest in buying their homes.

Ron Dougan, chief executive of Trent & Dove, a housing association that manages more than 5,000 homes in the Midlands, says estates in Burton upon Trent and Uttoxeter have been targeted by at least four right-to-buy service firms to his knowledge.

He says some cold callers have falsely claimed that housing benefit payments would continue after a property has been bought; that Trent & Dove would still carry out repairs for the tenant even after completion of the sale; and that retired tenants would still be eligible for mortgages even when the state pension was their only income.

'They have also told tenants that the housing association will allow them to clear rent arrears on completion of the sale, encouraging them to build up arrears in the meantime, and that they can add fees for the broker's services [approximately £3,000] and any miscellaneous debt to the mortgage,' he says. 'This means the tenant will end up paying interest on an arrangement fee and wipe out the benefit of the discount the tenant receives on the value of the property.

'I'm angry about any organisation that misleads tenants into making one of the most important decisions of their lives - decisions that can create a great deal of misery if they are not fully informed.

'We've had tenants come back after buying their homes with all sorts of problems - they can't afford the repairs or their mortgage, and in some cases their homes are about to be repossessed. At an educated guess, I would say about 5 per cent of those properties we have sold have been repossessed by the lenders.'

Tenants are often told that it will be cheaper to have a mortgage than rent, but because housing association rents are much lower than those in the private sector, this is rarely the case.

Debbie Davies, a single parent and an adviser volunteer for East Staffordshire Citizens Advice in Burton upon Trent, has herself been targeted by cold canvassers. At the time she was working just a few hours a week and did not qualify for working tax credit, yet the canvasser told her that if she included the child benefit for her three teenage children in her income details, she would be able to apply for a mortgage.

'The way they wrote it down, I sounded like a millionaire, even though in a few years my children would be grown up and therefore no longer eligible for the benefit,' she says.

Cold canvassers have persuaded tenants of Trans-Pennine Housing in Halifax to apply for right to buy by telling them that the scheme is ending. Karen Morley, head of finance for the housing association, says: 'The cold callers are targeting vulnerable persons who often do not understand what they are signing - and certainly do not realise that they do not need to pay a fee to get help with the process.'

Tenants of housing association properties, particularly those who were previously council tenants, usually receive large discounts on the value of their home when buying. But this discount has to be repaid if the house is sold on or repossessed within three or five years of purchase (depending on when you bought your home).

Morley says Trans-Pennine has been asked not to reclaim discounts by former tenants who wanted to sell their home to avoid repossession.

Former tenants in this situation are unlikely to qualify for further help in finding housing from their council or housing association as they will be deemed to have made themselves 'intentionally homeless' by taking out a mortgage they could not afford.

Other housing associations whose tenants have been targeted include Aspire Housing in Staffordshire, Luminus in Cambridgeshire and Community Gateway in Preston.

Sue Washington, legal services manager for Aspire Housing, says cold callers claim to be acting in conjunction with the housing association. 'We have in the past complained to Trading Standards on this issue. The names of the organisations often give the appearance of council tie-ins or involvement.

'We frequently get "batches" of applications - often on the wrong form - which result in us having to refuse the application and advising that the appropriate form be completed and a pack is enclosed. We send these direct to the tenant rather than to the cold caller. The tenants then telephone us to say that they have said they are interested just to get rid of the cold callers and ask us to cancel any subsequent application that we receive.

'We have also been informed by the tenants of one property that the right-to-buy application had been sent in without their completing the form or authorising the action.'

'He asked for help, they gave him a bigger loan'

Six years ago Arthur Stone, a postman in Burton upon Trent, bought the council home in which he had lived with his parents since he was 10. He had been wrongly told by acquaintances that, after the death of his parents, Trent & Dove Housing Association would not allow him to continue renting their house.

He bought the property with a £17,000 mortgage from the Nationwide, and six months later took out a further £10,000 for a new kitchen and bathroom. At this point Arthur, who struggled to understand money after his employer stopped paying him in cash, could no longer work out his budget. Because he had a mortgage he was bombarded with offers for credit cards and loans, which he took up to pay his mortgage. As his debts escalated, he remortgaged - first with HSBC for £60,000 and then GE Money for £75,000.

The extra £15,000 from the GE loan was intended to pay off a loan with Household, a division of HSBC. But when he tried to pay the money into his HSBC account prior to paying off the loan, he says the bank advised him to take out a cash mini-Isa and put the remainder in a savings account. Instead of paying off the loan, he has been using the 'savings' to meet the monthly payments on all his debts and his mortgage. He owes more than £100,000.

Suman Antcliffe of Citizens Advice is trying to help. She says: 'Arthur wants to do the right thing, to repay his debts, and every time he has asked the banks for advice, they appear to have encouraged him to take out a bigger loan.'

Arthur is unlikely to be able to meet his mortgage payment next month, and Antcliffe fears that unless GE Money agrees to renegotiate, he will soon lose his home. He is likely to be treated by the housing association as if he had made himself 'intentionally homeless'.

GE Money says Arthur's mortgage was reasonable based on his income and the monthly payment was lower than those for his previous mortgage and debts, but says: 'We should have taken action when Citizens Advice first contacted us. We will now talk with Mr Stone about what course of action can be taken.' However HSBC says it cannot help, and has done nothing wrong. A spokesman said: 'Our branch teams are trained to a very high standard ... and we are confident that they followed standard procedure.' Citizens Advice is advising Arthur, who intends to complain to the ombudsman.

city at night

 

London's great allure is the promise it gives - the sense of possibility.

Make London part of Britain again | Dt Opinion | Opinion | Telegraph

With the exception of Rome, no city has been so prominent in the history of the world for so long, but in the past 20 years something new has happened. The capital has become more important than the country. As far as the rest of the world is concerned, London is the greatest city on the planet, with a fairly unimportant country attached.

One watches all of this and wonders: Where are the grown-ups?

OpinionJournal - Peggy Noonan

The literally white-bearded academic who was head of the campus counseling center was on Paula Zahn Wednesday night suggesting the utter incompetence of officials to stop a man who had stalked two women, set a fire in his room, written morbid and violent plays and poems, been expelled from one class, and been declared by a judge to be "mentally ill" was due to the lack of a government "safety net." In a news conference, he decried inadequate "funding for mental health services in the United States." Way to take responsibility. Way to show the kids how to dodge.

The Simon Community

Simon News: PRESS RELEASE: Numbers of people sleeping rough in London rises again

Numbers of people sleeping rough in London rises again

The count was undertaken by more than 40 Simon Community volunteers, including present and former rough sleepers, who carried out the extensive 3-5 hour search in the streets of Camden, Islington, Tower Hamlets, City of London, Westminster, Kensington and Chelsea, Southwark and Lambeth. The Simon Community carries out headcounts twice a year to help it to plan its outreach support programmes for those sleeping on the streets. It also enables the charity to act as an independent monitor of the figures presented by local authorities.

The Simon Community is one of the oldest homelessness charities and has been operating for 44 years. It remains entirely free of government or local authority funding, so as to offer an independent voice for the homeless and rootless on all aspects of government policy relating to homelessness and social exclusion.

Tim Nicholls, Director of the Simon Community said, “Whilst the government has achieved much in reducing the numbers sleeping rough from the particularly high figures of the mid 1990s, we are saddened to see that there are still so many people sleeping out on London’s streets, including a high proportion from the new accession countries of Eastern Europe. We have been calling for a regional strategy for a number of years and are pleased that the Mayor of London has created a London Housing Strategy. We urge him to place issues of rough sleeping, homelessness and appropriate support for those who are socially excluded at the heart of this strategy. The Simon Community hopes that this will lead to a more co-ordinated regional approach and be better than the piecemeal and parochial attitudes adopted, in recent years, by some local authorities, so that the hard to reach homeless can finally be fully supported to re-integrate and rebuild their lives.”

The Simon Community’s detailed headcount figures are as follows:

Westminster. 196 people; Camden 29 people; Kensington and Chelsea 7 people; Lambeth 16 people; Southwark 11 people; City of London 29 people; Islington 10 people; Tower Hamlets 3 people

NOTES TO THE EDITOR.

1. In November 2006, the Simon Community counted 332 people sleeping rough. In April (?) 2006, the Simon Community counted 276 people. Historically there are often higher numbers sleeping rough in the city at the beginning of the winter as the agricultural season ends.

2. On the same night that the Simon Community carried out its headcount it phoned round 66 hostels in central London to discover the number of vacant emergency bed spaces. Of the 3072 beds in these 66 hostels, 42 bed spaces were free that night.

an "overwhelming consciousness to spend money wisely"

RecruiterMagazine.co.uk - Clients need contractual relationships with agents

Clients need contractual relationships with agents

Published: 18 April 2007 Author: Ben Jones
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Recruiters and clients need a clear contractual relationship to work well together, according to a representative from a charity for the homeless.

Pete Jeffery, executive director of HR, audit and facilities at St Mungo's, said that the organisation was evaluating the way it used agency staff in order to keep tabs on spending. Jeffery revealed that up to 10% of his staff budget each year went on agency staff.

"I think the thing which has become most apparent to us, when dealing with agencies, is the need for a very clear contractual relationship," Jeffery told Recruiter.

"Agencies need to know what we expect from them, not just in terms of cost but also on an output basis."

Jeffery said that, although relations between his organisation and agencies had improved, St Mungo's had experienced problems in the past with the standard of some agency staff. A number, for example, had not been background checked with the Criminal Records Bureau — mandatory for anyone who wants to work with vulnerable people.

Jeffery said that, because St Mungo's relied on irregular funding streams from others, there was an "overwhelming consciousness to spend money wisely". It was this desire to be prudent which had led the charity to look at its use of agency staff.

Jeffery was speaking at a Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development forum on 2 April on the challenges of managing agency and temporary workers.

Cally Park Islington

Bechtel engineers support for homeless young people

24dash : Printable version: "Bechtel engineers support for homeless young people


Publisher: Ian Morgan
Published: 10/04/2007"

Global engineering firm has donated £25,000 in support of Foyer's work with homeless young people in London.

Thanks to the support of Bechtel, Foyer aims to increase the participation of young people in learning by working with young people living in London Foyers to develop their communication skills and act as Ambassadors for the Foyer Network.

Foyer Chief Executive, Jane Slowey, said: "Foyer recognises the powerful effect on young people of hearing inspiring stories from their peers about overcoming barriers to learning, and achieving success on a learning programme.

"This support from Bechtel will enable us to work with young people to encourage their peers to take up learning and make a positive transition into independence."

Foyer gives a voice to over 130 local Foyers across the UK, and to the 10,000 disadvantaged young people with whom they work each year. It provides a forum for sharing best practice and accessing funding, training and a range of support, while the Foyer Accreditation Scheme ensures the quality and consistency of Foyer services.