Sistah-Space - Hackney women's shelter - facing eviction

[ArabellaScott]

'Sistah Space is Hackney’s only service to support women of African & Caribbean heritage who suffer domestic abuse. They are seeing record demand but Hackney Council wants to evict them from their current premises and relocate them somewhere that is unsuitable. '

There is a fundraiser for this, easily findable by google, Sistah-Space are also asking for people who live in Hackney to write to the council for support. I think anyone write to the Mayors(?). More information below.

www.savesistahspace.uk/

www.savesistahspace.uk/

I find this all very odd. I read into this after seeing on twitter and came to the same conclusions as this thread. The campaign seems very professional. While there may be very valid reasons for not wanting to go back to the old premises, there is no way being expected to move back to premises that have been refurbished for you, as agreed, counts as eviction.

This is interesting. It is good to know that the charity is not at risk but why are they doing this.

I am a bit surprised that the locations are so well known. I have had help from DV services and my local branch looked just like an ordinary house.

I have sympathy with the fact that they are in a safer place and therefore more women are using, but I think that should have been the argument and it would be valid for a DV charity

I wonder if the uptick in usage of the service is partly to do with the pandemic, rather than the new
Location? DV has escalated during lockdown I understand. The dates seem to fit

This doesn't seem to be very clear cut at all - the sistahs made an agreement which they now want to break, but the reason they state is sensible with more women accessing services.

I'd like to see them expand and use both buildings, or perhaps invite another DV charity to take over the second space. I'm not familiar with how much provision there is in that part of London, but surely more would be useful?

The thread title is misleading on another point. They provide advice. They are not a shelter.

Their twitter feed is dreadful- full of screeching capitalisation.

Yes it is an advice drop in service so address is public.

I think it would be possible for both the council and Sistah Space to save face by coming to some compromise, why I suggested mediation by the local MPs both women and Labour so added friction.

But the campaign has been hijacked by Sisters Uncut. And this is what they always do. They say their priority is DV services, but in most instances it is about creating confrontation with councils, usualy for some sort of photo op. they are political opportunists like the SWP. And added into that is all the earnet young woke white things who have colonised BLM - and so they are all pumped up about it being a race isse - and again the actual priority, the service users as just not in the equation.

(On another issue, most of the eateries in Hackney do nothing for the local economy, they put the rates up, increase prices locally, and more likely than not use zero hour contracts taken by people outside of the borough, because on zero hour contracts you cant afford to live in Hackney, now the hipster haven of the well to do children of middle class parents who have bought them a flat.)

I looked up sisters uncut Twitter - of the five most recent tweets, one is for "self identifying women" and another is for a crowdfunder for someone's top surgery. 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

Anyone know where is the the premises they want to stay in? Their website only lists the Clapton address. From the response from the Mayor it does seem an unfair and unrealistic position Sistah Space has adopted.

I dont know the exact address but I think is one of the new developments on Mare Street, near the Town Hall in fact. ie a main shopping centre rather than an isolated shop front on main road near a major road junction.

Have just read the petition properly and it seems that the council want the full commercial rent for the new property, which Sistah Space say they now have because of fund raising.

Well I'm not really surprised the council wants the full commercial rent. They have a major hole in their budget and rent on these types of properties is how they have planned on trying to fill it. I get Sistah Space wanting time be in a more central place, don't we all, but it seems utterly unrealistic to a) agree a refurb plan on their old place and then b) decide I prefer my new place so no thanks to the refurbed place and c) I want the new swanky place as the same price as the place I just rejected. So crowd funding their rent seems a good strategy if that is where they want to be, but unfair to expect the council to give it to them cut price just because they want to be there.

Entirely my fault that I called it a shelter in the title, apologies. I'd misunderstood.

I can ask MN to change the title - do I report the thread to do that?

I'm a bit pissed off. I donated on the understanding that SS was in crisis and about to be evicted. Now feel like I've been manipulated.

Sisters uncut are the group that got the first ever GRA discussion meeting, planned to be in New Cross, to lose the use of New Cross Learning as they kicked up such a massive stink - leading to the meet up at Speaker's Corner. In what way are they involved in this campaign? I thought they were all about the trans.

Sisters Uncut say they are primarily about DV services. But are actually political parasites. ie they dont do any grass roots work but parachute themselves into situations where they can grand stand. And aren't above barging into other women's events / demos to get their names and photos in the paper. ie a long planned peaceful demo from 50:50 campaign at the premiere of the film Suffragette got over run by Sisters Uncut letting of smoke bombs. Which of course the media loved.

But they are very "woke" so of course would have piggy backed on the campaign against the New Cross meeting which was originally opposed by Goldsmith's students who thought they were entitled to tell local women what they should think!

They probably saw the early publicity about the Hackney dispute and offered to "help" with the campaign.

But they aren't about solutions or practical work. They are about grand standing and showing off just how on message they are.

Sisters Uncut Feministo

We are Sisters Uncut. As women and gender-variant people who live under the threat of domestic violence, we fight alongside all those who experience domestic, sexual, gendered, and state violence in their daily lives. We are fighting for our right to live in safety. We are fighting for our lives.

Austerity is a political choice with fatal consequences. Cuts make it harder to leave dangerous situations, live safely, and heal from trauma. Safety is a right not a privilege.

Doors are being slammed on survivors* of violence. Refuges are being shut down, legal aid has been cut, social housing is scarce and the benefits system is being destroyed. The government is building prisons not refuges, opening immigration detention centres not Rape Crisis centres, and arming the police, not funding mental health support. Vital domestic violence services are being de-specialised by local councils who are selling off contracts to the lowest bidder.

To secure safety for survivors, we must also fight the other forms of oppression that we face. As intersectional feminists we understand that a person’s individual experience of violence is affected by interconnecting and mutually reinforcing systems of oppression. These include but are not limited to: sexism, racism, anti-blackness, classism, disableism, ageism, homophobia, transphobia, transmisogyny, whorephobia, fat-phobia, islamophobia, and antisemitism. We fight for the safety of all of our siblings: we work in solidarity with the movements for trans liberation and sex worker rights.

And so on and so on ... www.sistersuncut.org/feministo/

I have just checked out Sisters uncuts I need help page and it can basically be summarised as don’t come to us. Is all they do campaign noisily with smoke bombs and run yoga workshops (that is what it would appear from their Instagram page).

It sounds like their intervention is really unhelpful and very look at me. For example the gate crash council meetings rather than try to actually meet with them (which is not that hard).

Whorephobia?! Sisters unhinged really are something else. I actually thought for a while that they were a group of transwomen and the "uncut" bit was a reference to... Well, the obvious.

Anyway, it sounds like things are a lot more complicated than SS have made out. I really hope they're able to stay in their current location if it's improving participation, but it doesn't sound like it's especially worth it to write to mayor's etc. Sounds like the time for that was 6 months ago before this turned into such a fraught dispute.

I posted about an article in the independent that said the government had put aside some money for DV support post lockdown but most of it had not been allocated. Hopefully it will be and they will get some more funding.

Looking at Sistah Space's twitter activity, they do seem pretty out there on the logic front. For example, here accusing the council and mayor of putting them in danger by publishing their address, which they've published themselves on their own bloody website twitter.com/sistah_space/status/1298967739780993025?s=21

From this tweet is looks like Hackney Council have locked them out of the temporary premises even though there equipment etc., is still in there?!

Sistah Space
@Sistah_Space
We're still waiting to know if @hackneycouncil
will give us back access to our safe space today. We desperately need to help support DV & sexual abuse survivors. NO OTHER DV CHARITY would be treated this way, leaving women & children at risk, especially in this new Covid wave

#SaveSistahSpace Women's Equality Party Hackney
@WomenHackney
· 22 Sep
It has been 3 weeks today since @Sistah_Space were evicted. Unable to regain entry, unable to access their possessions to support DV victims, unable to provide a full service. If you haven’t done already, write to the council savesistahspace.uk #SaveSistahSpace

And earlier they said this was despite them agreeing to month of mediation. I had thought this would be a good route, but not if the Council have used this to just lock them out. How does that help anyone?

In earlier articles there was clearer a problem with access to the original property, in an area known as the Murder Mile, and this was off putting to women wanting to visit the service.

That area hasn’t been known as murder mile for years.

I don’t remotely doubt that the new office is nicer. But in the current climate I don’t think it’s illegitimate for the council to need a full rent for it.

They have in fact raised the money to cover the rent. Hackney says they are not in a position to give them a lease. Dont know why.

I am concerned based on the tweet that the council seems to have just blocked them from accessing the office with all their equipment etc., inside it.

At the very least if the Council felt they had to reposes the offices they should have put the contents into storage.

And if this happened during a period of agreed mediation, totally out of order.

Also cant understand why Hackney which has 2 women Labour MPs haven't been able to sort this out.

(I think some of the earlier publicity has worked against them in terms of making a good case to stay in a central location, but suspect it is typical Sisters Uncut confrontaional tactics. Who interesting now that Sisters Space are locked out dont seem to be saying, let alone doing, very much. )

They have in fact raised the money to cover the rent. Hackney says they are not in a position to give them a lease. Dont know why.

Because the property has been contracted to another tenant already. They want access.

Thanks Penny. There's so little info.

But if they have contracted the lease to someone else why have they locked the propery of Sistah Space in there. Must mean new tenants cant get in.

This all seems so childish.

And if they have the money for these more expensive central offices why cant Hackney give them a lease for one of them.

The other property now refurbished could be let to someone else.

Instead of scoring political points of each other, why dont they just sort this out?

Just to say that thanks to mediation (do you think Hackney Council reads mumsnet and saw my suggestion??!!) an agreement has been reached between the Council and Sistah Space.

But its only a temporary solution.
news.hackney.gov.uk/an-update-from-hackney-council-and-sistah-space/