Help Islington Park Street Community to gain recognition as an established shared home which means One Housing Group will be obliged to preserve it as a communal home. This will frustrate One Housing's attempts to evict current tenants and to carry out any plans they may have to sell 38-44 Islington Park Street on the private property market, or change it's structure into self contained units.

What we want

We the undersigned, call on Islington Council to help residents of 44 Islington Park Street to stay in our home by:

1 - Recognising our home as an established Sui Generis* shared home, which has been in continuous occupation in this use since 1976;

2 - Confirming to the freeholder that they will require a change of use permission to turn our home into self contained dwellings; and

3 - Requesting the freeholder to suspend all possession proceedings until they have obtained such a consent.

(*Sui Generis is a Latin phrase, meaning "of its (his, her, or their) own kind; in a class by itself; unique")

Why?

We are a London community, made up of 18 low-income adults who share a cooperative house in Islington. We have been in existence for nearly 40 years and some of us have lived in our home for over three decades.

One Housing Group, the housing association that owns our property, has stated that "group homes" such as ours must be "phased out" and that they intend to "decant" us. Court proceedings are being initiated in an attempt to evict all residents from the properties as soon as possible.

Our residents range in age from 19 to 79 and we are a thriving example of supportive, sustainable communal living. We cook, eat and socialise together, make decisions together about how our house is run, and collectively provide care and support to those of our residents who are young, elderly or sick.

Our way of life offers a positive vision of sustainable, supportive, affordable communal living and an alternative to the social isolation faced by many in the city.

Links

http://www.islingtonparkstreet.org
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IslingtonParkStreetCommunityPage
Twitter: @islingtonparkst