Administrative/Biographical history:

The Focus E15 campaign came into being in September 2013, after 29 young mothers living at Focus E15, a hostel for vulnerable young people run by East Thames Housing Association in Stratford, East London, were given eviction notices (20 August 2013) ordering them to be out of their flats by 20 October. East Thames Housing Association served the eviction notices after Newham Council cut its funding to the mother-and-baby unit at the hostel. According to the campaign’s own literature, ‘This prompted the mothers to get organised and demand ''social housing, not social cleansing!''’ As a result, the evictions were revoked.

From September 2013 the Focus E15 campaign held a weekly Saturday street stall with open mic, petitioning and leafleting. Stories were collected from the hundreds of people who stopped at the stall; new members were recruited and the campaign gained a public voice.
Other action organised by the campaign included occupying Newham Council’s Bridge House housing office, a party in the East Thames Housing association show flat, delivering petitions to London Mayor Boris Johnson and organising a march through Newham.

In September 2014 the Focus E15 campaign occupied a disused block of flats on the nearly empty Carpenters Estate in Stratford. Most of the residents of the estate had been relocated, as Newham Council intended to sell the land to a private developer. This left some 600 housing units empty. The flats were in very good condition yet some had been boarded up for more than 8 years. This protest amassed a huge level of public support and press interest. For a period of two weeks, the occupied flats were open to the public and ran as a social centre with an evolving programme of events including workshops, meetings, music and comedy gigs.

Scope and content

Posters, leaflets, placards, banners, flyers, notices, press clippings, witness statements and other material regarding the Focus E15 Campaign, a protest movement organised in September 2013 to draw attention to the issue of social housing in East London and the wider UK (2013-2017).

Quantity

1 box and 1 oversized folder.