Housing Estates Women in community action

1. Housing EstatesWomen in community action Jess Steele 27th June 2007 INTRO – GO TO OVERVIEWINTRO – GO TO OVERVIEW

2. Overview My background and interests Deptford, BURA, DTA The scope and story of community action Requires time and driving motivation Women’s lives Focus on people, on detail, and on the state Life on housing estates Density, (mis)management, public realm, coherence Estate regeneration Various approaches, ongoing challenges JS – local, national, cross sectoral and in my own sector (which I like to think of as the independent social sector), Tell them what you’re going to say community action, women’s lives, housing estate issues, and then take a look at estate regeneration – in theory and in my personal experienceJS – local, national, cross sectoral and in my own sector (which I like to think of as the independent social sector), Tell them what you’re going to say community action, women’s lives, housing estate issues, and then take a look at estate regeneration – in theory and in my personal experience

3. Background Community worker, resident, entrepreneur in New Cross (poor terraces and high road) and then Deptford (mixed terraces in conservation area) and North Deptford (Pepys Estate). Established Magpie – pioneering charity promoting and supporting active citizenship and creative outreach Worked for BURA – including managing best practice awards programmes Now work for DTA – capturing the hard-won expertise of our members and packaging it in teams to sell to government and others. Deptford – Many social enterprises, Magpie led the Get Set for Citizenship SRB programme. Lived on Pepys Estate – BURA – UK wide best practice in regen DTA Head of Consultancy – drawing on the fabulous resource (push this hard in the next but one slide) Deptford – Many social enterprises, Magpie led the Get Set for Citizenship SRB programme. Lived on Pepys Estate – BURA – UK wide best practice in regen DTA Head of Consultancy – drawing on the fabulous resource (push this hard in the next but one slide)

4. Community Action Most common trigger = planned change either ‘unrelated’ adjacent… eg Crossfields road plans or in your face … eg Pepys Aragon Tower or area-based strategies… eg local NRS or area-based programmes… eg Estate Action Role of community development work To get beyond reacting and start making things happen To create momentum and build sustainable relationships Some points about community action that can be used to illustrate the special role of women in community life. I think there are (at least) 4 triggers for community action. The Crossfield Story Most of the Crossfield Estate were built by the LCC in the late 1930s. They remained under GLC management until April 1971 when they were handed over to Lewisham Council. The GLC Housing Department was famous for its grand schemes but notorious on matters of day-to-day housing management and conditions in the blocks were appalling. One woman said "I have lived on this estate for 22 years, I have spent 21 of them trying to get out". Crossfield referrals to Social Services for material poverty were four times the local average. With advice from GLC traffic engineers, Lewisham Council were planning to turn Church St into a major dual carriageway. Crossfield tenants, some of them living within feet of the proposed road, had not been consulted or even told about the plans. When Albany community worker Ann Gallagher called a tenants' meeting in January 1973, the reaction was instant. Of about 200 people who participated in the campaign, around 170 were women. They were the ones who had to put up with the conditions every day. Their long-brewed anger at conditions expressed in mobilising support for the demolition of the whole estate. They produced a brochure describing the effects of the road - danger, noise and isolation from the rest of Deptford - and their everyday experience of blocked drains, rats, damp and fungus on the walls. They also took direct disruptive action with a demonstration closing Church St to traffic during Friday evening rush hour in the middle of a rail strike. While other councillors had walked out of early meetings, the Crossfield group found important support in Ron Pepper, chair of the Planning Committee and the two young councillors Nick Taylor and Nick Gregory. Despite concern that demolition was a waste of housing stock, (especially since Finch and Congers Houses had already received some upgrading from the GLC and Farrer House was a later and better build of around 1949) the councillors supported tenants in their campaign as well as visiting many in their homes to take up individual cases. Within two months of the first meeting the Housing Committee agreed to rehouse all the tenants on the estate. That was not the end of the story because Crossfield was eventually saved and handed over to single professionals. Aragon Tower. Needed an arbitrator? NRS – coauthoring Estate Action – TRA reps, Dot Salter CD work gets beyond all of these – make things happen and build sustainable relationships over timeSome points about community action that can be used to illustrate the special role of women in community life. I think there are (at least) 4 triggers for community action. The Crossfield Story Most of the Crossfield Estate were built by the LCC in the late 1930s. They remained under GLC management until April 1971 when they were handed over to Lewisham Council. The GLC Housing Department was famous for its grand schemes but notorious on matters of day-to-day housing management and conditions in the blocks were appalling. One woman said "I have lived on this estate for 22 years, I have spent 21 of them trying to get out". Crossfield referrals to Social Services for material poverty were four times the local average. With advice from GLC traffic engineers, Lewisham Council were planning to turn Church St into a major dual carriageway. Crossfield tenants, some of them living within feet of the proposed road, had not been consulted or even told about the plans. When Albany community worker Ann Gallagher called a tenants' meeting in January 1973, the reaction was instant. Of about 200 people who participated in the campaign, around 170 were women. They were the ones who had to put up with the conditions every day. Their long-brewed anger at conditions expressed in mobilising support for the demolition of the whole estate. They produced a brochure describing the effects of the road - danger, noise and isolation from the rest of Deptford - and their everyday experience of blocked drains, rats, damp and fungus on the walls. They also took direct disruptive action with a demonstration closing Church St to traffic during Friday evening rush hour in the middle of a rail strike. While other councillors had walked out of early meetings, the Crossfield group found important support in Ron Pepper, chair of the Planning Committee and the two young councillors Nick Taylor and Nick Gregory. Despite concern that demolition was a waste of housing stock, (especially since Finch and Congers Houses had already received some upgrading from the GLC and Farrer House was a later and better build of around 1949) the councillors supported tenants in their campaign as well as visiting many in their homes to take up individual cases. Within two months of the first meeting the Housing Committee agreed to rehouse all the tenants on the estate. That was not the end of the story because Crossfield was eventually saved and handed over to single professionals. Aragon Tower. Needed an arbitrator? NRS – coauthoring Estate Action – TRA reps, Dot Salter CD work gets beyond all of these – make things happen and build sustainable relationships over time

5. Women’s Lives “This is the place I live. Where is everyone? Are we the only ones? This is the place I live. So does everyone.” – Everything But The Girl, Hatfield 1980 Focus on people – children, family, neighbours Focus on detail – the broken lift, the dark passageway, the stinking stairwell Focus on the state – schools, police, housing officers, health visitors, social workers – a different relationship At the risk of generalising massively I’ve tried to draw out some of why I think women’s lives on estates are different to men’s. Strong focus on people – often true of people who are based at home Because of the time women spend at and around the home they are constantly reminded of the immediate environment. Moreover because they are vulnerable they suffer a particular kind of fear in the face of this difficult environment – a very disempowering fear indeed. Poor women’s relationship with the state is markedly different from the average, and many people on estates are desperately trying to stay ‘average’ so that they don’t fall into the trap they see their neighbours in.At the risk of generalising massively I’ve tried to draw out some of why I think women’s lives on estates are different to men’s. Strong focus on people – often true of people who are based at home Because of the time women spend at and around the home they are constantly reminded of the immediate environment. Moreover because they are vulnerable they suffer a particular kind of fear in the face of this difficult environment – a very disempowering fear indeed. Poor women’s relationship with the state is markedly different from the average, and many people on estates are desperately trying to stay ‘average’ so that they don’t fall into the trap they see their neighbours in.

6. Life on the Estate Density and interaction Housing allocation Estate (mis)management Public realm Sociable and antisocial behaviour Benefits trap (As lindsay has said…) estates are a very particular kind of experience. Dense and interactive despite the fact that they can feel lonely and empty at other times Decades of slowly shifting allocation policies are still being played out on the ground Housing management – or far more often mismanagement – is at the heart of the lived experience yet remains seen as a second class endeavour compared to building shiny new ‘sustainable communities’ The public realm – the shared spaces – in rich Aragon tower these are highly-speced displays of the power of collective wealth. In poor Eddystone they are minging! Estates can be sociable places – although one of the most powerful images is of the destruction of the enormous number of small private yards and gardens - full of washing and children and animals and all the stuff of daily life, - ruthlessly eliminated. Molly Parkin remembered how everyone was pleased with the new Pepys Estate opened in July 1966 but also that "the backstreets were the same as they had ever been, sprawling, spirited, a chaotic confusion of human warmth, troubles shared, triumphs celebrated". When she returned in the mid-1980s she found "the hell-hole, high-rise Pepys estate ominously empty with no crumb of human comfort in the concrete jungle, a travesty of what had been before". BENEFITS TRAP – I’ll come back to if there’s time… (As lindsay has said…) estates are a very particular kind of experience. Dense and interactive despite the fact that they can feel lonely and empty at other times Decades of slowly shifting allocation policies are still being played out on the ground Housing management – or far more often mismanagement – is at the heart of the lived experience yet remains seen as a second class endeavour compared to building shiny new ‘sustainable communities’ The public realm – the shared spaces – in rich Aragon tower these are highly-speced displays of the power of collective wealth. In poor Eddystone they are minging! Estates can be sociable places – although one of the most powerful images is of the destruction of the enormous number of small private yards and gardens - full of washing and children and animals and all the stuff of daily life, - ruthlessly eliminated. Molly Parkin remembered how everyone was pleased with the new Pepys Estate opened in July 1966 but also that "the backstreets were the same as they had ever been, sprawling, spirited, a chaotic confusion of human warmth, troubles shared, triumphs celebrated". When she returned in the mid-1980s she found "the hell-hole, high-rise Pepys estate ominously empty with no crumb of human comfort in the concrete jungle, a travesty of what had been before". BENEFITS TRAP – I’ll come back to if there’s time…

7. Estate Regeneration Urban programme – tidying up Safer Cities – target hardening, drugs Estate Action – physical redevelopment Not just ‘bricks and mortar’ – social & economic interventions The NR/NDC/NM approach – holistic, bending mainstream Social mix as a policy – ‘Neighbourhoods of Choice and Connection’ (Bruce Katz) Run through the APPROACHES and then straight into CHALLENGESRun through the APPROACHES and then straight into CHALLENGES

8. Regeneration challenges Quality of the stock and the public realm The physical incarnation of ‘anti-social’ The ‘revolving door’ – transience Mixed tenure – ‘rubbing shoulders’ can be uncomfortable Histories and reputations continue to influence the present and the future. Take each issue (briefly) Take each issue (briefly)

9. Community anchors Community owned and led Multi-purpose and holistic Aiming to be self-sustaining and long term Supporting community action, driving forces in community renewal Inclusive, long-lasting, sources of hope Pivotal role of women. So what can we do? Whatever else we do we will need ‘community anchors’, organisations and networks that are utterly rooted in the local area. And every time you find one, there will be strong women holding up the sky. So what can we do? Whatever else we do we will need ‘community anchors’, organisations and networks that are utterly rooted in the local area. And every time you find one, there will be strong women holding up the sky.

10. Thanks To Jani Llewellyn, the strongest woman I ever met, who lived and died on Crossfields Estate