Pay attention! This is an old message about the postponed Residential Revolt of March 28, 2020.
Flex work and Flex home: Income and housing insecurity.
More than 1 million self-employed workers and 2 million flex workers and people with zero-hours contracts suffer from income insecurity. This can quickly have consequences, because the rent or mortgage must be paid monthly. If that doesn't work, there is the threat of evictions. There are also more and more people who are permanently insecure about their housing due to homelessness or a temporary rental contract. Where can they go? With a housing shortage of 300,000 houses and a doubling of homelessness in the last ten years, it is now time for urgent measures before the situation escalates further.
Decent living space for everyone.
Landlords who are still terminating leases in order to put people out on the street, exchange them for other (flex) tenants, or raise the rent, would do well to stop doing so immediately. It is always highly inappropriate, especially in times of a major housing crisis and a corona pandemic, to evict vulnerable people for whatever reason.
The time when you could, legally or not, abuse people's precarious living, working and subsistence situation must be over. Houses are there to offer people safety, stability and livelihood. Not for profit.
Without the guarantee of income, housing and care, social security and public health are an illusion. That guarantee does not exist now. Solidarity is therefore necessary. We call on the government and landlords to immediately take these four measures to really guarantee the housing and livelihood security of everyone in our society.
4 requirements:
1. Stop all evictions.
2. Offer rent/mortgage break and lower rents.
3. Decent housing for the homeless and asylum seekers.
4. Income security for everyone.
Explanation:
1. Stop evictions and contract terminations of all tenants and residents, regardless of housing type. This concerns both purchase, social rent, liberalized rent and temporary/flexible rent and people who live without tenancy rights.
2. Offer people a break or reprieve from paying their rent or mortgage. In the midst of the crisis, do not implement annual rent increases, but reduce rents by, among other things, abolishing the landlord levy.
3. Immediately provides decent housing for all homeless people and asylum seekers. Claim vacant housing.
4. Provide income security and adequate measures to protect and financially accommodate all people with no or little social security.
