A United Nations committee has told the UK government to stop making people homeless and to end housing discrimination against Gypsies and Travellers.
This follows a submission by London Gypsies and Travellers with the Roma Support Group (RSG) to a UN review of the UK’s compliance with international human rights standards.
Having listened to representations from civil society organisations, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights told the UK delegation to Geneva that the government needs to ensure that social housing is accessible to disadvantaged groups – including ethnic minorities such as Gypsies and Travellers.
The Committee also asked that the UK “ensure adequate, culturally appropriate accommodation and stopping sites for Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities, including access to water, sanitation and electricity, in coordination with local authorities; and review and repeal laws or policies that undermine their traditional ways of life.”
These calls closely align with the LGT and RSG submission to the committee.
Because people experiencing homelessness are more likely to be from ethnic minority groups, the policy of placing London’s homeless out of borough has the effect of removing these groups disproportionately from the capital. There is also evidence that Gypsies, Roma and Travellers are disproportionately likely to be housed in non-self-contained temporary accommodation – often bedsits or hostels with no kitchens and with communal bathrooms.
“This is not acceptable for anyone, and 74 young children have died in these conditions in the past five years,” said Nancy Hawker, LGT Policy and Research Officer. “For people with a heritage of nomadism, this inadequate accommodation is a double blow: they have often ended up homeless because of the chronic and catastrophic shortage of caravan pitches.”
LGT welcomes the recommendations of the UN committee, she said. “We will continue to remind the UK authorities of their human rights obligations, and we continue to monitor the consequences of the systematic derelictions of duty in terms of housing rights and their discriminatory effects.”
“Our organisations and many other small charities end up supporting those most affected by the homelessness crisis and its discriminatory effects. As well as preventing harm to vulnerable people, we are working to preserve London’s character in all its rich diversity of cultures and groups including Gypsies and Travellers.”
“We will continue to ensure that the voices of those impacted by systemic failures are heard, and remain ready to work constructively with the UK authorities to tackle those failures and meet their human rights obligations.”
Anne-Marie’s story
Grandmother and Irish Traveller Anne-Marie O’Brien has been living in Newham, east London, for more than 20 years. She chose to stop living on the road so that she could raise her children in a stable location with welcoming local schools.
She has always wanted to be true to her culture by living on a pitch in a dedicated communal caravan site together with other Travellers, travelling seasonally to community events around the British Isles and elsewhere in Europe. But there has not been a Traveller site in Newham since she moved there. There was hope in 2007 when the Olympics development led to the construction of a site for evicted Romany Gypsies, but there was still no available pitch for Anne-Marie. After years of fruitless campaigning through Newham’s channels, she intercepted the then Mayor of London Boris Johnson to tell him about the urgent need for a Traveller site in Newham, but he asked his security guards to remove her.
Now, living alone in housing association accommodation with her health worsening and rents increasing, she is also facing the high costs of living in Newham. Her grown-up children live on the road, with no authorised site for their caravans. Anne-Marie is worried that if she has to present herself to the council homelessness services, they will send her into temporary accommodation miles away and she will lose any chance of moving onto the pitch that is her dream – and her right – in the borough she calls home.
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