- Accusation: Lambeth Council unannounced home visits
- Families: Homeless in temporary accommodation
- Visits Described: Intimidating and eviction threats
- Location: Lambeth Council properties, UK
The families have called for a halt to the alleged behaviour. Housing Action Southwark and Lambeth( HASL) is a casing organisation that aids individualities dealing with homelessness, overcrowding, and unacceptable casing conditions.
They started a crusade at the end of October of last time, and they’re now drawing attention to the fact that some tenants feel spooked when authorities show up without warning, while others admit emails out of the blue claiming they’re being moved long hauls outside of London.
According to HASL, Lambeth Council’s efforts to lower the cost of short- term casing are making effects complicated and stressful for people living in short- term casing, and there’s a lack of communication about what’s passing to them.
Lambeth Council’s Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Housing, Investment, and New Homes, Cllr Danny Adilypour, stated that the council has been working compassionately to stylish meet the requirements of homeless families and has a responsibility to visit them to assess the quality of their lodgment and help them in chancing long- term stable casing.
Due to a shortage of appropriate housing in the area, the council declared in November of last year that the majority of homeless households would need to be relocated outside of the borough, frequently outside of the South East. The council’s Placement Policy, which has mostly stayed unchanged for more than ten years, underwent a significant review that included this announcement.
The council is currently spending more than £100 million annually due to Lambeth’s temporary housing issue.
The council needs to find £183 million in savings over a four-year period; thus far, £99 million has been found, but the remaining £84 million must be found by March 2026.
Over 4,600 homeless households are now receiving temporary housing from Lambeth every night, a 50% rise in the number of homeless households the council supports over the past two years.
While residing in temporary housing supplied by the local government, two of these homeless households anonymously discussed their interactions with Lambeth Council with the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS).
One tenant, who has been a member of HASL for the previous three years, stated that the council once contacted to inform her that she and her family needed to move out of their temporary housing and find a place in the private rental sector.
Because there aren’t enough houses to support every family, the woman says her husband was informed by the council that a new department had been established and was responsible for evicting families from temporary housing.
She says they felt anxious and under pressure when the municipality told them that finding a private rental property was one of their alternatives and that they had 56 days to do so.
She said:
“If Elizabeth Wyatt from HASL was not with me, I would be really, really scared, I don’t know the law, I don’t know anything but because of Liz and the group I don’t feel scared like before.
I’ve been bidding for nearly eight-and-a-half years – what is the point in taking me from here to somewhere outside of London?
I think that’s what they want to do with us. I asked the council why would you want to do that? They told me it’s very expensive here, it’s very expensive in London.”
However HASL claims the council “refused” to accept the letter campaigners were trying to deliver. Elizabeth Wyatt from HASL:
“We were shocked when we heard reports of housing officers making unannounced visits to our members in temporary accommodation.
Our members were left believing that they would be imminently evicted. Then suddenly another member received an email saying her family would be sent to Dover, despite having work and school here in Lambeth.”
She added:
“The council have also made the disastrous decision to use a policy called ‘private sector discharge’ where homeless families are given mandatory offers of private housing under threat of destitution.
This policy, which Lambeth Council have never used before, creates a cycle of homelessness and undermines vital homeless rights.”
Cllr Adilypour continued by saying that the council was giving priority to the few social housing units in Lambeth for the most vulnerable residents, but that in the majority of situations, the council must look outside of Lambeth to locate long-term housing for homeless families.
He added:
“Despite the challenges we are determined to give homeless households the stability and security they desperately need by giving them longer term placements in areas that will meet their family, cultural and community needs. This allows them to plan for the future, knowing they have a safe and secure home.”
What evidence helps when challenging council harassment?
Substantiation similar to dated logs of unannounced visits strengthens challenges to council importunity claims under Lambeth’s temporary accommodation programs.
Maintain a detailed incident journal noting officer names, times, visit purposes, and exact pitfalls of eviction or relocation corroborated by substantiation statements from family members or neighbours. Photos of officers at the door, videotape footage from doorbells, and retained correspondence( 56- day notices) give irrefragable evidence for Housing Ombudsman complaints, where 74 of anti social behaviour cases succeed with records.
Collect all council letters, emails, and textbooks representing” private sector discharge” or out- of- city moves, pressing failures to offer suitable original druthers per Homelessness Reduction Act 2017 duties. Screenshots of poor communication patterns like ignored felicity challenges demonstrate systemic intimidation, as cited in HASL’s October 2025 open letter demanding visit gridlocks.
