City Strolls - events - meetings
Friday, March 17, 2006
Stronger communities is what will sustain community housing, not hollow promises from housing bosses
Over 50 tenants met at the Woodside Hall on 16th March to discuss common problems throughout the Burgh and the need to set up residents groups to resist demolitions and fight for repairs.The meeting had an interesting balance of speakers supplying the audience with the background to the social housing situation - that is battling to survive amidst Glasgow City Council and the Glasgow Housing Association's strategy, best described, given the evidence, as bent on destroying community.The meeting discussed the up and coming tenant and homeowners networking confrence and gave some enlightenment on the fallout that will arise from Second Stage Stock Transfer. The audience heard from representatives of two local residents groups. One recently set up in Hamiltonill on the back of an overcrowded, angry public meeting where over 70 people from the local estate were in attendance and others yet that couldn't get in at the door.
A representative from a Woodside tenants group whose members are steadily growing in number, discussed how the group operates and the successes that they have had so far. There was also discussion on the backdrop on which the social housing vs. luxury flats is being played out - the tenants vs. the tourists. Having accommodation for Commonwealth games fans, who will be here for a fortnight, was said to be the main concern of Glasgow City Council, not where ordinary Glaswegians will live.
The meeting drew a responsive crowd, even though the evening was bleek outside, and they did not waste their time coming. People had their say and more, rather than being preached at by professionals with vested interests. There were two and a half thousand leaflets for the tenant and homeowners networking conference that disappeared from the desk top as people left the hall. Most people seemed to feel as if the meeting was as much a community event as a housing debate
The Glasgow Save Our Homes campaign and the Georges X Chalkboard worked well together in supplying hard facts, as well as a format for community collective action. No matter where you live in Glasgow, if people, not just tenants, are not talking and communicating with each other, we will win nothing and will be pushed out of the way by the only game in town - making way for tourists and investment buyers in huge chunks of our city.
If recent meetings in the Maryhill Burgh are anything to go by ordinary folk are starting to seriously prepare themselves for the challenge.
The tenants and homeowners networking conference will be held on Saturday the 8th of April, (9am - 4pm, at the Charles Oakley Building, Glasgow Caledonian University)
Bob, 22:08
