Words: Merlin Betts. Images: SGH The morning of Thursday 28 August we went to the Hastings Borough Council (HBC) offices, hoping to catch the housing department after their weekly meeting. Three of us were with Thomas, a homeless man who the council are fighting in court. As I joined the group, another person responding to…
Grace L After two and a half years in temporary accommodation, Thomas and Alice (not their real names) are appealing to Hastings Council to give them and their young child a secure home. Unlike other homeless families in temporary accommodation who are on the waiting list for social housing and can bid for places as…
Lizzie Beck It might take a minute for this to sink in. The latest statistics from a report carried out by homelessness charity Shelter reveal one in 64 are homeless in Hastings. Both shocking yet oddly unsurprising, these figures lay out in black and white the genuine crisis hitting our town. The cause for the…
No-one deserves to be removed from their home and abandoned to the streets. Having grown up in Hastings, Karl (not his real name) worked as a fisherman for many years, surrounded by a strong local community, and also spent some happy years living abroad. But everything started to go downhill after health problems in his…
A 44-year-old mother of two is facing eviction. Hana (real name withheld) is a full time carer for her nine-year-old autistic daughter, and has been a Hastings resident since her teens – but she can no longer afford to live in this town. Why? To start with, a large number of homes are being taken…
Lizzie Beck I’m not from these parts. Neither am I DFL, AFB, EDL or WTF. I didn’t actually choose to come here either, I was moved here for reasons that if revealed would result in assassination (of whom I don’t know). It was nighttime when I first saw this town. From a hill above what…