Exactly one year ago former Home Secretary Suella Braverman referred to street homelessness as a lifestyle choice, calling for new laws to further criminalise those living on the streets. Within days, residents of a street encampment were evicted from their tents and their shelters were destroyed. 

The irony of a politician using poverty as a weapon whilst presiding over unprecedented increases in homelessness was not lost on anyone working on the ground. In response, grassroots organisers have been out on the streets sharing resources, building solidarity and organising to find new ways of responding to crises. This is set amidst a growing social crisis that is hitting marginalised communities the hardest. Simultaneously we are witnessing a political transformation characterised by the erosion of political autonomy, the criminalisation of dissent and increasing police powers on the streets.

This event brings together leading grassroots campaigners, activists and researchers to offer their perspectives and reflections on the climate of stigma, criminalisation and law enforcement that affects our community. Our panel will share how it has been leading community responses to stigmatising structures. Such community responses include London’s First Harm Reduction collective and disrupting the system with culturally competent spaces and services such as systemic litigation spaces. During the second half of the event we will come together to outline the practical steps we can take to challenge stigmatisation and resist the state sanctioned violence people experiencing homelessness face. 

Practical info:

This event is part of a three part series exploring homelessness and stigma. Check out the first of these – our Deep Dive podcast – here

This event will take place online. People who book for the event will receive online joining instructions in advance of the event. We expect the event to last no longer then 2 hours. 

About the contributors

Niamh Eastwood is Executive Director of Release, the national centre of expertise on drugs and drugs law in the UK. She is passionate about drug policy reform and believes that the most vulnerable in society are disproportionately impacted upon by the current drug laws. Niamh is a member of the Expert Steering Group for the Global Drug Survey, an Associate Member of the Drug and Alcohol Research Centre at Middlesex University, and a visiting lecturer at the Centre for Public Health, Liverpool John Moores University. She is also a committee member for DrugScience and has been a technical advisor to the Global Commission on Drug Policy. 

Abdirahim Hassan is the founder of Coffee Afrik, an award-winning community-based organisation in Hackney that disrupt established systems and work with and for marginalised folk in a number of different ways. Abdi is also a trained Accountant who focuses his time developing social enterprises and supporting marginalized communities to find solutions to impact change in their own lives. He also currently sits on the NHS England Mental Health London wide transformation board and has worked in community organizing for 20 years. Coffee Afrik are currently leading seven hubs, across 22 projects, which include a problematic drug use safe space, a research lab, a youth hub, two women’s cooperatives & systemic litigation space. Their work is inspired by the Black Panther party and its community programming, it is designed with key principles which include love, care and liberatory harm reduction. 

River Újhadbor is a qualitative health researcher and theatre maker with a passion for creative processes that drive personal, collective and societal transformation. River joined the Social Responses to Stigma team in 2022 as a research assistant to help develop a complex systems approach to social exclusion, stigma and homelessness. Prior to their academic work River has been a freelance Theatre of the Oppressed practitioner working with wide marginalised communities across the UK and Europe and collaborated with grassroots theatre companies such as Cardboard Citizens and Clean Break. River is the co-founder of The Field, a radical social and educational space and political project in southeast London which resists the logic of capitalism through local political action, commoning, radical education and mutual care.

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