Monday, March 31, 2014

Want to download a YouTube song from Southwark Council's John Harvard Library? Wait for an hour!!

This is what I deal with on a daily basis. What takes somebody else a couple of seconds, takes me over an hour. I guess this is the price you have to pay to keep a non-profit company called Network for Church Monitoring going at churchandstate.org.uk.

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As I stated in the previous blog, I would have liked to have seen the face of Guardian journalist Ewen MacAskill when Edward Snowden told him to put his iPhone in another room ... in the freezer!

Friday, March 28, 2014

No internet connection in Southwark Council's John Harvard Library while all around me surf without difficulty

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I continue to have a nightmare accessing the internet in my local library, Southwark Council's John Harvard Library (see, for example, blog of 18 February, "My first day as an employee of N4CM: No Internet access"). Some days I actually get no work done at all, even though I see people all around me surfing and watching videos on YouTube with no problem whatsoever. As this screenshot from yesterday shows, there was no YouTube for me:
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I still can't download a backup I did almost two weeks ago of the Church and State website:
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And I continue to need to arm myself with great patience while I wait for a page to load:
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Often I wait in vain!
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It's not that I am surprised, especially since Declan and I have been dealing with the ability to cut off and compromise our communications for years now. Actually, I would have liked to have seen the face of Guardian journalist Ewen MacAskill when he was told by Edward Snowden to put his iPhone in another room ... in the freezer!

Monday, March 17, 2014

Declan emails the chairman of West London Churches Homeless Concern a second time after being kicked awake in the middle of the night

Since 7 January, we have been bedding down with 35 other rough sleepers in a rolling winter night shelter programme run by the West London Churches Homeless Concern (WLCHC). Women sleep separately, so I didn't learn about Declan's troubles last night until early this morning. Last week, he was twice kicked awake in the middle of the night by another rough sleeper (see blog of 10 March); last night, not only was he kicked awake in the middle of the night, but the head of the night staff had to physically extricate the rough sleeper's legs from Declan's mat. This is Declan's second email to the chairman of WLCHC on health and safety grounds:

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Paragraph 30 from Declan's complaint last month to the United Nations includes the Single Homeless Project’s recent offer of flat that still seems to me pie in the sky. Once the WLCHC programme closes on 10 April, we are facing incarceration for rough sleeping in the Barbican estate, which is owned by the City of London (public property), for want of a place to safely sleep following the fencing off of our previous sleeping pitch in December 2013. But of course, before we are arrested we are looking at some form of violent attack (see blog of 1 January, "Declan calls into Bishopsgate Police Station for a crime intel report").

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Court Order: Heavey v Commissioner of Police for the City of London and Home Secretary (dismissed)

On 29 August 2013 Declan lodged a claim in the High Court for a judicial review against Commissioner of Police for the City of London Adrian Leppard and Home Secretary Theresa May, following the refusal of the former to ask Broadway Homelessness and Support to engage with us in relation to our welfare and access to the charity’s service for supporting clients to find accommodation in the private rented sector. This morning Declan received the court order declaring his case "totally without merit", and stating there are "alternative remedies which he should follow":

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What alternative remedies? Since 7 January we have been bedding down with 35 other rough sleepers in a rolling winter night shelter programme run by the West London Churches Homeless Concern (WLCHC). WLCHC can only refer us to the Single Homeless Project, which in turn can only refer us next Monday to a Clearing House waiting list run by Broadway (see previous blog, "The latest about a flat ... still pie in the sky"). For all these homeless organisations to date, it has been hostel accommodation with some of the worst homeless characters in the capital (see blog of 10 March, "Declan emails the chairman of West London Churches Homeless Concern after being kicked awake twice in the middle of the night"), or return to the borough we used to live in, which has already refused us assistance because we are not deemed to be a 'priority need', e.g. we have no children, I am not pregnant, we are not vulnerable as a result of age (young or old), disability, mental health issues, etc.

Declan requested permission to apply for judicial review on the ground of irrationality or unreasonableness. We still believe that it was unreasonable for the City of London Police to refuse to ask Broadway to support us to access the private rented sector, whilst at the same time putting us under threat of hosings by street cleaners (see blog of 1 January, "Declan calls into Bishopsgate Police Station for a crime intel report"). Once the WLCHC winter night shelter programme closes on 10 April, we are almost certainly facing serious assault and/or incarceration for rough sleeping in the Barbican estate, which is owned by the City of London (public property), for want of a place to safely sleep following the fencing off of our previous sleeping pitch in December 2013.

This is a PDF of Declan's complaint last August that fell on deaf ears:

https://issuu.com/lolaheavey/docs/2.1_n461_claim_1_claim

Declan's complaint last month to the United Nations complains of an accommodation blockade through surveillance that shows even less signs of being lifted (paragraphs 42-48 outline why the Vatican and the hierarchy of the Catholic Church should be monitored).

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

The latest about a flat ... still pie in the sky

We have been bedding down with 35 other rough sleepers in a rolling winter night shelter programme run by the West London Churches Homeless Concern (WLCHC) since January. Last night we talked once again with a WLCHC caseworker about the Single Homeless Project’s offer of flat back in January. As Declan points out in this email to the caseworker this afternoon, we are now facing serious assault and/or incarceration for rough sleeping in the Barbican estate, which is owned by the City of London (public property), for want of a place to safely sleep following the fencing off of our previous sleeping pitch in December 2013:

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It seems that in our case all roads lead to Broadway Homelessness and Support, the very same organisation that Declan cited in court papers last August. This is a PDF of Declan's application for a judicial review against Commissioner of Police for the City of London Adrian Leppard and Home Secretary Theresa May following the refusal of the former to ask Broadway Homelessness and Support to engage with us in relation to our welfare and access to the charity’s service for supporting clients to find accommodation in the private rented sector:

https://issuu.com/lolaheavey/docs/2.1_n461_claim_1_claim

Seven months later we are still waiting to hear back from the Court. Declan's complaint last month to the United Nations complains of an accommodation blockade through surveillance that shows no signs of being lifted (paragraphs 42-48 outline why the Vatican and the hierarchy of the Catholic Church should be monitored). Paragraph 30 includes the Single Homeless Project’s offer of flat two months ago. It is an offer that still seems to me pie in the sky.

Monday, March 10, 2014

Declan emails the chairman of West London Churches Homeless Concern after being kicked awake twice in the middle of the night

Since 7 January, we have been bedding down with 35 other rough sleepers in a rolling winter night shelter programme run by the West London Churches Homeless Concern (WLCHC). Women sleep separately, so I didn't learn about Declan's troubles last night until early this morning. He was twice kicked awake by another rough sleeper, and more besides. This is his email this morning to the chairman of WLCHC on health and safety grounds:

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Paragraph 30 from Declan's complaint last month to the United Nations includes the Single Homeless Project’s recent offer of flat that seems to me pie in the sky. Once the WLCHC programme closes on 10 April, we are almost certainly facing incarceration for rough sleeping in the Barbican estate, which is owned by the City of London (public property), for want of a place to safely sleep following the fencing off of our previous sleeping pitch in December 2013. But of course, before we are arrested we are looking at some form of violent attack (see blog of 1 January, "Declan calls into Bishopsgate Police Station for a crime intel report").

On 29 August 2013 Declan lodged a claim in the High Court for a judicial review against Commissioner of Police for the City of London Adrian Leppard and Home Secretary Theresa May, following the refusal of the former to ask Broadway Homelessness and Support to help us find accommodation in the private rented sector. Seven months later we are still waiting to hear back from the Court. This is a PDF of the claim form Declan lodged with the Court last August:

https://issuu.com/lolaheavey/docs/2.1_n461_claim_1_claim

Wednesday, March 05, 2014

Now we lose access to the Internet via my Vodafone smartphone ... for the first time in over a year

I pay Vodafone £40 every month for my smartphone, yet last night and this morning I have had no mobile internet access. Since we bed down with 35 other rough sleepers (in a rolling winter night shelter programme run by the West London Churches Homeless Concern), I had to wait until we got to London Bridge train station before I could take a photo with my tablet. And this is on top of Declan losing access to this blog from the internet cafe across the road from the library I am in at the moment (see the previous blog). We're bracing for what's going to happen next.

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This was my email in January 2013 to Chief Ombudsman Lewis Shand Smith:
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