Church and State blog: Facebook's 60th block. Declan's letter before action to St Mungo's CEO Howard Sinclair revealed in this post

Monday, August 12, 2019

Facebook's 60th block. Declan's letter before action to St Mungo's CEO Howard Sinclair revealed in this post

From the My Pick link below re St Mungo's:

6/13/19

This obscene disregard for your rights seems to continue unresolved!

Donald A. Collins
Founder, International Services Assistance Fund

This is Facebook's 60th block (3 days) against Church and State since 1 December 2015, and as usual without an explanation. They have yet to remove their 59th block (103 days), which is an administrative block on my page listing all the groups I belong to.

The Central London County Court is located in the Royal Courts of Justice.

Declan and I are housed in a flat that is part of the Mayor of London's Rough Sleepers Initiative. Alongside our tenancy is access to the Mayor's Tenancy Sustainment Team (TST) at St Mungo's. It has been acknowledged by the Greater London Authority in court papers that we can live independently – we do not have addictions or mental illness or behavioural issues. Our needs are solely related to the harassment, discrimination, intimidation and victimisation we routinely face. For well over a year, we have been battling St Mungo's to stabilise our tenancy. Now the tenancy itself is under immediate threat. Declan will have pleadings ready for filing with the Central London County Court immediately following the end of the two-week period cited in his letter before action emailed to St Mungo's CEO Howard Sinclair this evening.

12 August 2019

Howard Sinclair
Chief Executive
St Mungo's
3 Thomas More Square
London
E1W 1YW

Dear Mr Sinclair

Letter before action: Failure to provide satisfactory support

I am writing under the Human Rights Act (HRA) concerning St Mungo's position in relation to my Tenancy Sustainment Team (TST) support.

For the entire week commencing 8 July 2019, my TST caseworker failed to uphold his end of our agreement for support. Since 6 August, I have been refused an explanation for the non-issue of a to-whom-it-may-concern letter ("the letter") that I can use as a reference for learning disability volunteering, and that I believe should be issued to put things right.

Indeed, it is the stated position of St Mungo's TST that no such letter, or explanation for its non-issue, will be provided by my TST caseworker before a meeting has taken place between me and him "to discuss your support moving forward", to quote from an email his manager sent me last week.

I do not believe that it is fair or reasonable for St Mungo's to expect me to arrange a meeting with any member of staff without the letter or an explanation for its non-issue, particularly in light of my recent four-month battle over case notes, including a false and misleading note stating that I want to explore "training" as well as LD volunteering. I have repeatedly explained that your Employment, Training and Education (ETE) service is completely inappropriate in my circumstances.

I do not wish to vary, change or alter any of the terms of my support under my tenancy agreement. I believe that not only is your position unfair and unreasonable, but it poses an immediate threat to my tenancy in breach of my human rights. It also comes on foot of a string of other violations of the HRA that have had a destabilising effect upon my tenancy month in, month out for well over a year now.

Please could you provide me with a clear written explanation for why the decision has been made not to immediately issue me with the letter. If there is information my TST caseworker requires to issue it, I am more than happy to provide him with this information in writing or over the phone.

If I do not hear from you or we are unable to come to a reasonable agreement by 26 August (allowing 14 days from your receipt of this letter), I will issue court proceedings in the county court without further notice. I will also be asking for an order to cover my costs. I will be relying on court rules for pre-action conduct that say you may have to pay more in costs if you ignore this letter.

Yours sincerely

Declan Heavey
Managing Director
Network for Church Monitoring

Claimant: Declan Heavey
Defendant: St Mungo's

Brief details of claim

The Claimant is a tenant of the Defendant's Clearing House. For the entire week commencing 8 July 2019, the Defendant failed to complete its end of an agreement for support that it had with the Claimant. Since 6 August, the Claimant has been refused an explanation for the non-issue of a reference for learning disability volunteering, and that he believes should be issued to put things right. It is the repeatedly stated position of the Defendant that no such reference, or an explanation for its non-issue, will be issued before a meeting has taken place between the Claimant and the Defendant "to discuss your support moving forward", to quote from an email from the Defendant. It is unfair and unreasonable for the Defendant to insist upon such a meeting without having issued a reference or an explanation for its non-issue, particularly in light of the Claimant's recent four-month battle over false and misleading case notes. The Defendant's position poses an immediate threat to the Claimant's tenancy (a threat to life). It also comes on foot of a string of other violations of the Human Rights Act 1998 that have had a destabilising effect upon the Claimant's tenancy month in, month out for well over a year. The Claimant is, therefore, making an application to the Court for a declaration that the Defendant has acted unreasonably and in breach of duty towards him. The Claimant seeks damages for distress and costs.

Value

The Claimant expects to recover not more than £1,000.

Last year St Mungo's made the international press for all the wrong reasons. They are accused of helping to get rough sleepers arrested and deported. When the story came through my Russia Today (RT) news feed, it left Declan gob smacked. He subsequently spoke with Diane Taylor, the journalist covering the story for the Guardian.

EU freedom for rough sleepers infringed - shock horror. https://t.co/RuJKrSEiTm
— Andrew Martin (@devonprof) May 14, 2018

From My Picks

12 July: Threat to life: Updated complaint to the United Nations under Article 19 (freedom of expression) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Mayor of London-commissioned St Mungo's highlighted

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan

'Let me recommend an important web site churchandstate.org.uk. Operating out of London this well-designed and exciting web site covers church-state, population, climate change and other issues. Check it out.' Edd Doerr, President, Americans for Religious Liberty

http://churchandstate.org.uk/about/

Church and State

MAYOR OF LONDON RSI PROPERTY
DAY 406 IN A WEEKLY PERIODIC TENANCY
SUBJECT TO A SECTION 21 NOTICE

(SEE PARA. 3 BELOW)

1. Our 308 Honorary Associates include 20 Nobel Prize laureates. Declan and I are engaged in a project that deals with the publication of issues significant to social policy in a number of key areas, e.g., climate change, population, futurism, atheism, and free speech. Established as Network for Church Monitoring, a non-profit company limited by guarantee, our main publication, found at the website, Church and State, calls attention to subjects, not the least which have been critical of the interaction between religious and secular institutions. We have been the target of numerous threats and actions, e.g., the former resulting in threats to Declan's life, and the latter, which have led to vandalism. The various incidents are on record with the police and other official agencies.

2. There are no less than 63 Nobel Prize laureates on the Church and State website from 20 Honorary Associates, eight articles, nine book excerpts and 33 petition signatories. (For example, one Nobel laureate signed our Nobel petition in support of human embryonic stem cell research and gave us permission to excerpt from one of his books.) Our list of associates also includes 18 US National Medal laureates, and six Turing Award laureates (the equivalent of the Nobel Prize in computer science). We have published one article and excerpted from the books of seven members of the British House of Lords. And there are 31 knighted professors on the site from 13 Honorary Associates, one book excerpt and 21 petition signatories. These figures are despite the never-ending assault on our email (this link reveals the targeting of our emails to, among others, a close colleague in Washington, DC as well as space advocates and Nobel laureates).

3. This is Day 406 for us living under the threat to life of a 'no fault' eviction by Peabody Trust.[1] We live in a Mayor of London's Rough Sleepers Initiative (RSI) property. Peabody's appalling new terms of tenancy have forced us into an unstable weekly periodic tenancy that poses a threat to Declan's life and inhibits our ability to exercise our rights. Declan accumulated quite a history with the Housing Ombudsman Service before he received the Ombudsman's decision not to investigate a referral from Lyn Brown MP on jurisdictional grounds. The Ombudsman was asked to consider whether or not our tenancy has been renewed like for like; and whether, if not, it should be in light of the landlord having accused us of not signing a like-for-like agreement. The Equality and Human Rights Commission will not accept a referral of discrimination from Ms Brown, the Commission's helpline (EASS) having grossly distorted the complaint against Peabody. We no longer have pro se access to the courts (see next paragraph).

4. This eviction matter came before District Judge Ruth Fine at the Central London County Court on 30 June 2020, when both counsel for St Mungo's (the charity in effective control of our tenancy) and Declan presented their positions. Declan lost the case and was ordered to pay £1,850 in costs. A publishing colleague in America cleared these costs within 24 hours of my blog post about this hearing for strike out on a related issue that was the essence of the claim, i.e., that St Mungo's would take a phone call to confirm that we are clients of the Mayor of London's RSI programme. Within a week of the hearing, St Mungo's had agreed to take this phone call for us both, the Court having ruled that they were not obliged to do so despite our circumstances. This time we escaped bankruptcy (counsel for St Mungo's asked for £3,407.50 in costs), but consider that to seek pro se access to justice in the courts has become far too dangerous for us. Declan currently has before the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman the decision of the Information Commissioner that allows St Mungo's to continue processing coercive support plans without our knowledge or consent and that also poses a threat to his life.

5. When it comes to traffic, we have had 10.7 million hits in the past three years on Facebook; however, I left the platform on 13 March 2021 for one year rather than risk being banned for life. It is indisputable that with any sort of level playing field Church and State would have far exceeded 2.5 million hits last year. In addition to a large variety of blocks without explanation, Facebook had so severely restricted our Page's distribution by October 2020 that it was almost as good as an unpublished page.[2] Currently, we are up to their 85th block since 1 December 2015, and as usual without an explanation. This block records as one half of their 3rd double block in the first five weeks of this year that lasted 60 days. Our traffic has also been curtailed by over 2.5K blocks on access to Church and State since 26 July 2016, including 29 full distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks since 17 May 2019 that have lasted for as long as 54 hours at a time.[3] About 70% of our hits are from Americans.

"This is precisely the hard hitting kind of response needed to clarify the unfair way Facebook is treating your highly reputable site." Don Collins, Founder, International Services Assistance Fund, Washington DC

Last updated: 26/06/21

_________________________

[1] Once a fixed term has elapsed, the landlord has the option to seek eviction even if the tenant has upheld their obligations in full (though of course the landlord must still apply for and obtain a county court order).

[2] 17/10/20: We have permission to publish this ISAF letter of 30 September to Facebook COO Sheryl Samberg. Facebook has so severely restricted our Page's distribution since 4 September that it's almost as good as an unpublished page

[3] Since October 2019, we have been defining a full DDoS attack as having such a high volume of up to 4-minute blocks on access to Church and State that we don't bother recording them all.

Church and State blog

Monday, August 12, 2019

Facebook's 60th block. Declan's letter before action to St Mungo's CEO Howard Sinclair revealed in this post

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