Tuesday, August 06, 2019

I have asked Chair of Newham Council Cllr Joy Laguda MBE to be my Designated Person to try and resolve my complaint with the Mayor of London-commissioned St Mungo's without recourse to the Housing Ombudsman or the courts

In response to the letter below from St Mungo's:

August 5, 2019
Dears,
This correspondence from St Mungo's makes one think of the kind one would expect to get from the authorities who managed Brave New World or 1984!!!
Are you in a situation where you might lose your housing?
We are so concerned. How can such wonderful contributors to our world be so ignored and bureaucratically left twisting in the wind????
Please keep us up to date on your continuing saga!
Faithfully yours,
Donald A. Collins, Founder of International Services Assistance Fund

Our Church and State website has no less than 57 Nobel Laureates on it; for details, see this blog's sidebar under "Church and State" (updated today).

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan

St Mungo's Complaints

Please tell us about your feedback

I hereby make a Stage 1 complaint about my TST caseworker following a reference for a hospice for the dying that didn't reply to the question about my "honesty, reliability and temperament".

What action would you like us to take

Sofia Pires had repeatedly assured me that she was good for a reference of my character. Please can you provide me with an explanation for why she did not reply to this hospice's question about my honesty, reliability and temperament.

I have twice written to Ms Pires about this, but to no avail.

Maria [Lola] Heavey
6 July 2019

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 both Declan and I 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. Three weeks ago I received St Mungo's TST's response to my complaint about a reference for voluntary work my caseworker sent to St Joseph's Hospice. I was told that my complaint was not upheld on the ground that this caseworker did not know me well enough to reply to the Hospice's question about my honesty, reliability and temperament. My application to the Hospice of course was not successful. Yesterday I received the dismissive letter below in an email from St Mungo's Quality and Continuous Improvement Manager Elinor Childs. I subsequently wrote to my local councillor, Cllr Joy Laguda MBE, who is the acting Chair of Newham Council, requesting that she be my Designated Person to try and resolve my complaint. I do not believe I have gotten a fair response from St Mungo's, in that unreliable support has now effectively been deemed "satisfactory" in my case, thereby placing our tenancy at risk (a threat to life).

This morning Declan phoned the Housing Ombudsman Service. He was informed that I would have to wait eight weeks after the final response below to come directly to them; however, Cllr Laguda can refer my complaint straight away. It is my intention to meet Cllr Laguda at her surgery on Saturday week to request this referral, in the continued absence of a fair response to my request for a to-whom-it-may-concern letter that I can use as a reference to help me find voluntary work in end-of-life care. Nothing less can put things right. If neither Cllr Laguda nor the Housing Ombudsman can help me find this solution, Declan will file a claim in the Central London County Court in the New Year citing the dereliction of duty and breach of our human rights substantiated (now in part) in his updated complaint to the United Nations last month; see my blog post of 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. From paragraph 38: "They are extremely concerned that next year they will be forced to challenge a destabilising periodic tenancy, as opposed to fixed term, in a court action against St. Mungo's for dereliction of duty and violation of their human rights. This notwithstanding that it has become abundantly clear that they have been and continue to be deprived of satisfactory tenancy sustainment support."

Quality and Continuous Improvement team
3 Thomas More Square
London
E1W1YW

5 August 2019

Dear Maria

Your request to appeal your complaint to St Mungo's

Thank you for your email of 19 July 2019, in which you indicated that you were not satisfied with the response you had received to your complaint at stage 1 of our complaints process. This is being treated as a request to progress your complaint to stage 2 of our complaints process.

As the Quality and Continuous Improvement Manager at St Mungo's, it is for me to consider your request and decide whether or not your complaint should progress to stage 2. Your complaint would progress to stage 2 if:

- The investigation failed to consider all of the reasonably available evidence; or
- The response was not consistent with the reasonably available evidence.

Having reviewed the original complaint and response, I consider that the investigation did consider all of the reasonably available evidence, and the response was consistent with that evidence. Your complaint will therefore not progress to stage 2 of our complaints process. This means you have exhausted the St Mungo's complaints process.

In response to your email to complaints@mungos.org on 2 August 2019, the reference that was provided is in line with St Mungo's internal procedures. Any further reference provided would have to be in line with the same procedures and would therefore not include any further information than the reference already provided.

If you are not happy with this response and wish to take the matter further, you may contact the Housing Ombudsman on the details provided below.

Housing Ombudsman Service
Exchange Tower
Harbour Exchange Square
London E149GE
Telephone: 0300 1113000
Email: info@housing-ombudsman.org.uk

Yours sincerely

Elinor Childs
Quality and Continuous Improvement Manager
St Mungo's

In re Reference sent to St Joseph's Hospice by St Mungo's TST

Paragraph 36 of Declan's updated complaint to the United Nations under Article 19 (freedom of expression) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

36. The Applicant and his wife's tenancy agreement was renewed like-for-like for the second time last year, but only when court proceedings against St. Mungo's were imminent two months after the Applicant complained that the decision not to reissue another tenancy for two former rough sleepers with support needs amounted to a type of harassment and a death threat. Since then, the Applicant has been battling St. Mungo's from pillar to post to stabilise his and his wife's tenancy (see Annex 16, pp. 39-41). First it was problems with inaccurate case notes, which got more serious in August 2018 when the Applicant discovered that notes St. Mungo's assured District Judge Avent the year previous had been rectified by them were in fact being held under the Applicant's wife's name. Last year the Applicant also had to battle St. Mungo's for his own Tenancy Sustainment Team (TST) caseworker and to stave off enforced joint visits. This year the Applicant has already had to twice battle St. Mungo's to have removed outrageous notes that were inputted into their system on both occasions without his knowledge or consent. Last month, in June 2019, the Applicant's professional referee observed: "This obscene disregard for your rights seems to continue unresolved!" The following week, the Applicant's wife received from her TST caseworker a completed volunteer reference form that had been sent to St Joseph's Hospice. This caseworker left blank a question relating to the Applicant's wife's "honesty, reliability and temperament", and has not explained her reason for not completing this section of the form. The Applicant's wife's application was not successful. (Emphasis added.)

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

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.


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at 9:40 am