Church and State blog: The Mayor of London-commissioned St Mungo's will not provide me with an explanation for the non-issue of a reference for me for voluntary work in end-of-life care. I will attend Cllr Laguda's surgery tomorrow for referral of my complaint to the Housing Ombudsman (WITH UPDATE 9/8/2019)

Friday, August 09, 2019

The Mayor of London-commissioned St Mungo's will not provide me with an explanation for the non-issue of a reference for me for voluntary work in end-of-life care. I will attend Cllr Laguda's surgery tomorrow for referral of my complaint to the Housing Ombudsman (WITH UPDATE 9/8/2019)

In response to my email below to Cllr Laguda:

Hoping this clear explanation of the harmful ideological charges will result in a favorable resolution of that specious St Mungo's position!
-Don Collins Sr, President, ISAF, Washington DC

specious
/ˈspiːʃəs/

adjective
superficially plausible, but actually wrong.
"a specious argument"
misleading in appearance, especially misleadingly attractive.
"the music trade gives Golden Oldies a specious appearance of novelty"
synonyms: plausible but wrong, seemingly correct, misleading, deceptive, false, fallacious, unsound, casuistic, sophistic
"a specious argument"

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

Three weeks ago I received from the Mayor of London-commissioned St Mungo's TST (Tenancy Sustainment Team) a response to my complaint about a reference for voluntary work my TST 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. The dismissive final decision letter I received last Monday in an email from St Mungo's Quality and Continuous Improvement Manager Elinor Childs is revealed in my post of 6 August, 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. 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 my and Declan's tenancy at risk (a threat to life). St Mungo's will not provide me with an explanation for the non-issue of a reference for me for voluntary work in end-of-life care, but since I wrote to Cllr Laguda last Monday, insist only on a fraught with danger meeting with me to discuss matters. I will attend Cllr Laguda's surgery tomorrow morning and explain to her that this is almost certainly a ruse on the part of St Mungo's to effectively vary the terms of our tenancy agreement. They in fact tried to do this the last time Declan met with his TST caseworker and we had to fight for four months to have false and misleading case notes removed from the St Mungo's record. I will ask Cllr Laguda for the referral of my complaint to the Housing Ombudsman. Unless otherwise averted, next week Declan will write to our local MP for the referral to the Housing Ombudsman of his even stronger case against St Mungo's for unreliable support deemed to be "satisfactory" by them. The Housing Ombudsman Service informed him last week that they could not treat both of our complaints as a joint complaint, which suits us. Declan's more than likely complaint next week to Lyn Brown MP will serve as a court exhibit to show, among other things, an unfair and biased St Mungo's complaints process.

For the attention of Howard Sinclair, CEO, St Mungo's

Councillor Joy Laguda MBE
Plaistow North Ward
London Borough of Newham

Address removed for email

5 August 2019

Dear Cllr Laguda,

I am writing to you because my complaint is still not resolved after the end of St Mungo's complaints procedure.

My husband, Declan (who you have met), 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 as outspoken joint survivors of church abuse, and currently as part-time employees of Network for Church Monitoring, a non-profit Declan founded in 2011.

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.

This afternoon I received the dismissive letter attached in an email from St Mungo's Quality and Continuous Improvement Manager Elinor Childs. As my local councillor, I am wondering if you could 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).

I believe that things could be put right with a reference that has not been forthcoming. You therefore have my consent and authorisation to contact St Mungo's on the details provided below.

Dominic Williamson
Executive Director of Strategy and Policy
St Mungo's
3 Thomas More Square
Tower Hill
London
E1W 1YW
Office: 020 3856 6000
Direct: 020 3856 6175
Mobile: 07881 852 893
Email: dominic.williamson@mungos.org

Yours sincerely,

Maria Heavey
71 Queens Road West
Plaistow
E13 0PE

Mobile: 07880 437 681

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

Update 9 August (4.40pm): This morning Declan received the reply below from Cllr Laguda's office in response to my email above. He subsequently phoned the office to be told that Cllr Laguda is on leave until 18 August and that her next surgery will not be until 7 September. I would have to wait eight weeks to apply to the Housing Ombudsman myself. I will therefore write a letter to Cllr Laguda next week along the lines of Declan's letter to Lyn Brown MP, providing her with my written consent to make this referral. Only if necessary will I then attend her surgery on 7 September.

LGO: Local Government Ombudsman
HO: Housing Ombudsman

9 Aug 2019, 10:37

Dear Mr Heavey

Councillor Laguda is on leave at the moment, and I have passed this to the casework team who inform me that you will have to follow the advice on the letter and escalate to the LGO [sic] if you still remain unsatisfied.

I understand this may not be the response you were expecting and wish you well.

Kind regards

Margaret
Margaret Zincraft | Cabinet Support Officer | Mayor's Office
London Borough of Newham
Newham Dockside 1000 Dockside Road | London E16 2QU
DDI: 020 3373 0434 | Int: 30434
www.newham.gov.uk

'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

Friday, August 09, 2019

The Mayor of London-commissioned St Mungo's will not provide me with an explanation for the non-issue of a reference for me for voluntary work in end-of-life care. I will attend Cllr Laguda's surgery tomorrow for referral of my complaint to the Housing Ombudsman (WITH UPDATE 9/8/2019)

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