Mayor of London Elections: LGBTQ+ Housing Manifestoes

We are proud to be part of the London Queer Housing Coalition (formerly the London LGBTIQA+ Community Housing Coalition). 'A Manifesto for London Queer Community Housing - Mayoral Election Campaign 2024' has been sent to the electoral candidates. The manifesto is a collaborative campaign with six recommendations for the future Mayor of London to ensure every LGBTQIA+ Londoner has somewhere safe to call home. Despite the great achievements of queer community led housing organisations, such as Tonic Housing and Star Support, increasing the number of homes since 2021 with support from the Mayor of London, the recommendations in the manifesto remain in most part the same as those in 2020/21 as these have not been acted upon to make the change that we need to see. We will continue to campaign for a Queer Housing Strategy to be developed with our communities and housing solutions that are delivered by queer community led housing organisations.

OUR SIX RECOMMENDATIONS:

1. Produce a queer housing strategy for London.

2. A London-wide housing and support pathway for queer Londoners.

3. Establish a member portfolio area for queer housing and a complimenting officer role.

4. Fund queer training for commissioners to delivery staff.

5. A coordinated approach to data collection.

6. ‘Nothing About Us, Without Us’ Community- led principles with required funding.

The Manifesto for London LGBTIQA+ Community Housing has been created by the London LGBTIQA+ Community Housing Coalition (LLCHC), which is made up of seven organisations that are working on common issues across all age ranges. It is part of their engagement with the Mayoral Candidates ahead of the Mayoral Election 2021 Campaign.

We collectively use the term LGBTIQA+ in our manifesto to express our commitment to include all members of our communities, although our individual organisations may use a variation of this acronym in their own work.

This manifesto lists 7 Key Recommendations for the prospective next Mayor of London to commit to that will make a significant difference to the lives of the most disadvantaged LGBTIQA+ people in the Capital.

LLCHC ask the next prospective Mayor of London to:

1. Produce an LGBTIQA+ Housing Strategy for London

2. Work with local councils to build a London- wide support pathway of access to accommodation and support services for LGBTIQA+ people

3. Create a Greater London Authority portfolio role for LGBTIQA+ housing

4. Fund LGBTIQA+ awareness training for commissioners and delivery staff

5. Establish a coordinated approach to data collection to evidence need and impact

6. Embed community-led principles in all of these actions to ensure there is ‘Nothing about us without us’ with appropriate funding to facilitate this

7. Ensure that LGBTIQA+ housing and community organisations are meaningfully involved in the design and implementation of the London Recovery Programme