Our clients need specialist legal advice and representation to give them access to justice that would otherwise be denied to them. By helping them to assert their legal rights, we not only defend their dignity and human rights, but promote their proper place as members of a fully functioning, genuinely inclusive society.
We meet the needs and address the disadvantage of around 1400 clients per year. They include women fleeing domestic violence, people who are in housing crisis, people with no income or recourse to public funds, those with complex benefit challenges, disabled children and adults. We are able to pursue cases all the way from initial enquiry to representation in the higher courts, if necessary.
Here are the stories of some of our recent clients:
Salman’s story
Salman, a care leaver with learning disability and mental health issues, came to us for help finding a new place to live. His flat was in a state of severe disrepair, and he had suffered an assault from a visitor to the flat, a friend of one of his flatmates. While helping him make an application to the council for support, Salman’s situation suddenly took a turn for the worse…
Kerry’s story
Kerry is a single mother of a child in nursery school. In 2023 she was housed by a council in temporary accommodation as part of the main housing duty. Following an unannounced inspection of her accommodation, her landlord gave her 24 hours to leave the property and the locks were changed. Things got worse for Kerry when her local council intervened.
Pamela’s story
Pamela is a foreign national who currently has no recourse to public funds because of her immigration status. When she came to us, she was 14 weeks’ pregnant and HIV positive. She also has care needs due to long-term health conditions, including mental health issues.
Ilie’s story
Ilie came to the UK some years ago and sought to apply to settle here under the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS). However, his application was hampered by the fact that he had a lengthy criminal record, although he had not offended for some years. He tried to build a new life in the UK as best he could, but then was hit with a new bombshell.
Anna’s story
Anna is a council tenant and a single mother who broke up with her partner, the father of her child, after suffering ongoing physical and emotional abuse from him. After he moved out, he began to take money from her account without her knowledge using a direct debit refund mechanism.
Khalifa’s story
Khalifa was a refugee who had fled her home country due to severe domestic violence. She had lost an eye as a child and suffered extreme trauma resulting in complex and long-term mental health issues, all of this means she needed ongoing medical treatment and support. Once granted asylum she suddenly found herself at risk of homelessness.
Salman's story
Salman is a care leaver with learning disability and mental health issues who was living in a room in a shared flat. The flat was in a state of severe disrepair, with leaks in the kitchen and bathroom and a rat infestation. On top of this he suffered an assault from a visitor to the flat, a friend of one of his flatmates. Already living with depression, his poor circumstances were causing much additional distress and, unable to cope, he came to us and asked for help finding a new place to live.
We investigated whether there was a way Salman could declare himself homeless due to his accommodation being unsuitable due to the disrepair or the violence he had experienced. Although neither proved possible, we discovered his landlord had dramatically increased the rent some months earlier and, although they had not enforced this so Salman was still paying the old rate, this still rendered his accommodation unaffordable in law. This meant he was able to declare himself homeless on that point and make a fresh application to the council. We supported Salman to make this application, making progress despite the council initially refusing to take action.
In the meantime, Salman was given a notice to quit by the landlord’s agents. Although we determined this was not a legally valid notice, the agents still sought to take Salman to court. They also repeatedly harassed Salman to try to get him to move. This included coercing him into signing an agreement to move out and attempting to illegally evict him. We were advised him to ignore the agreement as it was not legally valid and confronted the agents over their activities, forcing them to back down in their attempts to evict him.
Finally, the council found a new place for Salman – a large room in a hostel – into which he was able to move. We were then able to persuade the landlord to drop the court case against Salman, ensuring that he did not have to pay court costs and was able to walk away from the experience with a clean slate and a new place to live that he was happy with.
Kerry's story
Kerry is a single mother of a child in nursery school. In 2023 she was housed by a council in temporary accommodation as part of the main housing duty. Following an unannounced inspection of her accommodation, her landlord gave her 24 hours to leave the property and the locks were changed – actions which were clearly unlawful. The council then decided on the landlords’ say-so that she had given up her accommodation and that the main housing duty was no longer owed her. They made no further attempt to investigate this allegation.
Kerry tried to appeal this decision by requesting a review, but her arguments were not considered, and the council completed the review in 8 days, when they usually take 8 weeks. She then spent a year sofa-surfing with her young child until her violent ex-partner was released from prison, putting her at risk in the area she was staying in. She applied to the council as homeless again, but they decided she was intentionally homeless because of their previous decision that she had given up her accommodation.
At her wit’s end, Kerry came to Tower Hamlets Law Centre and instructed our housing caseworker to represent her. We argued on Kerry’s behalf that her landlord’s illegal eviction had broken the chain of causation of her homelessness and raised serious concerns with the council’s failure to properly investigate the allegations and not providing her the opportunity to explain what had happened. We also helped Kerry to obtain her housing file and identified key pieces of evidence that supported her case. Following our representations, the council agreed that she was not intentionally homeless and confirmed they have accepted the main housing duty, meaning Kerry and her child will remain in stable, safe accommodation while they look for somewhere permanent.
Pamela's story
Ilie's story
Ilie came to the UK some years ago and sought to apply to settle here under the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS). However, his application was hampered by the fact that he had a lengthy criminal record, although he had not offended for some years. He also had poor literacy and a history of street homelessness.
We assisted him to submit his application four years ago, but no decision was made, most likely due to his criminal record triggering additional scrutiny. Ilie had to try and build a new life in the UK while facing uncertainty about his prospects – nonetheless he found work in construction and took on to look after several rescue cats.
Out of the blue, Ilie faced a major new setback – he was accused of a further offence, one he had not committed. He was investigated by the police, while the Home Office paused his application. To his relief he was cleared, but it then transpired that they had failed to update his file on the Police National Computer. This meant his claim remained in limbo, to his increasing frustration and distress.
We contacted the police to correct their mistake and then followed up with the Home Office to request that the application be un-paused. Once this had happened, the Home Office requested further evidence of residence. Ilie needed help collecting and submitting this, due to his literacy difficulties and lack of support networks, so we supported him to ensure he was able to submit all the correct documents. His application was finally granted in March 2025 – more than three and a half years after it was submitted.
Anna's story
Anna is a council tenant and a single mother who broke up with her partner, and the father of her child, after suffering ongoing physical and emotional abuse from him. After he moved out, he began to take money from her account without her knowledge using a direct debit refund mechanism.
She only discovered this was happening when she received rent arrears letters from the council, which prompted her to check her payment history with her bank. These arrears were made worse by the council making a series of administrative errors on her account, ultimately leading to Anna ending up with arrears of more than £10,000.
Anna was desperate to have this situation resolved, but despite the arrears being not her fault, and had been made worse by their errors, they failed to take any action to support her and instead issued possession proceedings after Anna had sought to negotiate with them over the arrears for some months.
She came to us after being signposted to us by the council’s own benefits team. Our housing caseworker, Oliver Moore, spent time negotiating with both their benefits and housing team and eventually secured a Discretionary Housing Payment (DHP) to clear the rent arrears, resulting in the possession claim being dismissed. Anna is now living in her home safe and free from arrears.
Khalifa's story
Khalifa was a refugee who had fled her home country due to severe domestic violence. She had lost an eye as a child and suffered extreme trauma resulting in complex and long-term mental health issues, all of this means she needs ongoing medical treatment and support.
After being granted asylum, she was placed by Islington borough council in accommodation that was very far away from Islington, the only area in London she knew, and where her only friend lived. It was also too far away from her medical treatment centre, meaning she would no longer be able to access the important support she needs.
They then decided she was not in priority need, and that they would make her homeless. She came to us for help, and we challenged the council’s decision. They agreed that they had got the decision wrong, and confirmed Khalifa did have priority need and they owed her the main housing duty.
However, they did not provide alternative accommodation, so we challenged the suitability of her current accommodation. Again, London Borough of Islington agreed they had made the wrong decision, and decided the accommodation was unsuitable. They then find to provide her with an alternative.
We issued a letter threatening to take them to court if they did not immediately source suitable alternative accommodation. As a result of this letter, London Borough of Islington then immediately offered our client permanent social housing in Islington only 5 minutes away from her medical treatment centre, which she accepted.