We have launched a housing needs survey for Crystal Palace and we want to hear your stories.

If you’re suffering from damp, struggling to afford your rent, or even if you’re absolutely fine, we want to hear from you.

Since we started in 2019 we’ve talked to headteachers losing pupils as high rents and house prices push their parents out of the area; small business owners unable to get going; families unable to put down roots. We’ve been appalled by the stories of dismal and unsafe living conditions in some council flats in South Norwood, stories that we suspect others in the area will recognise.

Now we want to unearth the real extent of the housing crisis in Crystal Palace.

We have the dry data already, though it’s always cut up by London Borough. We want to get a picture of the reality of housing across the five boroughs that meet in Crystal Palace.

We’ll use your stories to help us try to build homes that are as affordable as possible in Crystal Palace, starting at The Lawns.

We have more dry data on the shortage of new affordable homes. For example, Croydon Council’s most recent assessment of housing need (it’s 2019 Strategic Housing Market Assessment) found that the borough needs to be building 2,178 affordable homes every year to meet the need that has grown “notably” since its last assessment in 2015. But City Hall’s monitoring reports show that only 247 affordable homes have been built each year.

Our Community Land Trust is all about local people stepping up to do something about this. We are owned, controlled and run by local people who have already volunteered over 1,300 hours of their time and raised over £250,000 to take our first project forward. If you’d like to help, as well as completing the survey you can join the CLT for £1 and get in touch to volunteer.