In 2014 London Gypsies and Travellers invited members of the community to have their say about the Government’s housing plans, now the Housing and Planning Act 2016. Marian Mahoney from Tower Hamlets says she feels excluded from housing policy.
“All over London, there has been no provision made for Gypsy and Traveller sites for the last 20 years. From my experience as an activist, I feel that we have been just left out of everything. I cannot understand why my children cannot have a home the same as anybody else. When they build houses in London, they plan for how many people they need houses for. I feel my family has been left out in the cold as well as everybody else in the Traveller and Gypsy communities. There does not seem to be any future for us and I feel that at this moment it is like we do not exist. As far as I am concerned, we are just outsiders and we do not really have any availability for us.”
