Frederick Gentz with members of ACORN

A “PEOPLE’S union” is opening a new branch for Islington residents and is calling for more to join.

The Association of Community Organisations for Reform Now (ACORN) is a community union that organises residents to fight for improvements in their area, including transport issues, environment issues, council issues, and housing problems like damp and mould.

Frederick Gentz, head of the Islington ACORN branch, said: “Anyone can join: homeowners, private renters, people in temporary accommodation, council tenants, housing association tenants.
“If people are facing eviction for mortgage arrears we help them as well.”

It works on individual cases as well as wider campaigns for improvements in the borough, all led by residents.

“A typical example of what we do is that we picket the estate agent, or we do a march on the landlord, to get them to act,” said Mr Gentz.

“We’ll do that and quite often, that’s enough to push them into negotiation because they aren’t keen to have a group of people outside picketing them. Then we’d usually get the tenant to put their case across to them.

“We use our numbers and leverage to get the landlord or whoever it is to commit to things in writing and set a deadline for fixing this issue.

“If they refuse to deal with it, then we just show up again and again. Landlords don’t want the hassle of a tenants’ union.”

He added: “The branch leader is putting out the call for more people to join. What I hear a lot in new areas is ‘oh, Islington isn’t like other places, I don’t know if that will work here,’ and they hesitate before joining.

“But, the reason it works is because everyone gives a little bit. There might be a mum who gives up one Saturday a month to help someone, or a student who gives one evening a week and sits on a committee.

“Just give it a shot, and we can make really big things for the borough.”

According to Mr Gentz, unions like this are more important now than ever.

“The cost of living crisis, and Covid especially, made it clear who in society has power and who doesn’t,” he said.

“There’s a certain level of society who do what they like at our expense. Now, even more people are at the stage where they’ve had enough and they want to stand up for themselves. This spurs people into action and ACORN is here for those people.”

Mr Gentz added: “The power we do have is standing shoulder to shoulder with our neighbours.”

The cost of joining is the equivalent of one-hour of wages per month, and there are discounted rates for the elderly or students.