Independent candidate Vernon Williams would build 500 homeless chalets on parks as Hackney Mayor

‘People are…being treated as disposable peasants’: independent Hackney mayoral candidate Vernon Williams. Photograph: Hackney Citizen

Independent mayoral candidate Vernon Williams says Hackney residents are “treated as disposable peasants”, and wants to build 500 chalets on parkland to house the homeless.

He also says today’s knife crime is a legacy of the “psychological effect” of slavery, and vows that as mayor he would lobby the UK government to apologise for the slave trade.

Williams, 60, a former Labour councillor and university administrator, who is also standing in King’s Park ward, has put housing at the centre of his campaign.

Speaking to the Citizen, Williams said: “I’ve actually gone out there and spoken to people, I’ve done my research. People are basically being treated as disposable peasants.

“Most social housing tenants today, whether they are managed by the council directly, or are under housing associations, tenant management organisations, housing trusts, they all have serious problems.

“These organisations increasingly have little respect for them.”

Williams wants a third of board members on Hackney’s housing associations to be “council trained tenants’ representatives,” and wants small businesses given preference in delivering goods and services.

His “War on Homelessness” would include building 500 temporary “chalet units” on the borough’s parkland.

“I probably know more about homeless housing than any other candidate in this election, because I’ve actually gone out there and spoken to them [homeless people] over the last four years”, he said.

“The number one thing homeless people are interested in is independence and a warm bed. These units would be temporary, and kept there until housing improves.”

Williams at the North London Muslim Community Centre hustings earlier this month. Photograph: Occupy London

Williams was elected as a Labour councillor for today’s London Fields ward in 1998, when the ward was called Queensbridge.

He told the Citizen of his experiences challenging far-right groups in Brick Lane during the 1970s.

“I would join people on a Sunday to oppose these fascists”, he said.

“It was always threatening, you didn’t know if they had weapons on them, because obviously they came there to hurt people, and we were opposing them.”

Williams said that if elected mayor he would use his platform to urge the UK government for a fuller apology for slavery, arguing that this could help address violent crime on the London’s streets.

“As mayor I would support more policing, more crime prevention”, he said. “But in terms of dealing with the underlying causes, these high rates of young black men killing each other is due to the aftermath of slavery.

“It’s the psychological effect we’re talking about here. An apology means you can integrate yourself better in the community, you can begin to talk about and do positive things, and begin to learn about yourself.”