Social housing - unfair reputation

I grew up on a council estate in London and it was just ordinary working families. There were no particular trouble makers on our estate.

I’m now in a council property myself and we have a little run of 8 houses in a rural area. There are no problems here, again just ordinary working families. The turn over of neighbours has been low too, the couple houses in the row that have been bought by private owners are the only ones that have changed and that has been due to growing families and them needing bigger homes.

I think one problem is that to get social housing in many parts of the country you need to have very serious social problems. It's not like the old days when council housing was a home for working families .

It depends on the area, if it’s mostly housing associations it’s not as bad as they are stricter in their eligibility criteria (IE working families). However older council properties can be filled with undesirables (I work near one) as their selection criteria is more lenient.

I am in SH. Our neighbours are lovely with the exception of two families nearby that bought their properties. They are anti-social arse holes with screaming kids, loud crap music, bonfires, animals that shit everywhere and general shitty behaviour.

While I don't live in a council property, or whatever the term is now, I grew up on a large council estate living with my parents and moving out when I was in my late 20's you wouldn't have been allowed to have the frontage of your property strewn with rubbish of any kind, even hedges had to be cut back.

There were random checks by council office bods as we called them.

Never did our parents or neighbours complain about it as it was part of the tenancy agreement and kept the area looking nice.

Today most areas as such are run by two main housing associations as our council have handed all housing over, as long as rents paid they don't seem to care what their tenants keep their outside areas like.

I tried that HA didn't give a shit.

In my experience, the SH and home owners are not an issue. The privately rented out ex SH have been a constant issue. At least you have some chance of speaking to HA about issues, with private rentals you can’t complain to anyone.

Where I live (in a good area with good schools) normal, hardworking nice families are not a priority for social housing as the demand is so high. There are a few who are genuinely homeless through no fault of their own & are offered housing in nice estates but generally they're being given to those with lots of social issues & whilst I do understand why, it is galling as someone who has been told I will never qualify for a home. ( I am a private tenant working full time). So people are spending a lot of money to buy on a nice new build estate & have problem neighbours from the get go. I do feel sorry for them to be honest.

I’ve told this story on here before.

I moved into a new build estate. It was still being built!

When completed there was a little bit of low level disruption and a settling in period. One young lad caused a lot of damage to a row of cars one night.

a neighbour always said it was because of the social housing. I used to just smile and ignore.

About 6 months later I asked her what she meant by her comment “it’s the mix”.

She said that HA tenants were ways going to cause problems.

Her face when I pointed out neighbours x y and z private owners and my block was the social housing was hilarious.

All she could say was “but you are so nice and work”.

Yes, I do think I’m nice and yes I do work. But as a LP to a disabled DS I also was entitled to somewhere cheaper to rent.

The “problems” settled down. There was never anything more than teens making use of the new park and all the open plan outdoor space and anti social behaviour rather than criminal or even purposefully disruptive.

I live near some social housing most are fine but I have one particular neighbour who is an absolute pain the actual entitlement and lack of consideration for others is unreal.

I can spot the social housing folk a mile off usually. Just have the place and garden looking like a shit tip

of course not all are like that but it’s astonishing how many are and they just take no pride in anything at all. Baffling

Yes. But they were the exception. Society HAS changed. There is an attitude of entitlement now as the norm, and there are no police anywhere, so the criminal element are brazen and aggressive. The atmosphere has changed, the “ mind your own business” culture means that there are no standards of wellness out there to conform to. People swear at their children in public defiantly, with a “ what you gonna do about it” vibe. It’s horrible. They have the right to walk about the street in their pyjamas and park their cars to block you in. It’s their right, isn’t it?
Tragic use of rights, I know!

Growing up in central Scotland in the 70s/80s my primary school class of 30, 28 of us lived in council housing. I thought that was just the Normal. Gardens all nice and kept. I might have just saw it with my young eyes. It was all nice a clean and safe.
These days going round the same housing estates, it’s a bloody mess. Plus they seem to give the new council houses to a lot of junkies and folk that have no desire to work. Why not put working families in these new houses.

There’s a lovely new estate where I walk through to the local woods. It’s glaringly obvious which houses are social housing. Rubbish dumped in the front gardens, broken garden furniture just thrown out, generally scruffy and unkempt.

Like most things it's partially rooted in truth. You've obviously got lucky.

Personally I would not buy a house near lots of SH.

I live in a new build. Bought knowing that the developers Barratt had put in a certain % of affordable rent. No problem. The families in those homes seem great. Sadly when Liz truss ruined the economy Barratt decided to sell a load of houses in bulk to a different housing association and it’s been hell ever since. Drug dealers, shouting, fights and even shooting each other with BB guns. We had to call 999 last night after listening to a family screaming obscenities in the street for an hour before starting a physical fight. The private owners are rightly unimpressed and selling up where they can. We can’t afford the loss.

i know ill be called a snob but i do think there is a stigma. Its often unfair as many of the families here are great but the only trouble on this estate has come from sh tenants.

Our road has 40 houses, 10 are social housing. All of our neighbours are lovely.

I had a next door neighbour who was a right PITA. Rubbish in garden, noise, smashed window boarded up etc. Not a council tenant though, they owned the place.

Scummy people come in my walks of life

Same. Would avoid at all costs.

The stigma is justified
I have a number of neighbours in social housing who are awful

Not all social housing tenants are in receipt of benefits

Surely benefits is a different thing to council tenants though. People in private rentals can get benefits also
Could have people who get benefits who are perfectly nice, normal people. You can get homeowners your behave antisocially.

I grew up in council housing. No way I’m living near one now.

I’ve lived on two separate ‘estates’. I lived in a council studio flat on a ‘rough’ estate. It was literally the stereotype of a council estate, people fighting, drugs, the shop on the estate getting robbed at knifepoint. My next door neighbour had social services and the police at the door every week. It made me understand the reason why people hated council tenants, though there was people like me and my other neighbour who just minded our own business and worked and came home in our own little ‘normal’ bubble. So there’s good and bad but because you can hear and see the bad, it makes the good look non existent.

i now live in a two bed council flat on a ‘posh’ estate. The two small blocks of flat here, we all pay over £1k in rent to the council. We are just normal people and if you came here you wouldn’t realise they are council homes (because they’re looked after) or council tenants because no one causes trouble or gives that impression.

its the people associated with the council properties - it’s sad that the bad people give the bad name to council tenants when most of us are just average people paying our landlord who just so happens to be the council.

It does put me of buying a new build. If you’ve been a landlord you know why they prefer people not on benefits.