to be pissed off with being offered a council FLAT instead of a HOUSE?

[OMFFG]

We have 4 DCs, youngest 16 months and they think this is suitable!! The flat is 3 bedrooms and on the 2nd floor of a small tower block and has balconies which I would be pretty worried one of the DCs may fall out of.

This is my worst frigging nightmare. We have been 'homeless' for almost 2 years and the council have housed us in temporary accommodation (private rented) which we have to pay market value for (£875 per month) even though we did not choose it and it's a complete shit hole. We could not leave as we would lose our priority on the council bidding list. We lost our house when DH was made redundant and could not afford to pay £1200+ to privately rent.

Now after all this they have offered us a fucking flat. I am furious because every week until last week, there were only offering 3 bed houses but we would always be 3/4 on the list. Now that a flat was offered, less people have bid on it so we got to the top of the list. I did not even bid on it, the council did. Apparently they can bid on 'our behalf' as we are homeless and if we refuse this flat, we will be taken off the housing list. How the hell will we cope in a flat???

The rent is 'only' £380 a month but a house would only be £20 a month more.

AIBU to tell them to stuff it up their arses?

Rather radically, I think you should have children based on love not economics. But I know I'm way out of date on this one.

Why the fuck do you suddenly available to people commenting on your fertility, procreativity, etc, if you fall below a certain income level?

That strikes me as being so far across the boundary of acceptable behaviour I could never imagine myself doing it.

God you sound ungrateful OP. Don't take the flat if you don't want it, but honestly, why? Because it's not perfect? I live in a grotty basement flat with mould and an unheated bedroom and I pay market value for it. And you're whinging because you want a house, not a flat?

Give me a break.

Contraception does have failure rates as many of us with unplanned children will know. Also we are in recession, people have lost their jobs and their homes, it's not as simple as saying someone shouldn't have had so many children. Look at how many people who have lost their pensions too. I worked for woolworths, I don't think anyone got their pension from them iirc as it was a share based scheme. Is that the woolworths employees fault too?

I agree with usualsuspect anyway and I think we have agreed about this before. We are in this situation because of lack of affordable housing for people. My in laws bought their council house on the right to buy scheme too but I don't think they did so at the expense that that house would no longer be available to a family 'like theirs'. Shared ownership scheme under LAs are ridiculous prices too, I don't know where I am classed as living (not sure it's the SE) but they are building some new houses down the road from me and on the shared scheme thing they are £165k and they are absolutely tiny. It's hardly affordable for the vast majority of us

Our first home was a 'council block' Four storeys - we were on third, massive living/dining area. little kitchenette, 2 beds, bathroom and balcony. We were alomost sad to leave it but it was just too small when I became pregnant with ds. I still miss it as it was so near to town. When I first got it, I was in fact a single parent, and a lot of people I knew were very snooty about it, I, however, cried with happiness as it took me away from a disgusting one bedroomed flat. I'll never ever forget the joy I felt when I saw it. I wish peole would just be grateful sometimes

I agree with Usual that social housing was always meant for anyone who wanted it, not the poorest neediest people in society.
It is only since the giant sell-off that getting a council house has become a race to the bottom.
It should not be means tested imo. Unfortunately, these days social housing is in very short supply, so they have to go by this points sytem whereby the worst off are higher up the list.
My question before about what counts as homeless was a genuine one.

Why should the taxpayer pay for social housing for anybody who wants it, rather than somebody who needs it? That is pretty utopian. Who is going to pay tax if everybody who wants a council property can get one, and then opt to work less, and pay less taxes, because they don't have to, as they have housing covered?

It's not just social housing though is it? In times of industry companies used to build houses for their workers to live in too. Lace workers, weavers, electric board houses, etc etc.

Just to be clear, I also agree with NorthernWreck and usualsuspect.

this race to the bottom is ultimately in no-one's interests except those who make a large profit from private rents and acquiring property portfolios as an investment.

Its kind of academic though what social housing was meant for, way back when. The reality is that there isn't close to enough to go around, and people wait for years and get nothing.
By any measurable realistic standards, OP got pretty lucky. So its not ideal, whose life is?

I just thought that the OP was feeling a bit down about her misfortune and having a rant like we all do from time to time. I didn't think she came across her as having a massive sense of entitlement.

Haziedoll, I agree. If you're expecting something to happen for a while and then it doesn't, the immediate reaction is to be upset or annoyed about it.

There are many hard working taxpayers living in council houses who pay tax and council tax and rent just like any one else , they don't just suddenly stop working

My gran lives ina council bungalow and she doesn't even work but she still pays rent and council tax on it

can i do a big FFs at the end? That might make me feel better

"Why the fuck do you suddenly available to people commenting on your fertility, procreativity, etc, if you fall below a certain income level?

That strikes me as being so far across the boundary of acceptable behaviour I could never imagine myself doing it."

Didn't you know that if you've found yourself in the financial shit, you should have had the foresight to have yourself sterilised in advance, y' know, just so that Holy Taxpayer won't have to pay for your kids? And being in receipt of benefits makes you fair game to be told that you shouldn't "breed"? Fucking revolting IMO.

Start calling it an apartment, seems to do wonders for the credentials of a property round my way

hotheels, are you in a conversion, a property that would have been private then bought by the council.

Have you been in B&B or a hostel before they sorted out this flat?

I still don't understand why the op is homeless though if she is paying for rent already.

I live in rented accom. I have 3 DC. We rent a 2 bed place. All DC are in one room. We do this as it is cheap and we save money. Could I put myself on the housing list?? I'm not trying to be wind anyone up here, I just don't get it.

My mum works and lives in a council flat. She pays £79 per week in rent. She is BROKE, all the time, because she doesn't get paid a massive amount. This notion that benefits top you up to be able to live like the self-obsessed Boden twats on here is fucking laughable.

mosschops Anyone can apply, but if you're not in need your chances of actually getting a property is beyond minimal. Shouldn't really do it though as it's just adding to the paperwork and wasting the time of the people trying to sort it all out.

Totempole, if the flat is too small maybe the OP should do what the rest of us have had to do, save up or take on extra hours and pay full rent for a 3 bed house (which in my part of London is in excess of £1200 PCM )
Just because someone else "got a council house" doesn't mean EVERYONE on the list is entire to one ffs
If she doesn't like that fact, she should do something different
Less than £400 for a permanent 3 bed propery?
People would love to be offered that

I presume the OP and her husband are struggling to pay the amount in private rental due to a smaller income to rent ratio and that's why they qualify for social housing.

Bolbobach We had a 2 bedroom flat with the 3 DCs and the Council (Lambeth in our case) said we weren't legally overcrowded - you can sleep in any room that isn't a bathroom or kitchen. You can put yourself on the housing list (or apply in any case) but you wouldn't be seen as having any urgent need.

totempole No it is a council flat, owned by the council and run by the homeless department.

Bupcakes. Benefits are not meant to provide you with a middle class lifestyle if that is what you mean? Why should they?! They do help to keep many people off the streets though. Sadly not enough.

Bobolbach - try it and see. It varies from area to area but I think you will be awarded points. After that, it all depends on how much housing stock your council have, and how long their waiting-list is.

I am a great believer in going for council housing rather than private sector, for the reasons I've indicated earlier.

Sadly, if you live anywhere near where I live, you will be waiting, and waiting.

But, here's the thing, council-housing criteria are interesting. It indicates a mindset where it is deemed not ideal to have three children in one room, particularly if they are different sexes. Also, council housing, when it was built, embodied principles of how much space, and what amentities, it was reasonable to expect people to live in/with. I find it fascinating - and sad - that we have moved so far from that mind-set.

And, actually, I do think it's important to ask questions about what social housing was initially considered to be for. It's about re-acquainting ourselves with the possibilities of what it can be for in the present and in the future, thus opening our minds to alternative ways of considering the sort of society we wish to live in, work for, and construct.

It's not just history - it's about what we want for our present reality.

Also I was fortunate enough not to go into b&b or get to the eviction zone by the landlord, but I am fully aware of how fortunate I am to be in this position - I cried with tears of relief!