to hide the fact that my home is HA?

[mykidskeepmegoing]

Hi all.
Generally i hide the fact that my home is housing association. It looks like any other semi-detached house that you would find in the suburbs.
Anyway, today i was paying my rent in my local post office and one of the women from my kids school noticed my rent card. As i was lighting a ciggerette outside she asked if she could have a word.
She had a go at me for living in my home because i work. Her daughter has just had twins and her and her boyfriend are finding it hard to get a ha home (not many round here). So they live with her and her other 2 children.
Private rents around here are well overpriced, so i was very lucky to get my beloved home. I'm dreading going to get my kids from school in case she has a go again in front of other mums. I don't want anybody knowing my home is HA.
After the year i've had, i really don't need anymore grief :/

This woman is known to give people grief and i really am worried about what she's going to say. Thanks very much.

Ok ok if this is genuine then just tell her you are entitled to a HA house. If that is the case there is no reason why you and your children should have to move away so that her daughter can have a house! Besides if you moved out there is no guarantee it would make a jot of difference to their situation.

Failing that just ignore her. What can she do - its hardly scandalous gossip, other people won't be interested in it after 5 minutes.

i disagree that any job means you shouldn't have a HA property. There are people in work who are on such a low income that they don't have much more money than some people on unemployment benefits.

I agree that if you are really well off and don't need social housing, then it's more socially responsible to move into private rented, but if you're working and on a low income, then you need it just as much as someone who is unemployed. imo.

Everyone is entitled to apply for a council or HA house. Everyone and whoever needs it the most gets priority.

@crikey. I have been bullied all my life so you kind of get used to it.
I just don't want it to happen in front of my kids. They think i am superwoman, there protector. I don't want to see that i am in fact a blubbering wreck who couldn't punch a hole through a wet paper bag.

HA homes should be for all, except very wealthy obviously.
rubbish.
my great grandparents, millworkers and farm labourers born in the 1860s, worked hard and bought their own homes, as has every generation since. home ownership is right and normal and for everyone. unless there are special circumstances.

ah, ok, if she's known to be aggressive, then going toe to toe with her is likely to lead to trouble, which, as you say, you don't need.

Good idea to get some reassurance. Just ignore her. If she does or says anything, log it.

And you can pay your rent by standing order, I pay mine that way. Not to hide anything, but because it's easier than going and standing in line with a rent book.

It's not a wind up thread about social housing. I grew up on a council estate but went to a school miles away. I got called a stig and stuff like that for living in a council house.
I don't want my kids to go through that.

lovebunny, I don't know if you've been living under a rock for the past 3 or 4 years, but home ownership is not so acheivable now as it has been for previous generations.

Why don't you go away, have a wee read about society today then come back and play nice.

ooookay, now i know who the troll is...

Its a modern thing to give socialized homes to the "needy" in times gone by, all could live in one. Actually in some parts of the country they are still quite easy to get.

I think that it is debatable that wealthier people should move...in to what? private rentals? that is another minefield.

The Government needs to build more socialized homes. Families shouldn't have to get themselves in to debt to buy homes they can't really afford/manage.

We are not all supposed to own our own homes, there has to be an alternative that gives families security.

Sorry hijacked.

Well, if your kids see you calmly defusing a situation with a loon, I don't think they could have a better example than that. There's no point arguing with these kinds of people; they are not reasonable.

I am terrible at confrontation, and I always think I'm shaking like a leaf and stammering, but after any situation like that people tell me how calm I was! I think you are much more aware of your own fear/reactions than others are.

YOU WERE PROBABLY NOT DESTITUTE ENOUGH FOR HER AFTER ALL SOCIAL HOUSING IS FOR THE POOR AND DESTITUTE SILLY RUDE WOMAN i WOULD HAVE TOLD TO HER FUCK OFF BACK UNDER HER STONE ,

@hecate.
I would love nothing more than to go toe to toe with her but i won't.
I'm normally found head down, in the corner of the playground. I might as well have victim stamped on my head.
I'm hoping she'll find someone else to pick on soonish.

home ownership did not used to be the norm among the working class. The vast majority of working class people used to rent, in past generations. Yes, there have always been some who owned, but by far the majority were in rented accommodation. home ownership for the masses really began with the great council house sell off by Thatcher. Before that, it was far more usual for people to rent.

And with how difficult it is now becoming to get a mortgage, particularly for the young, it's going to become more common again. It is really hard to get on the property ladder on a low wage.

"in principle, people who are working should not take housing association properties - they are there to subsidise the needy, not those who just like to have more of their income to spend on themselves. but that is a principle."

That is absolutely untrue.

HA/Council houses are allocated according to need. One of those factors is the ability to house onself in private rental/bought housing, but there are many, many more factors.

We live in a Council house. We are very, very, lucky. I had been told it would be 5/10 years before we could expect a house the size/type we needed to come up in the location we needed.

We were initially put in band 3 on the housing register (which is the band that pretty much everyone gets put in) but then got uprated to band 2 because of DD1's disability.

We weren't uprated because we have a low income (although we do, DH earns just over £10k per year). We were uprated because the private rental we were in was unsuitable, and the space we needed was hard to come by, and other things.

When the bidding came through for this house, we finished 3rd. But the council still contacted us, I don't know why.

home ownership is right and normal and for everyone

Not so - and rather a silly thing to say. I work, always have done, and cannot afford to buy. I doubt I'll ever be able to.

Thank mulled. I have just got off the phone with my mum. She said she'll get the kids for me, so hopefully it will be sorted by monday morning.
My mum thinks i'm over reacting and reading too much into it.

If she's generally aggressive and causes trouble, she probably isn't singling you out at all, OP. She's just on the lookout for people to fight. If you really had "victim" stamped on your head she probably wouldn't have been fine with you up to now.

I do know that social housing was the norm in scotland nobody said anything about council houses home ownership isnt a right it isnt for all and TBF paying rent is putting back into L A isn't it not everybody can afford a house round here S H is lik e hens teeth, MY parents still live in their council house should they give it up for somebody else, that really wasn't the ideal of social housing ,

The pcso pops into the shop once a week to see if everythings ok.
I'll speak to him then, he knows what's she like. Everyone knows what's she's like.

I wouldn't mind but i only do a few hours in a poxy shop. I'm on housing benefit myself! If i was rolling in cash i wouldn't be stuck here that's for sure.

OP feel proud and happy you have an HA home.

You have every right.

Think about it, if it wasn't that great , do you think Mrs NASTY would be bothering with you?

you know what she was probably just pissed off her daughter couldnt get a house and you were her target I was homeless almost 20 years ago when I got my house
MY old boot of a neighbour said her son and dil couldnt get a house and had a right go at me for moving up the list because I was homeless, yes cos being homeless and pregnant is a bundle of laughs

BUt you have a nice house pay rent why should you be ashamed of your house, nothing to be ashamed of,

valiumredhead

Yes they do. There are not many of them but they do exist. I was once told by someone in the DSS that it wasn't for likes of me.

Then he had a go at the staff because he'd been on benefits for 20 years and knew the rules.

One of my neighbours once screamed down the phone to the council that they 'should have given the kid a house'. The kid was her 35 year old daughter, with five children. The reason the council wouldn't give her a house was because she had a council flat in London.

OP what you say to her is (assuming she is in a HA or council house) you are harassing me, that breaches your tennancy and I am going to report it to the council.

If she isn't, then you say, "I'm sorry the HA don't rent to scum, but that's their rules not mine".