to buy a new house next to social housing?

[plentyofsoap]

I had a casual conversation about a house we are looking to buy with a group of friends today. One who is a friend of a friend said it sounded lovely, but we would be mad to buy near those in social housing?! I once had a neighbour who caused me huge problems and she owned her house therefore it makes no difference to me. This was ignored by her. Am I missing something or is she just being a snob?

Blimey, seems like an awful lot of willful ignorance on this thread.

Of course professionals have parties and of course there are professionals who are assholes. But if I had to take my luck with the neighbors, I'd rather they were employed than unemployed.

Justfornow, has a good point.
I live in an HA flat, most of them here are owned, the HA are very careful aout who they put in here ecause of that.
It's also opposite the Police Station!

My friend moved into a new uild HA house a few years ack, it's on a scheme ut was a rand new street.
It's not rough and awful as such, ut you wouldn't uy there, whereas you'd uy where I live, and pay over the odds for it!

You need to visit at all times of day and night, and in all weathers.

(Sorry, the key to the right of the V on my keyoard is not working)

I'm sorry to break it to you but there are families who are are total nightmares who are moved rather than formally evicted because it's an easier process for the council.

Yes lots of wilful ignorance.

Do you think all people who live in SH are unemployed?

Which is fair enough crowler. And that makes you a snob. Which was the point being made and argued

you'd rather take your chances with the employed, than the unemployed

Righto

Does that extend to MC stay at home mums I wonder?

That would be a stupid thing to think Usual.

The reverse is true though. Most people who are long term unemployed are living in social housing. They couldn't afford to live elsewhere. This includes areas of economic deprivation where there isn't employment but it also includes those who are heavy drinkers/substance abusers who lead chaotic lifestyles and can't hold down a job. People living like that are very unlikely to be simultaneously managing mortgage payments.

Social housing has much higher concentrations of unemployed people, obviously.

I think you're being a bit disingenuous about the social ills that stem from unemployment vs voluntary SAHM-hood.

my MIL and Gran live in social housing and it doesn't matter whether they worked or not, they are nice people in lovely homes and they both live in nice communities. they still know their neighbours who they get on with

they don't live together btw
what weird set up

No, I said earlier that on the sink estate I lived on last there were plenty of decent and hard working people on the estate, both employed and unemployed and a mixture of private owner-renters and SH tenants.

But that said, there was a much higher concentration of unemployed, very undesirable people on that estate than you would find in your average non-SH street.

There is no generalisation that fits them all. You can't say they are all unemployed, or they are all scummy because they aren't. There were lovely families doing their best for them and their children.
But you can't pretend, or expect others to agree with you, that these awful families don't occur in a higher concentration in SH than in non-SH areas, it is just the way it is.

These awful families exist. They exist in lovely, naice MC areas. They exist in your average run of 2-bed terraces. They exist in apartment blocks. Sadly, crappy antisocial people exist everywhere and in all walks of life but there is a higher proportion of them found in SH than in non-SH. That is just the reality of the situation.

Look cut to the chase, you don't want want to live or associate with people like me who live on CE.

Fair enough I don't want to live near people who look down their nose at me either.

So everyone's happy.

Well I have just been with dh again to have a closer look. The houses appear to be extremely well kept and there was not a lawn sofa in sight. I have spoken with the neighbours who privately own their house and they state that they have had no problems at all with either noise or anti-social behaviour. They appear to be 2-3 bedroom houses and some bunglows. I will go back at night and the weekend.

Agree totally Owllady. Being unemployed doesn't make people bad neighbours. There are some things that make people both unemployed and bad neighbours like heavy drinking/temper issues/being a wanker, but their unemployment is a result of their behaviour not the cause of it.

Owl The crucial thing you mentioned is that they are nice people, the people I am referring to are not nice people. They are rude, aggressive, threatening, sometimes substance abusing, sometimes prostituting, sometimes drug dealing people. They aren't the ones we are talking about.

In my experience, most people on a council estate are good people doing their best for their families. Then there are the scum who ruin the entire neighbourhood with continual antisocial and criminal behaviour. They are in the minority but they can take a nice community and ruin it. I saw it happen, I moved into a SH estate onto a nice street. Within 6 months, we had 3 new families moved into the street that I since found out from the housing manager were moved because of their behaviour elsewhere, and the street was a war zone.

Usual I was a person like you on a CE. I have rented and owned in a CE, I know people judged me for it too.

The difference is that I'm happy to accept that most were good, honest people but that the area was ruined by a minority of scum.

That said, would I put my money into a house on or near a SH estate ever again?

Fuck no!

Can I tell you something, maybe not completely unrelated to this thread but I live in a privately rented house opposite some pillars of the community
the house is £££ and I assume their business is too

They have verbally abused my daughter who is severely disabled in the street, they have verbally abused me and my husband in the street

Having money does not in any way make people nicer. In some ways it makes these 'nasty' 'not nice people' think they are more powerful

They don't have issues with drugs or alcohol, as far as I know.

my rented house is worth about 500k, if that helps set the scenario

YY to how quickly it can change. When a 'problem' family moves in the ordinary people move out and within 2 years a street can go from being desirable to last resort.

Owl Like I said, shitty people exist in all walks of life!

Plenty it may be ok now but if the council decide to move problem families in from elsewhere it may not stay ok.

It isn't just your house value that could plummet but quality of services eg our local school is feeling the hit.

We don't live in London.There are serious social issues everywhere.

You get arsehole neighbours everywhere. That's a given. You're more likely to get a specific type of arsehole neighbour in social housing because their behaviour also limits their ability to make enough to pay private rent or a mortgage.

Some of the worst stories of long term harassment in the papers, particularly involving verbal abuse and vile letters, seem to involve the kind of people you'd expect to find are JPs. Some of them have been.

I meant to say their house is worth about 1.5 mill, not that it matters
but they are honestly the worst sort of people I have had to deal with, though I have managed to deal with them better - in all honesty. They haven't been violent

I'm sorry you've had to deal with people like that. I hope the abuse has stopped.

Owllady, although your point is taken that wealthy people can be assholes (of course)- no one was making any generalizations about any one person. More the case that when you reach a critical mass of unemployed people, it is extremely bad - and this is what's happening in a lot of estates these days. It's not the golden era of public housing.

Quite frankly it depends where the estate is. In London, it doesn't matter as rents are massively high as is the cost of buying so you will find professionals in social housing and all housing is pretty mixed. In poorer areas of the country where houses are much cheaper I would avoid like the plague. Most of my cousins are in social housing and you wouldn't want them as neighbours.( Think criminal behaviour, drug dealing and social problems) The ones that had enough about them to get stable jobs have bought as where I live houses are affordable.