Homeless with son. Should I live in a tent? Or on a beach somewhere?

[SwimmingClose]

I live in the south of England.

I have one child.

I have a serious chronic illness.

I cannot afford to top-up my housing benefit any more. After one year, my savings are now gone.

I worked for 25 years. My parents worked all their lives.

I will be homeless.

Its seemingly impossible to find a Landlord, Social Housing, etc without a Guarantor. I cannot find anyone unless I have a rent 'Guarantor' (which I don't have).

Any thoughts? Just don't know what to do.

Feel weird about it all too. Not sure what to do. Should I live in a tent, etc? Feel very marginalised and strange situation, horrible really.

Can't point out those posts then swimming?

Best get the thread deleted then if it doesn't fit your take on things eh?

On a different note I really do hope you do not become homeless and I really do hope you seek advice outside of here like lots of posters have suggested.

Night all.

sorry that did sound a bit nasty but your negative replies to good advice reminded me strongly of a good friend of mine who had multiple addictions. just saying.

MNHQ DOESNT READ POSTS IN CAPITAL LETTERS, YOU NEED TO CLICK THE REPORT LINK ON YOUR OP

The OP needs to take advice from this thread but I can see that she is paralysed with worry . Calling her a drug addict or pissed is not fair though.

I can see Nigella has apologised. Hopefully we can support rather than attack .

I had no idea that when this thread started it would end here.

swimming your situation is not unusual, your reaction to advice is. I feel sympathetic to the situation you are in and I apologise for making a sarcastic comment earlier in the thread. I will report it and ask it is taken down.

I stand by every other post I made on here. You need to be responsible and take the steps necessary to house your child.

Tried to support got attacked. I have nothing to apologise for. OP has had all the advice possible. Everything said on this thread was due to the OP's attitude and reactions when good advice and support was given. I have been accused of not living in the real world and on a different planet. I would not quietly stand by while somebody spoke to me that way in RL so why should I do it here.

She accused us of been vile and abusive. I asked her to show me those posts. She couldn't She called us scum but because she is having a hard time I should just overlook it. Sorry but I won't.

Funnyfoot I don't think we did do anything wrong. I re read my comment and it was unnecessary which is why I apologised. Her reaction was bizarre.

We didn't XX Things started to get nasty when the OP called us vile scum and said we had abused her and made fun of her situation. I personally don't see why I should allow her to make such wild accusations when all that people have tried to do is offer support and advice.

I think she is just projecting, I had an aunt who let herself get into a similar predicament because she was to proud to be evicted by her landlord.

As I said earlier I really do hope she is able to look back on this thread and take the good advice and names of the agencies/support that was offered.

I think it is bed time on our planet funnyfoot. Night night.

Night XX

Well, I got this from the OP: she doesn't have the extra £300pcm to top up the rent anymore.

Hope you get things sorted OP. You sound frazzled; take care.

Oh my goodness. I wrote a long, kind, and practical reply full of kindness and well, good advice.

And you just write a load of abuse back at me???

Nice. I hope you read this thread again tomorrow with a clear head and
a. Take some of the really good advice people spent their time, effort and care on.
And
B. Wonder why you repaid that with nastiness and abuse

I hope this thread stands as its got good advice for people who might find it and want to help themselves

I was in a similar situation.. Trapped in a private let that I didn't want to live in anymore... The housing policies of local councils & the stupid rents that landlords demand does indeed make it a trap!!!!
My only option was to move to a cheaper private let, I was extremely lucky that a friend loaned me some money for dep & I sold jewellery & other stuff to pay moving costs... Other than that there was nothing else I could have done.. I too didn't want to cause my guarantee any problems..

Another one who asks for advice and then won't listen.

Just to add... My landlord wasn't willing to evict me because of the court costs.. Because I had a guarantee he was never going to lose. My local council would only help once I had a full on eviction date.. A section 21 (notice of lease termination) from landlord is not enough for the council to help you, as in their eyes you are not homeless until literally just before eviction date!!
They offered me a crisis loan to help with a deposit for new place but again only qualify if you are being evicted.. So that's a pointless route as you need money to give a prospective landlord way before you're in that position. I feel for you op it is indeed a trap!

I think the OP is just tired, run down and feels painted into a corner. Have you never felt like that - ever?

Give her some kindness. She is obviously scared and panicky, and probably not listening to good advice because she can't see the wood for the trees.

Be kind. It's simple. And OP, try and be kind back :)

Op I am so sorry you are in this situation.

I know how hard it is.

When I claimed full HB, even the top rate in my area was still £200 - £300 below the cheapest rent, even if you could find a private LL or agent to rent to you while on benefits. Moving to a cheaper area would not have helped me either - he LHA would have been lower, so there would have still been he discrepancy in the rent.

Where I live, the top rate of HB for a two bed flat is £1200 per month. The cheapest two bed at you can find is £1400. A cheaper area would still create the same shortfall as LLs always want the most they can get for rent,the local housing allowance rates don't reflect the actual market prices.

It's hard to get on social housing/council it's too, as you have to have had ties to the area for 5 years (that's the case in my area) and in my area, the lists are up to 12 years long.

Dh found a job fairy quickly bit we still claim partial HB, which still puts us in a scary predicament too as it's hard to find anywhere that will rent to you even if you only claim a couple of hundreds in HB a month.

I really do feel for you op, I hope you manage to find a solution.

OP- in your situation I would talk to your landlord - they may be will be willing to drop the rent ( it will save them the cost if finding a new landlord). - but if not I would ask them to serve a section 21 notice on you and evict - I did this as a landlord and although it was stressful this was mainly caused by lack of communication by the tenant- .
It is the council policy that is immoral in this situation as they refuse to treat someone as unintentionally homeless until they are ( in my councils case) actually evicted.

I think the action plan set out above is sensible, as is the advice you speak to Shelter/CAB/other charities. Ask them about your guarantor getting released.

You can tell your LL what you are going to do/what they need to do. Your primary moral duty is to your son. You need to stay in housing one way or another.

agapanthers landlords are people too. I am a landlord. The rent I can get for my property doesn't cover the mortgage. I dread something going wrong with the house as I'll have to scrape together the money to fix it. If someone defaulted on their rent I have to cover the mortgage. Not all landlords are multi millionaires or in a business model of renting.