Applied for housing (London) and was rejected

[PetitDiable]

I couldn't find a suitable topic to post this in, so I'm posting here.

I'm nearly 8 months pregnant and living with my mother in a 2 bedroom flat with my two other brothers because my XP threw me out 3 weeks ago. Come December, when baby is due , my two other siblings will return home from university. I am currently sleeping in my sister's box room.

I applied to join the housing register 2 weeks ago, but received an email telling me I'm not eligible. How can this be? Perhaps there are a lack of homes in my borough. It's a pretty affluent area so I wouldn't be surprised. But what am I suppose to do? I can't live in an overcrowded home with a baby. We would have nowhere to sleep once baby is here and my siblings return home.

I have no job. I've just set up a claim for income support. I can't get any help financially from my family. My mother is on a state pension and my siblings are on a low income.

Has anyone been in a similar position?

OP, did you always live in Ealing or did you only move there when you moved back with your mum? if you lived outside the borough before then it may be your previous borough that has a responsibility to re-house you. I definitely recommend you call Shelter to understand exactly what help you are eligible for (both now, and how that will change when the baby is born). Councils are so short of housing they will try their best to deny all responsibility if they can.

Definitely get advice from Shelter, and see if there are any local advocacy organisations as well. We had a fab legal advice centre in my London borough who helped me in a similar situation a couple of years ago (2013, so after some councils changed their homelessness policies, but it probably is harder now and also depends a lot on your council's policy). I was able to get a council flat for me and my child, and we didn't have to go into a hostel or be moved out of London. I did have additional points due to mental health beyond being a single parent and living in overcrowded conditions so that helped my case as well. My DD was 6 months old when we got our flat - our priority status changed when she was born, so you'll probably have to wait until after the birth.

You have to be persistent, and double check everything the council housing offices tell you - they are notorious for giving incorrect advice.

Oh op I really feel for you (This housing situation is destroying communities, families and trampling on lives)

Sometimes life throws you a curve ball the size of the moon. It's shit, but remember that little bundle growing inside you will be filled with love from you no matter where you end up. personally id try and stay with mum, it will be tough but you'll have support and be close by. Sometimes our best made plans don't work out. But in the end something better comes from the bump.
Good luck

1. Living far away from extended family when you have a partner, or from your job, is nothing like living far from your family as a first-time single mother.

1. The OP's partner kicked her out after she got pregnant. It is therefore irrelevant how well-planned for the child was. Those plans are gone, and there is nothing she can do about it. Or should you only ever get pregnant to someone who is willing and able to rent a private house for each of you if they decide to kick you out?

I understand that the housing market in London is stretched to breaking point, but it really has turned people into dog-eat-dog arseholes.

That's a good point about living in a different borough. If you've just moved from another one then Ealing do not need to help you at all and you will need to reapply with the borough you moved from.

Traviata, the page you have linked to only applies to homeless people. Homeless, for these purposes, means out on the streets. OP has a roof over her head so she is not in that category - she is in the next part of the system, again prioritised by need but behind those currently homelss. And as I and others with first hand experience of the system have said, the priority need categories for the vulnerable are in practice incredibly narrowly defined so that even people with very serious medical problem are not included. Practice and the exact rules and housing bidding system will vary borough to borough, but just being pregnant or having kids is not a magic bullet which allows you to jump the queue (despite what you might read in the Daily Hate Mail)

DamnBamboo - Yes, I assumed maybe it wasn't so simply a cba to travel from east London to Westminster thing. You seem to be assuming that's the reason why she didn't want to live there. I am saying there could be other reasons!

Elementofsurprise makes a good point re the father being allowed to throw out a pregnant woman. How can that be ok? Ideally I think there should be some legislation that even if it is his name solely on the lease, if a woman has been living there for x amount of time and is pregnant, they have right to remain - or something. And that if the couple split up the non pregnant partner has to be the one to find somewhere else.

element if it was a property where the mortgage or tenancy is in his name only, and if they're not married, and if the OP has not been paying significantly towards the rent / mortgage (OP says she has no job - don't know how long she's been unemployed for of course, but whilst she has no job it's not likely that she was paying towards rent / mortgage), then I'm almost 100% sure OP has no recourse on that front sadly. Even if it was his name on the tenancy and she was paying a significant amount of rent then it may count as unauthorised sub-letting, as she would not be a listed tenant, which is going to have no protection. Someone more legally minded may correct me!

I don't know OPs situation inside out, but it's very possible that she may have no recourse to the property she shared with her ex. However it may be worth pushing back on if there is a possibility she has some claim to stay there!

You seem to be assuming that's the reason why she didn't want to live there

Absent, I'm not making any assumptions. The poster described her own reasons very clearly.

Did she? All I remember reading was that she didn't want to live in east London?

being housed close to parents or other family and having the support of our social network all seems a luxury from my point of view.

Luxury when you are bringing DC alone? I would say it is essential!

I do find it quite horrifying that in this day and age anyone would see fit to question the validity of a child's existence and suggest it was somehow 'lesser' than any other child due to its.
It makes me distinctly uncomfortable, especially seeing these opinions posted on the thread of a potentially vulnerable, heavily pregnant woman in a place she has sought support.
OP I really hope you can ignore such draconian opinions as jsuk's, despite the regularity with which they sadly appear on here I do think they are still largely in the minority.
After all, they haven't bought back the work house yet

Yes, she did. Take a look - it's easy to miss I guess.
Family, job, support network (from memory).
None of these are unreasonable of and in themselves, but to take the Council to court over it so you can be house where you want for these reason, in my view is unreasonable and a selfish, unnecessary use of public funds.

OP - please prove me wrong. You, and your partner have had jobs. Your pregnancy was planned because you both felt that your were at a place in your life when you were ready and could afford a child. He is gainfully employed and will be paying for child support. And you are planning to work again once your child is a bit bigger.

Yes, I've had jobs although minimum wage. I have a psychology from a good university. I was hoping to do a 2 week paid internship with a bank in March 2016 and with my ex supporting through that. The baby was planned and I believed my ex would support me all the way through, however things have not turned out as I expected. He works in a 30k job. I was entirely convinced that I would have his 100% support. I really was!

You really don't need to justify you or your baby to anyone OP

I'm not as judgy as some, but still it grates that it becomes the overloaded system's problem when people procreate with dickheads.

If they appeared with "dickhead" emblazoned in a tattoo on their foreheads, they might be easier to spot. As it is now, they don't, and often their "dickheadedness" doesn't come to the forefront until well into the relationship, often not until after marriage or pregnancy. It's well known that this behaviour ramps up then.

Ffs no one is questioning the validity of the child. It must be enormously stressful for the OP and it's heartbreaking that she finds herself in this situation.

That's different from posters expressing advice that it's likely that she might have to be flexible on WHERE she is housed if she wants to live separately from her family.

OP, you do not need to explain your relationship situation to anyone on here.
It is nobody's business! Nobody's FFS people

Your entitlement to public funds is not based on whether you are deserving or undeserving

'I feel bad for your child who will have very little going for him/her'

We will have to disagree Stealth, as I think that is exactly what jsuk was doing.

OP, it doesn't matter, you do not need to justify yourself on here - the main thing is to move forwards so you can get something arranged that allows you to build a decent life after the baby arrives.

PolterGoose, I don't know if you work in housing in London or not. Ealing's own website states that they have 13,000 households on the waiting list, and around 700 voids each year. How many of those 13,000 households do you reckon contain a pregnant woman or dependent children or a family in vastly overcrowded accomodation, or all three? From working in the sector, I'll tell you that it'll be at least two thirds of them. So yes: as a pregnant woman with no bedroom of her own, the OP is, legally, in 'priority need' - but no more so than around 8,000 other households also waiting, many of whom will have been waiting for years already. The OP will just join the back of that very long queue of people who have a theoretical priority to compete for an actual home.

We can sit here all day talking about the technicalities of priority and that the OP has a right to be assessed and to appeal and whether or not pregnant women should be able to expect to live near their families as standard. But in London, the reality is that even being in a 'priority need' group does not actually translate to any likelihood of being allocated a social tenancy or getting anything more than some advice on renting privately.

OP - if you want to live on your own then your best bet is to approach the council's Housing Options team, be assessed for your eligibility for the deposit bond scheme, and then look to renting privately: as someone upthread said, could you and your siblings get together and rent a house to share?

Alternatively, as a council tenant your mum could apply for an exchange to a larger property - either through the official council procedure or the Homeswapper. There will still be a wait, but depending on where abouts you live currently, you may find someone who thinks your area is more desirable.

I do wish you luck, it's a rubbish situation to be in. I hear stories like yours day in day out, and it's no way for people to live.

Horriblemother my DH and I each have a support network of just one person. Each other. And marriages aren't always that rosy, sometimes they can be a lonely place. If by magic we could live close to my family or his family, they are opposite ends of the country, it would seem like an amazing luxury to have parents and siblings close to hand.

Is the op likely to be forced to move two or more hundred miles away? I thought she'd said she didn't want to move even a few miles away to a different borough.

Although, I did point out I wasn't directing my comments at the op in particular.

That's what I mean element. That's some serious tosserness. I know I'm probably old fashioned, but at least marry your dickhead-in-disguise (and keep your financial independence!) before having his kid then its him who has to leave the home and he can't just waltz off without some legal consequences. Despicable that it's possible for him to kick her out in her condition.

I can fully understand not wanting to live there if so. Some housing in London would feel really insecure to me - especially if I had a small baby!

what about those people who can't get a council home or HB in westminster and East London is the only place they can afford? it's just as grotty for them.