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Original poster

Social housing and Syrian Refugees

365 replies

Plentymoresharks · 23/12/2015 08:20

Controversial one. A memo has gone out from the local council to local residents, asking whether anyone has a property they can offer for Syrian refugees, housing benefit will be paid as well as a premium and money to hold the property until it is occupied, money for decorating and repairing the property etc.

Aibu to find it ridiculous that basically the council will be housing refugees who have been flown around the world ahead of people already on the waiting list for social housing? Also, there are homeless people who I see every day, living in the park and under a car park bridge but they aren't getting this same help (the memo mentions the social and medical help the refugees will also be given).

OP posts:
LuluJakey1 · 23/12/2015 11:26

Everyone I mean- whatever views we have.

Samcro · 23/12/2015 11:31

does anyone know where the money comes from? does it come from the overseas aid budget/ the council/or somewhere else.

BooyakaTurkeyisMassive · 23/12/2015 11:35

I've observed a tendency for people to be down on one group even as they trump the rights etc of another, and it bothers me (in another context they'd be speaking up for the other group). I call it "the hierarchy of isms"!

This. Exactly. It's fucking sad when you see people who are supposedly left wing lining up to put the boot into the homeless and those with mental health issues.

Moreshabbythanchic · 23/12/2015 11:41

Maybe we should all leave the thread to Fanjo as she is the only one whose opinion has any credence.

ghostyslovesheep · 23/12/2015 11:46

what a mature contribution :)

Kiki with respect, and sympathy for his situation, I am guessing the country he came from was no occupied by ISIL - and that he could have returned home?

The point being - he had options - he could maybe have got a job, found a private let - etc

Refugees have no options except stay in a camp with poor sanitation and little food, warmth etc in mid winter or accept the offer of a home here

Goldenhandshake · 23/12/2015 11:53

element I'm not saying those that want help should suffer, I really wouldn't agree with that at all. But the fact remains that there are avenues of help for homeless people in the UK, they may not be perfect, they very likely need more funding and improvement but there is something there.

The Syrian refugees have not a hope in the world unless nations like ours try to do something.

ghostyslovesheep · 23/12/2015 11:55

and I am NOT for one moment saying it's easy btw - just trying to illustrate that refugees have no real choice available to them - 'we' have

BooyakaTurkeyisMassive · 23/12/2015 11:57

I don't think the issue is with them, or them accepting a home at all. I think it's more to do with housing them in a place where there is scarce housing and people who have already been waiting a long time. So the problem is with the people making the housing decisions rather than the refugees.

You're also very wrong if you think families with children in London who are in B&Bs have any other option. Overwhelmingly they don't.

Kikigetty · 23/12/2015 12:00

ghosty there's a lot of backstory which means he can't work for a fair while and has to be reliant on the state. I'm not against refugees being given a safe place here, everyone deserves a safe place. I'm just saying that they may recieve abuse and prejudice from members of the public who are on waiting lists and what not and in workplaces they may enter into. It's nothing in comparison to war but it still won't be pleasant for them

ilovesooty · 23/12/2015 12:01

There were other posters who expressed their opinion of some of the contributions on this thread. Why single Fanjo out?

Samcro · 23/12/2015 12:04

perhaps that is why it needs to all be explained better. I do think the government havn't really tackled that. I think its because they forget that the people who will 'feel" Affected by this are the ones at the bottom of the pile.
perhaps a political tv thing explaining, how the refugees are not que jumping and where the funding is coming from, might help people understand.

elementofsurprise · 23/12/2015 12:06

Golden But the fact remains that there are avenues of help for homeless people in the UK, they may not be perfect, they very likely need more funding and improvement but there is something there.

Er - no. Common misconception. Actually, if the council decide they have no duty to house you (commonly due to not being deemed "priority" eg. pregnant, with children, physically disabled, elderly) then there isn't any help. As I mentioned previously - I've been there. I'm not talking about people in hostels etc, but on the street.

PausingFlatly · 23/12/2015 12:14

I don't think it's in central government's interest to explain, Samcro.

The cuts affecting both element and fanjo happened before we took these refugees. And even before the election they promised £12 bn further cuts.

The government will be delighted at if we turn round and scapegoat the refugees as it all falls apart.

PausingFlatly · 23/12/2015 12:18

(BTW, don't think the scapegoating can be stopped by not taking refugees: it'll just be someone different. Disabled, single parent, working poor, fat...)

Samcro · 23/12/2015 12:29

well I can't see that the refugees are to blame for the free fall in adult social care, Ilay that at scamerons feet.
but see what you mean.

LuluJakey1 · 23/12/2015 13:51

However, Syria is fighting a civil war against about 5 internal factions- all of whom have significant support amongst the Syrian population. This war is not something that has been done to Syria, it has been encouraged by Syrians- they can not live peacefully with their differences and many, many hundreds of thousands of them are fighting each other. They don't like the outcomes but most chose a side (mainly religious) and are upset now their side and community has lost their battle.
As with all civil wars it has then attracted the attention and support of sympathisers from other countries for particular groups.
Refugees are not necessarily blameless in creating the situation in their country - they may be fleeing now their faction is losing.

FlatOnTheHill · 23/12/2015 13:53

I agree with you OP.

knobblyknee · 23/12/2015 13:57

YABVFU.
Thats NOT social housing, they are not taking anyones house away.

Do you have a spare room you can offer to a Jewish family fleeing the Nazis?

Dollius01 · 23/12/2015 14:07

Lulu, your ignorance of the situation in Syria is only slightly less astounding than you actually posting that pile of crap on an Internet forum.

Yes, there are factions, but only because those factions took advantage of what started out as an extension of the Arab Spring - people protesting about stuff and then the government brutally putting them down. Assad has waged a very bloody war against his own people in Syria, including chemical bombing villages.

One of the factions to take advantage of this is a bunch of psychopaths that even al Qaida go pale at the thought of. That is who the vast majority of these people are running away from.

Most Syrians have not taken sides and just want it all to stop. Most want to go home, but have no homes to go to.

It is such a lazy claim to make that it's all their own fault. It isn't. It comes down to our interference in the Middle East over the past 100 years.

And one more time. THERE ARE HARDLY ANY SYRIAN REFUGEES IN THE UK. There are more in Istanbul - one single city - than in the whole of fucking EUROPE.

Plus, we are bombing the shit out of areas of Syria. Why should we get to stand by and refuse to help those affected by OUR bombs?

LuluJakey1 · 23/12/2015 14:18

I never said there were lots of Syrian refugees in the UK. Everything I said is true. There have always been factions in Syria- living mainly in seperate areas of the country peaceably but never agreeing with each other, just living seperately. Assad has his supporters, however cruel and militant they are and there are many of them.

The whole of the Middle East is and always has been volatile and at the moment is like a ticking time bomb. Nowhere in Syria is safe now but this is a civil war and Syrians have taken sides.

ThroughThickAndThin01 · 23/12/2015 14:34

Sheesh will you all calm down Confused. Being posted in AIBU shouldnt give anyione the chance to name call-on either side.

It's very hard picking out the interesting, informative posts, with all the jeuvenile posts peppered around.

I wish it was possible to self delete posts you don't like Grin

Dollius01 · 23/12/2015 14:35

People are not fleeing because "their faction is losing". Most just want their old lives back, they do not have factions.

This war is not the fault of the vast majority of ordinary Syrians, 4 million of whom have been forced to flee their homes to escape the violence.

Dollius01 · 23/12/2015 14:37

Sorry, that's just the ones who have got out. There are 12 million displaced altogether

knobblyknee · 23/12/2015 14:42

FlowersXmas Smile

abbieanders · 23/12/2015 14:46

perhaps a political tv thing explaining, how the refugees are not que jumping and where the funding is coming from, might help people understand.

It might, but since the information is readily available right now and people are still choosing not to inform themselves, how will they be forced to watch this broadcast? And, as we can see from this thread, merely hearing information that goes against popular prejudice doesn't do much to dissipate it. People who are small minded, ill informed, spiteful, petty and insular don't change their minds based on information.