Social housing and Syrian Refugees

[Plentymoresharks]

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).

That was my point do send them to Birmingham where there is empty flats left right and centrec

There is NOT a shortage of housing.

what country or city are you talking about? Because I guarantee it's not London. I love it when people claim there is no housing shortage here. tell that to all the people trying to buy or rent.

Whose fault is that? Even those most rabidly opposed to immigration can't blame refugees for that.

I am neither opposed to immigration, nor blaming refugees. just wondering where everyone will live.

Why do all the refugees need to come to the UK? We aren't the biggest of countries and we are frankly bursting at the seams with people. It's not being racist or anti-islamist to say that frankly, there is no room at the inn. Why don't go they go to Canada, Australia or Russia, where there is vast tracks of land? Probably because because these governments don't let them in. The UK are pouring millions into fighting Isis etc so it's not as if we aren't helping Syria out.

Totally agree Sweden and Germany should hand there fucking head in shame over there they are beefing housed in tents , stadiums anywhere they can shove them

We invited them over so we should house them

However I will say don't care if I get shot down this myth that asylum seekers get housed before locals is clearly true as there are no emails asking if locals can house local in the area

I don't have a home as such (I live and work in an hotel) BUT I do have a roof over my head and I'm not being bombed out of my accomadation.
We are all people with feelings and there but for the grace of God go us.
I think we should help refugees as they have been to Hell and back. If a family can be housed in this Country rather than be bombed, I will wait my turn for a place of my own. Compassion doesn't cost anything
This is very basically put with no links or quotes as I'm on a break and running out of time.

Even if it's not social housing homeless people can still be housed in affordable private lets which accept benefits. But they're like gold dust around London. Whichever way you look at it in London they will be taking housing that somebody else needs. It's far better that they are housed somewhere which has available housing.

I can see that one day there will be an uprising of people who are fed up being passed over. People have experienced what happens to areas into which a lot of people from other places are concentrated. It has not been a good experience around my location.
I would not take part in any trouble but I can see the reasons behind it. I don't want to be in the middle of it.
I don't like to be told which views I am allowed to hold. The views I hold are as a result of my experiences.

Bouquets this scheme is already available for British citizens, Lambeth have an identical scheme running. I am not sure who you think is being past over.

There is not a shortage of housing
Of course there is a national shortage of homes in the public and private sector ffs. It is much worse in some regions than others. While accommodating refugees will cause pressure on any area, it seems nonsensical to place them in the most expensive area of the country.
It is true there are thousands of empty houses across the country. Some of them need serious investment to make them habitable. Others are lying empty because they are in undesirable locations eg tower blocks. It would be great if the government could make turn these empty houses into homes but you don't do that just by plopping people in them.

They are coming from appalling situations, they are human beings!
Good luck to them

Xxed - I was in a difficult situation and had to move out of sight of an abusive husband. I applied to the council and waited. Then got my own private rental and later bought a house. I only needed a council house for a couple of years or less but it did not happen. At the same time another nationality were being housed in the next area. That was the ruination of that area. It is flattened now. These were tower blocks. Experiences are not good. I can only adopt views from my experiences in and around my own area.

Mrs D is right,at least according to shelter she is.

Don't know about you but I'm inclined to believe shelter given that they know pretty much all about housing there is to know

By luck of birth, no one here was born in these times in Syria. But that's all it is - luck.

The UK is culpable in terms of our polices in the Middle East for decades, we have supported, armed, changed allegiances. As a nation we are still involved, we are actively bombing in Syria and Iraq. We cannot expect to be involved on a political but not a human level.

The conditions for the Syrian refugees are beyond awful - they are fleeing wholesale murder within their nation and are being bombed by the international 'community'. They are an ungoverned state, they have no protection.

A tiny proportion of these people wind up in the UK. Compassion and safety is the very least we should be offering. A place to live will be the very first step in rebuilding lives that have been utterly shattered, in a way most people in the UK cannot imagine.

Some of the posts on here read straight out of an ITV news comments section. I got trolled on that for suggesting the people commenting might want to find some compassion......yes I agree it's a very complex situation but how can anyone watch the news footage of these poor people washing ashore in Greece and not want to help. Really? We're all human. These people have suffered more than anyone living a 'normal' like in the UK can even imagine. Bless them.

to local residents, asking whether anyone has a property they can offer for Syrian refugees = if it is offered by a private landlord it is not social housing. If you are waiting for social housing it is housing owned by the local authority or some types of housing association tenancies. The 2 are very different things.

What your LA is asking is private landlords who normally ask for "no DSS" to consider renting to refugees and have the rent paid for by DWP. Social housing is not being offered by your LA.

Any person who want to rent privately and is eligible for housing benefit will have it paid. The problem is that any private landlords will not rent to people claiming HB.

Like it or not, David Cameron HAS to accept Syrian refugees, he has said so. The "problem with enough social housing for all" is far bigger than those few Syrians "jumping the queue" (per se). I guess we all should remember the picture of the drowned child on that beach in Turkey...... They wanted to escape too. It's never straightforward, simple or even fair in a lot of cases for all types of people urgently needing homes. The most overlooked group is male, middle aged, childless men by the way.

I think it is possible to have a great deal of compassion for refugees and still have concerns about what absorbing yet more people into an already very populated country may mean.

I will confess, our population is a worry for me. It certainly isn't limited to Syrian refugees - our own rising birth rate is there as well! - but it's impossible to just state 'but there are empty houses.' There are, but it's not just physical homes people need but access to education, healthcare, transport and other resources that ultimately are already spread quite thinly.

What the answer is I don't know but it does worry me.

Mrs De Vere - I was lucky to be born here but I also had elderly relatives who were involved in WWII. I have seen prisoner of war numbers tattooed on arms. I have known people with war service medals. I know the damage done by War many decades after it. I don't approve of War.
I don't know what EDL rallies are or where they are. If they are as you suggest "pissed numbnuts" I certainly would not be hanging about with them.
I don't think it is necessary to travel half way round the world to find peace, the first peaceful country should have done.