Desperate Housing situation please can I have advice - benefits, disability, homeless

[FallingOnTheShiftingSands]

My contract on shared accommodation if finishing next week. I cannot sign the contract on my own and cannot find someone to take on the lease with me.

I am disabled and on housing benefit. It's very difficult to find a landlord willing to accept me. The council told me months ago to start looking for a place and they could help me with a private rental scheme.

I found a landlord willing to accept me and called council to say I had somewhere. Council then say no way is this ok I have to go through a lot of paperwork and so does potential landlord which takes weeks. Obviously, I will lose the flat.

Council want me to stay in this current flat and wait for eviction letter, then go into a hostel, then find a flat somewhere cheaper in London. It feels like every time I meet with my adviser at the council the information changes slightly. They also frequently suggest things that aren't actually compatible with council housing law ie suggesting I take over the whole lease on my own and then find a lodger - er no because that would mean I can't get my own housing benefit legitimately.

However if I stay here and refuse to budge my landlord won't pay the deposit back meaning my fellow tenants won't get their money?

I have had severe mental health issues in the past, attempted suicide two and a half years ago and done so well recovering. I am utterly terrified of having to sit it out here in this flat alone illegally waiting for eviction and bailiffs, coping with hostile fellow tenants demanding their money off me because I will be seen as the problem - which from their side, I am.

I have posted about these tenants before, shitting in the bath and stealing stuff etc. I feel stretched to my limits of coping.

I'm on waiting lists for 3 different health services in my borough and if the council move me out I go back to the bottom of the list in whatever new borough it will be.

I feel so demoralised. Posting here for traffic. Some people might recognise bits of this I have posted before - so yes, before you say it again, I fucking know, I shouldn't expect to be able to live in an expensive part of London like I do as I'm clearly undesirable disabled scum in the eyes of landlords - but this was never the plan when I moved here originally, to be broke and in poor health and needing help for the forseeable future.

What would you do?

I tried to arrange a meeting with adviser. Again he's avoiding, wouldn't make a meeting time, just wanted me to come to a course for people on this private renting scheme that teaches them how to be decent tenants. I said I'd have to ask work if I could take the time off and he said he'd enroll me for another one. I don't even know when the other one is.

I just don't know anymore. None of this even feels real, it's a complete mess and nobody is giving straightforward information. It keeps changing and I'm getting really upset. How are you supposed to negotiate the system at all when it operates like this?

I feel completely vulnerable.

I'm not sure I meet the requirements of those health related policies, because I'm only on waiting lists at present. So they can argue I'm fine to go onto a waiting list in another borough.

So depressing. I'm due to finally get seen in two centres in February, I have appointments for those, and one in the summer which I still don't have an appointment for.

Are you on housing benefit? I'm f so, you could apply for discretionary housing payment to get you into your new place.
Your local council will be able to refer or direct you to your local floating support service, which is a service for housing and tenancy issues, and they're generally really good

" a course for people on this private renting scheme that teaches them how to be decent tenants"

I take it there is one for homeowners too or is it considered that its only possible for tenants to not be decent.

Is there also a course for homeowners who lose their homes and suddenly have to become tenants because they are then suddenly at risk of not being decent.

How discriminatory.

Which you have to take time off for work for?

Unfuckingbelievable.

Ok, I will ask tomorrow about the floating support worker.

I just hope then nobody goes mad at me when I already supposedly have an adviser. I don't want to antagonise anyone and make everything worse. I keep thinking it can't get worse and then it does, so have no faith at all in what will happen next.

Yes HelenaDove, I have to attend a course. Despite always being a responsible tenant who takes care of wherever I live and pays on time.

And what if your employer doesnt want you to take the time off work. Or decides to let you go because you have to take too much time off.

Will this "advisor" and the "course tutors" then say you are not decent because you dont have a job even though they may cause you to lose it?

A "policy" that is open to abuse by them.

OP In light of your most recent posts ive PMed you.

What course is this who said you HAD to attend?

My housing adviser said I must attend it, in order to qualify for help on the council private rental scheme. It's part of the process. They also have to approve any potential landlord, so I think they possibly only want people like me t o sign with a landlord they already use - so then why waste my time telling me to try to find a place? It's disgraceful.

I have called and called and emailed so many landlords and agencies for about a month, at the same time as advertising this current place in hopes of finding somebody to rent with me, hoping one option might work out. Precisely because I wanted to protect my mental health from the stress of what is unfolding right now.

The powerlessness of it makes me so fucking angry. I get it - I'm low paid, I'm disabled, I'm basically shit on the shoe of society.

Problem is OP, you haven't been served notice. You are not threatened with homelessness.

If you think.you are being treated unfairly, or fobbed off, I would suggest you contact shelters. You can also put a complaint in to the council but I don't think you will get very far with that at this stage as I'm not sure they are doing anything wrong. (legally)

Re policies - their housing allocations policy will be on their website. Wrt homelessness, it's legislation, part 7 of the housing act.

They may not be doing anything illegal, but it seems cruel to deliberately make life even more difficult by giving out information that is not quite true.

I'm in a fairly vulnerable position with mental health issues and physical disability. Their actions are making an already shitty situation considerably more shit.

If I'd been given honest information a month ago, I would have been working hard on a different plan - within whatever the real parameters of the situation are, not this fob off bullshit of oh go and find yourself a place - so as not to be on the cusp of homelessness like this. It's fucking unravelling my sanity.

I cant get over the fact that they are asking you to take time off work possibly risking your job to do some Mickey Mouse course to prove you are a decent tenant. When youve never been anything but. Its like asking a law abiding member of the public to do a course to prove they are never going to commit a crime.

Certain organisations moan like fuck, make assumptions about tenants whether they are working a not.

Then they find a working tenant and their first ask is for the tenant to risk said job by proving their worthiness? Mind Blown!!!!!

I wonder which company is making money out of delivering these Mickey Mouse courses.

FFS Im seething for you OP. Its hypocritical. You are basically being gaslighted by them and their goalpost moving.

Fucking disgusting.

You have my sympathies. As well as your MP, have you tried your local councillor? They are there to represent you to the council, and can often help negotiate the confusing world of council officers.
Write to them, and if possible go to one of their surgeries to talk it through. They work for you.
Good luck.

our council have an approved private landlords scheme but the council give you a list of the approved private landlords and help you find a private rental through one of them, could this be what they mean.

Google your council then private landlord scheme and you might get more info from the website

Op I have read your previous threads , am sorry I have no advice, but I am thinking of you. In fact am raging on your behalf . Really wish I could help

Seven Its totally mind boggling. I thought the attitude towards tenants couldnt get any worse but im absolutely stunned at this.

Have you spoken to your MP? Especially re the course. I've heard cases where they have spoken to someone and cut through the bs. Ludicrous to require you to take time off work for this 'course'. You could also take your Council emails and explain the double standards

I googled it a long time December when first told about it. There is no information online with my council. There is no list of suitable landlords, I have asked for this already.

Honestly, I'm not a complete passive lump. I have been researching and planning for almost two months, working furiously to get a safe solution.

Effort wasted though because I've been labouring under an illusion, fed to me by the council.

Yes I've contacted the MP, but a good idea to perhaps contact my local councillor also. I hadn't thought of that.

Thank you for the support.

Sorry you're going through this. The council wants a slap.

Only thing I can suggest is could Citizens Advice Bureau help?

Hope you get is sorted soon.

bump

Still no further forward.

I'm trying to ascertain if I got a loan of money to pay my own deposit and first month rent would I definitely be able to get the housing benefit then.

The problem is the sums of money are so large. They said housing benefit might be suspended as I have started a new job and they might need to look into that more. If that happens, I literally would not be able to conjure up money out of thin air to pay rent.

At least the one thing about living in a shit hole flat share that is actually illegal is it's cheap. Whenever my benefits got messed up for a few weeks before I was still able to pay my rent on time out of savings.

I'm so scared. There literally is no solution.

Why is it illegal? Have you contacted shelter?

Yes, I've contacted Shelter but I need to again because it's all so bloody complicated and the adviser I saw specialized in a certain area and didn't know other stuff.

It is illegal because it is overcrowded.