To accept a council house in a rough area instead of private renting

[sallyhenderson]

After years of waiting, I finally have an offer of a Housing association home. It's an ex-council house that's recently been recently transferred to a local housing association. The only issue is, it's in an area of social deprivation.

I am a nurse and I earn 25k a year before tax. I'm a single mum. I'm currently really struggling with private renting. I rent in a not rough but not glamorous area and I'm paying 650 pcm for my 2 bed house. I have commuting costs of £130 a month.

This leaves no disposable income after bills are paid. It's not just the money. My landlord is awful and I have had to move several times. There's no stability. I hate private renting.

My sons dad private rents and does not want me taking the council house. My parents are apprehensive and think I may not fit in in the area but think it's a necessary evil as I cannot afford to buy a house, I cannot afford to private rent indefinitely and cannot afford to wait forever in the hope of getting a house in a nicer area.

There are worse places than where I would be moving to. It's an inner city area with deprivation but boarders affluent areas and is close to all the amenities of those places/ the city it's walking distance to.

There's excellent secondary schools within the catchment area and an outstanding school a few feet away...but it is a rough area. It has crime rate and a lot of burglaries. Because it's so close to the city it has a large student population and is up and coming with young professionals now choosing to rent there. Private rent is £750pcm or over £1000 for an apartment. This makes me feel a little better about moving.

The place is right near my work and all ameneities so not commuting costs and is £350 pcm. That's over £400 a month extra it would save me by living there.

Would I be unreasonable to move my Son to a rough area to have a secure tenancy so that I don't have to private rent?Or should I let my Son live in a safe area and be skint?

Ha, I was right in my prediction upthread! It's fine, seriously. Plenty of your colleagues live here.

Yep I'd do it.

If all the people who were wary about moving to a 'rough' area moved there, then it wouldn't be rough any more!!

PS, xp sounds like a right arsehole.

I am going to go against the general consensus here. Money is less important than safety especially with a young child..The name Moss Side is enough to send chills down even the toughest hooligan’s spine; a notorious inner-city area of Manchester cluttered with council blocks, it is known as a capital of murder and mayhem, and not the kind of place you go to live happily ever after. The neighbourhood is largely controlled by gang members – said to be up to 500 in total in Manchester – with drug dealing, turf wars and theft a way of life here. Avoid, at all costs.

I'd take it. If you were in a private rent that you were happy and settled in, it would be different. You've got nothing to lose.

How does the system for allocations work?

Will you get this offer only and no more?

If you refuse this offer do you move down the list?

Are you going to be right in the middle of it? And having to walk through all the rough areas to get anywhere, or on the edge so can get around pretty easily?

Go for it.Sounds as if it is an up and coming area,school sounds good.You can always go back to ptivate let's later .
If your ex really wants you to look very in a better area let him pay for it.

Yeah, gangsters control the Art Gallery.

Do it.

I don't know that part of the country but it depends just how bad it actually is. If it's just a poorer area and a bit scruffy I'd be fine with that. If it's actually dangerous and full of gangs and criminals I'd not be fine with it.

If your DS is still young could you take it for a couple of years and save the extra money, then you could always move out and get somewhere better if it's not working out?

Do it. I know lots of nurses/health staff living in the area. It's fine. You'll always get idiots, but most people are just trying to live their lives.

Plus you are so close to everything, and schools and colleges are good. Plus, the way Manchester is growing it won't be long until the 'less desirable' and cheaper areas become the opposite and gentrified.

Ignore your ex (I know that's easier said than done).

I'm right on the edge. A few seconds from manchester oxford road and the 'posh' parts of Manchester.

I'd never take a house right in the middle of the council estates there.

Is that melodramatic description above the poster's own words or copied and pasted from a 70s newspaper?

I'd bite their hand off. I think the many factual positives outweigh the perceived negatives.

Is that melodramatic description above the poster's own words or copied and pasted from a 70s newspaper?

It's copied and pasted from an American website.

Whoever wrote that 'spine chilling' description should be writing pulp fiction!

I would not live in a bad place to save money even if it meant I had nothing left each month. You need to sleep at night and know that your son is safe to play out.

Do it but do it with a longer term objective in mind.

You'll be £400 better off, do it and save it all so you can buy your way out of the situation in a few years time like a previous poster advised. It's the only way you'll get on the housing ladder.

If your parents own their house in a nice area explain to them why you're doing it. You never know, they might agree to help you with a deposit on a house so you don't need to do it for as many years.

And obviously, if it's that bad, you can just moved back to private rental but worth a try.

Just spotted the Moss Side bit after posting. My DH whose family is from a very large infamous council estate a stones throw from there won't even drive through Moss Side without locking the car doors and never ever late at night. Don't do it OP.

I worked in MS for 2 years, never saw or heard of any trouble, there are new developments springing up everywhere, the leisure centre is being refurbished, seems like a good mix of people. I regularly walked from Oxford Road end of Denmark Street to the car park at the other end of the road with no issues. Never felt unsafe even in the dead of winter. Go for it OP, if you don't like it, it's not forever

Honestly no. My Gran lived there all her life until she died, wouldn't move. Had to have all her windows and doors bar the front one nailed shut and was still robbed blind by people who tricked there way in. Me and my bro are relatively streetwise and grew up in London but it wasn't safe for us to go out alone there really as we were easy targets.

There's a lot of pressure on boys to join gangs, some kids I grew up playing with did despite having nice families and being good lads in general. They are in prison or dead. Honestly, no way would I move a son of mine there.

People are very PC on MN so will insist that these problems don't exist. But they really do. There are a lot of good people who live there but they have a lot of very difficult problems to face.

I have a very long and unfunny story about my Gran's front door having to be broken down when she died and me having to stay there with no front door but my own impromptu 'armed guard': lads from next door with guns. Won't go much further into that here...

With 400 extra a month you could save for a deposit on a house in a nicer area !

Have a search of Mumsnet threads, OP. I did when I was deciding where to live late last year, and Manchester was one of my targets. A search like 'Where to live in Manchester' and similar should yield results. I don't have the bookmarks any more, sorry.

I knew Moss Side's 'old' reputation but many people, on Mumsnet and elsewhere, told me that was rather out of date and I shouldn't rule it out. That I didn't choose Manchester in the end isn't any reflection on the city, I was just very lucky in finding something that met all my 'must haves' and most of my 'nice to haves' in a city with the great railway connections I had to have, and cheaper than Manchester.

For the reasons you give, though, it would be a no brainer for me, I'd move.

Thanks everyone. My plan wouldn't be to live there forever. Just a few years with the view to buying the house or buying a house on the private market and moving on.

I have just found out I will be living in Hulme not Moss Side.

It borders Moss side but doesn't count as it.