Social housing

[Sayhellotothemoomoos]

Aibu to think there's just no social housing that is nice?

I've lived in my home for 10 years, initially I didn't notice any problems, I was happy to rent the house at a time when I needed it, but lately I'm noticing that rarely a week goes by without there being antisocial behaviour.

Neighbours having screaming matches in the street, police being called to domestics, drug dealing, vandalism, evictions and so on.

This isn't really one of the worst areas l, far from it, and many a time people comment on how quiet it is round here, but over time you do see lots of goings on. When you look closely it just seems that so many of the families are having problems.

Is there actually any social housing left in good areas? Does this sort of thing go on in private roads?

Haha you are joking yes??

'Nice' areas have their fair share of police cars in the road you know (ex police from Hampstead here)

Bit of a sweeping statement there op. The country is pretty big. I used to work for a HA and 90% of our housing stock was great. Some estates had minimal issues with ASB.

There's plenty of social housing on private roads.

if you dont like it you could always give it up and rent privately or buy. im sure theres plenty of people who would be very happy to move into yours

How about swapping OP? I'm not sure what the rules are but people do it.

YABU. I live in social housing in a quiet little cul-de-sac in a leafy part of outer London. I've never experienced any crime or anti social behaviour at all.

Kitkatspiderrat why the snippy reply?

So are you saying that if a person needs to rent affordably, then they should be grateful to live, and have their children live, close to people dealing drugs and seeing neighbours arguing and fighting in the street week on week?

I do wonder if anyone lives in social and can honestly say it's safe and peaceful.

yes there is in good areas... but in my own experience..and I can only speak from own... for me it was the people living in it and not the neighbours. Lived in SH in one of the richest areas of the country, by the Thames. No problems with neighbours outside of our flats. In them,different matter, it was hell and made me ill. Abusive drunks and drug dealers.
I live in the country now (not in SH - it was my then fiance who I lived with in SH as in his name) and there's social housing here in a chocolate box vair posh village.
I honestly looked at it as being v lucky in terms of location, when I was in London (near the Thames, walking distance of so many places, lovely flat) and felt guilty people were paying over 1k a month to rent similar (it was tiny). I didn't feel lucky in terms of the residents but I know in terms of location, had struck gold. We just put up with it.

Inclined to agree with OP on this one, moved to a lovely little village and we live in social housing. In the last year there have been numerous fights and police callouts, families take sides and other families wage(what I can only describe as) war on other families. It's a lovely area and the whole situation breaks my heart. Really do wonder what's happened to community spirit.

Serlterf I'm not sure that (round here), there's anywhere any better!

We are now having an opportunity to move on, I will have to see if things are any different.

There's plenty of privately owned and privately rented houses with problem neighbours.

its not the housing or area which is the problem though is it?

just people....and people are everywhere

On paper this really should be a good area. The housing is fairly good, well built, well maintained. A mixture of social housing no owner occupied. There are local parks, shops, schools, children's centres. I've been happy living here for years, I don't know if I'm noticing things more now.

I'm just interested to hear people's perspectives really, from both sides.

Yes all the riff raff lives in social housing!

A lot of people I know think this and express sympathy and sad faces if they find out I live in social housing, I find it strange as I think I'm quite lucky to have affordable rent and a secure tenancy. We also help each other out a lot as neighbours, I don't know if that's common or not though. I would imagine there is also domestic violence and crimes committed from privately owned and rented houses too.

It's a vicious circle innit. Once any certain estate or road gets a bad name from having one or two problem families, then the decent families ship out or refuse to move there, and the only new households who move into the area are the ones who're poor and desperate enough to not have any other options- and these families will often bring problems of their own.

Plus, some councils can be very "meh" about sorting out vandalism and cosmetic maintenance of communal areas on the ASBO estates. This is turn makes tenants feel less pride in their communities and less valued as tenants as those in the "nice" flats round the corner. And some express this by acting out to the lower expectations.

And round and round, and so on and so forth.

I don't doubt there are some perfectly nice estates in the country tho.

I'm inclined to agree, though it is purely anecdotal and I'll get hundred posters telling me so.

I am a leaseholder in an ex-council block. Regular setting fire to bins (by identified social housing tenants), weeing in the lift (ditto), music at all hours, smell of weed drifting out of two flats at all hours, illegal car repair business downstairs, illegal radio station on the roof, and lots more. All SH tenants. No doubt there were lots of other SH tenants who were perfectly pleasant and law-abiding, but none of this shit was done by leaseholders.

I've since moved. I'm now in a Victorian ex-council block alongside another identical block, of which only one flat is still council-owned (so 1 flat out of 9). Three months in, the only hassle / antisocial behaviour comes from that one flat.

(London Zone 2, if it makes a difference)

I've drawn my own conclusions from this, even though I know what kind of reaction it'll get on here. It's one of the very few things about the welfare system that makes me feel very right-wing in my thinking. To my mind, you piss in the lift of the building where you have been fortunate enough (yes, really) to be housed, you can sling your hook. Not popular, but there you go.

Whiterabbitears I wouldn't really say riff raff. I've lived in social housing myself for the last 10 years.

Op. I know what you're saying. I was brought up in social housing wnd as much as it was actually within a lovely area, I witnessed all you mention, I have not witnessed it so much in private housing.

Is crime or anti social behavuour more prevalent in social housing estates, there is many a study which shows in the U.K. That residents of social housing are at more risk of crime and anti social behavuour than elsewhere.

So yes, I understand factually you are correct in your observations. Does it go on elsewhere, of course it does, is it everywhere social housing is, no Clearly not.

Social housing is a VERY wide category. There are some absolutely gorgeous social houses - those built to Parker Morris standards, for instance, often have wonderful, spacious and convenient layouts, far better than many modern homes by volume housebuilders. Social housing wasn't always segregated by poverty - some estates were laid out with the utopian aim of mixing social classes, so that white and blue collar workers would live side by side and share the same kind of high quality housing.

I think a lot of families who rely on benefits to get by have been squeezed beyond endurance now and are really struggling as essential things like food prices rise in the wake of the Brexit referendum. I am sure, however, you'd see similar pressures in what you call 'private' roads as well, though perhaps these would be less acute for some of the wealthier owner-occupiers than they are for private renters or social tenants.

I live in social housing and would definitely consider my housing to be some of the best social housing mainly because it's in a green belt area, but there are only 4 houses here ( 3 social housing, 1 owned) and all the neighbours are lovely! Obviously this could change and we came from social housing in a more deprived area where the police were a daily presence.

It was a light hearted reply hence the !

I do get tired of hearing this though, you ask does this go on in private roads? well of course it does, its not only social housing areas who experience bad neighbours or undesirable behaviours.