To think that the council shouldn't put problem families together

[dimondjedi9]

Either side of me I have lovely neighbours, they care about their children and just generally want a nice peaceful life.
Going further down and there are many problem families, police attending regularly and kids left to run riot.
I live in a new estate and to begin with it was lovely, now it has an awful reputation.
I don’t like my son playing out because of bullying and when you try to discuss it with the parents you get a lot of abuse.
I don’t understand why the council put all these families in the same place, it creates such an awful environment.

Posted too soon, what I meant was that if people are treated like they don’t matter and they feel like they don’t matter then that doesn’t help with anything does it? I don’t mean pampering people but when you’re dumped in a shithole and made to feel like you’re not worth any effort, that has a knock on effect.

I've been involved in working on some of these housing estates. The issue is these problem families are in the minority, BUT they have an inequal impact on their estates. They take up much more police, housing department and social work time.
Sadly, bad parenting often is 'inherited'... The problem families you see today, were the problem families of the 1970s.

We live in a society where a central tenet is that people have to live somewhere.
This 'problem' has been 'solved' by allocating many of these families to the same estates

grumpyfrog how would that work if the tenants have children? We really can't have kids forced to sleep rough, society hasn't declined that badly. Parents know that although the council has a duty to house the kids not the parents, in reality it doesn't work like that.

To try and minimise the impact on the non 'problem' families.

Sadly these areas turn into ghettos... No investment, no care and largely forgotten

Notreallyarsed I agree completely. My mum lives in a HA property on a lovely street. The HA take really good care of the houses and communal areas and come down really hard on anti-social behaviour. The result is a lovely, friendly community who respect their homes and neighbors.

Flip over to where I live and it's the opposite. No money invested, community centres shut down and a shrug of the shoulders when I call to report a group of teens trying to kick down my neighbors front door.

Good post @MiraiDevant

I specifically did not say that it was a question of being poor. It is not.

@DaisysStew I’m glad your mum’s street is lovely!

I wish there would be more investment in community projects and bringing people together. It would save an absolute shitload of cash in terms of emergency services and SW but more than that it would make life nicer and better for so many people. I’ve been staggered by the failings of the powers that be so many times in recent months, to the point where I feel they share the blame for things going wrong.

It sounds awful OP. It's so unfair that some people (often a minority in a neighbourhood) can have such an impact on so many others living in their neighbourhood, yet so little seems to be able to be done about it. Or perhaps it is there is so little will to tackle it properly?

So often the issue, from my point of view, is that excuses are made and nobody is made to face the consequences of their actions until a very serious situation occurs that is impossible to ignore. Especially if they have children- because, understandably, nobody wants children to suffer because of their parents actions (though arguably, if they are poor parents, they are already suffering from the result of their parents inability to parent well).

I don't know what would work now, but I do hope things improve for you OP.

Evict them, leave the adults to it - get the children into foster/adoptive care with people who might help bring them up to be responsible individuals. The parents have decided that they don't want to parent so don't let them keep their children. It's time we stopped pandering to people who ruin other lives - why the hell should someone else's child be bullied for 18 months?

I grew up on a well known estate in Oxford. Back then if some tyke climbed on a car or threw stones the nearest adult would give him/her a clip round the ear.

Some of these feral families make life hell for their community and it seems the authorities are powerless to do anything, if they do lose their house then they get given another one elsewhere.

The sad thing is the kids' know no different and often the behaviour becomes a self perpetuating cycle.

Is putting the kids on care really the best option??

Ffs in care

These tenants are not on "forgotten sink estates" though are they? They are housed in HA properties which are new. Brand new houses, warm, clean, gardens probably, desirable as clearly some are being sold.

I don’t think the care system is the answer, God knows that’s broken enough as it is. I think that consequences for negative behaviour are the answer, like convictions with an ankle tag preventing going out for example. This combined with education and showing the right path to a future which will offer hope instead of fuck all prospects might have a knock on effect.
Let’s face it, the government have washed their hands and created these problems. They need to be the ones to sort it out.

Yes take them away from these parents. These people haven't suddenly become problems, there are families that get moved from one estate to another creating misery over years - kick them out and help their kids become decent human beings. If they realised that they would be truly homeless they might just change their behaviour - at the moment the kids are being used as a shield.

That’s basically punishing the kids for their parents behaviour.

No it isn't, punishing them it letting them continually live with parents who don't parent and won't bring them up to become functioning members of society.

The care system isn't renowned for turning out stable and well-adjusted young adults though, is it?

Sympathies op. I never understand why so much council/housing association housing gets given to problem families whilst families who are law abiding, hardworking and generally peaceful end up paying far more for far less in the private rented sector.

I think problem families should be put into the private rented sector as it might encourage them to behave (with the knowledge if they don't clean up their acts they will keep having to move after being evicted), rather than be given secure housing with the knowledge they can behave as disgracefully as possible with very little likelihood of being evicted from social housing. It really isn't fair.

The rules regarding "need" for social housing should be overhauled as a lot of the time it just encourages people to be irresponsible (having more children than their property will fit so they can be classed as overcrowded and get more points etc).

Then charge the parents for the kids misdemeanours, force them to become responsible. Because the care system has neither the spaces nor the resources to take kids en masse. The parents know nothing will affect them, therefore they don’t take responsibility. If there were severe consequences for the parents (heavy fines, threat of short jail sentences, being tagged and curfews, risk of homelessness) then I’m pretty sure they’d step up. It’s because they can do as they please and not parent without consequences that these problems occur. They think it’s not their problem, so let’s make it their problem.

Bloody hell, some of these views sound completely barking, and extremely unpleasant.

Realistically, though, the private rental sector won't take these tenants. Why would they?