To think you shouldn't be homeless if you have a job.

[coolncalm]

Well actually no one should be homeless but i watched a programme last night and people were sleeping on the streets in London and didn't have a roof over their heads. Isnt it a sorry state of affairs when you go out to work but you can't earn enough for a single room never mind a flat.

I watched it too. So upsetting. I cannot even begin to imagine how hard it must be for them to hold down a full time job in those circumstances. Sadly I can see how it could happen though.

YANBU. It's a National disgrace. If you're going out doing a fair days work then you should get a fair days pay. If after working30+ per week you still can't pay your rent/mortgage. There is something serious wrong with the system
What's the point in people getting up at cunt o'clock to go to work when it doesn't even cover their rent. It just doesn't make an iota of sense to me.

An office I worked at recently included two people who were living in hostels because they couldn't earn enough for a month's rent and deposit. It's about £2200 to get a flat in London. Then you need money for bills soon after. Neither were involved with drugs or alcohol. One was a man approaching 60, highly educated and a lovely colleague. The other was a man in his late twenties.

The zero hours contracts cause a huge problem too. It shouldn't be allowed.

We all remember how call me Dave squirmed like worm of vomit when he was asked by Jeremy Paxman (or is it Paxton). If he could live on ZHC.

Wonder if any of their employers will get pissed off with them for appearing on the programme.

It seems they want London for the rich.

It’s a crying shame that the system is so fucked that this happens.

I keep reading about people working for the most profitable companies are still in this shit.
I go to one of the nicest health clubs in our area, certainly within 45-60 minutes of my house. Just last week one of the cleaning staff were asking around for jobs, she’s unhappy with her 0 hours contract they moved her to, she says that arrears have piled up and she’s going to be evicted. Her landlord is good so he will allow her to stay if she gets “a proper job” this is a lady who has worked as a cleaner all of her life, she’s in her 50s, I feel terrible saying this, but she has some sort of learning disability, she is a hard worker but not sure she could do much different, she’s happy except the 0 hour contracts- you’d think the owner of this health club chain would allow a little stability to their workers.

Was also reading today about WDW workers living in motel rooms and their cars because their wage doesn’t support them to the extent of being able to pay rent.

I saw a homeless person asleep with a work uniform folded at his feet, was heart breaking. I often wonder about him.

It's about £2200 to get a flat in London.

So start smaller with a room? You can get a room, admittedly not necessarily in the nicest area but as a start for as little as £100-120/week.

wouldn't call £100 -120 pw for a room cheap. Maybe it's me though

What channel was this on?

So start smaller with a room? You can get a room, admittedly not necessarily in the nicest area but as a start for as little as £100-120/week.

Alright, say we start with a room. What then? When can you suddenly afford even a studio, if you are working on a zero hours contract? Or even full time as a cleaner or shop worker on minimum wage?

You can't. Not everyone has the skills to get a job that pays well.

I don't think it's acceptable for shit landlords to rent shit rooms, often not really suitable for human habitation, for £120 a week. It's not good for adults to live like that long term into their forties or fifties, in a bedsit in Tottenham with shared kitchen and bathroom with people you don't know.

Why should low income workers be punished by having to live in completely shit situations with no chance of better?

We have a mental health crisis in this country and housing has a part to play. Working full time should allow you to be able to secure safe and dignified housing.

To get the £120 PW rooms, tenants have to have a deposit available up front. Sometimes people don't.

It's all that's wrong with this country in a few words. People that work and are homeless. Zero hours contract. Hate saying this but they would be better off on benefits getting their rent paid by DWP.
Not much incentive to work those jobs.
Through college and being a single mum I had 2 pt cleaning jobs and the lady at the council actually told me I would be better off dropping one. It was true.

Is transport expensive in London?

Even with renting a room at £120, what if you're on a contract and your hours are cut to 20 or under for a while? That's not much to live on after. And a lot of these types of rooms seem to be looking for a % of the bills to be paid every week/month too? No just doing without or cutting back to afford food instead. If your hours were suddenly cut to under 16 for say 3 weeks, what happens when you can't pay your share of the bills, once they're due? Arrears or eviction.

Even to rent that room at £120, you would need to prove you earned a suitable amount on an ongoing basis. You need to prove it to pass reference checks to get a secure lease.

What's that formula estate agents use for working out affordability for tenants? Is it 40 times the monthly rent?

So our hypothetical room at £120 per week requires an income of over £20k if I'm not mistaken. Minimum wage is what £8.50 per hour? Min wage full time salary is under £18k.

Are my estimated sums wrong - can anyone clarify?

Sure people can rent rooms as lodgers and from crap illegal landlords but goodbye secure tenancy when you do that.

What if you move out of London?

Hungryhippo if the gym is so shit to workers, stop paying them to be so - you are enabling the behaviour and are partly responsible for it

*on a zero hours contract

So - what happens when the low paid workforce all migrates from London due to being out priced in the housing market? Guess the capital will be completely screwed if nobody is willing to work as a cleaner, refuse collector. And pay £120pwk to enjoy the privilege of living in a cupboard.

So the solution is all low paid workers move out of London?

And spend the money they still don't have on the hefty price of a commuter ticket?

Or will there be special buses laid on by the government to haul low paid workers in and out every day to clean our toilets, stack our shelves and wipe arses in care homes? FFS. I guess maybe this option could work but it's not the world I want to live in.

To rent a room you need a months deposit and a months rent in advance at a minimum. So nearly a £1000 upfront. That is a lot of money.
I was in the situation of needing this when younger and in London - had split up with bf. Bank refused to give me a loan, so I had to go into an unauthorised overdraft. Cost me a lot in charges, but if I hadn't I would have been on the streets even though I was working full time.

We are just going through this, I am disabled and my partner work full time, to go through an estate agent you have to earn a minimum of 30 times the monthly rent, none of that can be from benefit payments, plus the deposit upfront as well.

We just don't have that kind of money, so we have no choice but to try and go through private rental,

And looking at current NJC pay scales I am surprised to see that for many years I was paid what would be the equivalent of below the national minimum wage these days.

@Ariela - so start with a broom cupboard for 'as little as £100-120pwk', and move your way up to a bog standard property (possibly with a sink and toilet not in your living/bedroom area) for £200-350pwk by what means exactly?... Or the MWage workers could think sod this for a bunch of soldiers and relocate North to rent a 2 bedroom flat/house for the same money. If London isn't prepared to make provision for workers to be able to afford to live there - including nhs, fire fighters, front line staff.. Then I say crack on! It'll crumble underneath it's own pompous creation.

donutsarealife it was on channel 4 monday night.