To think people dont understand the magnitude of the social housing crisis?

[Arrowfanatic]

I work in social housing. We have endless requests for moves from customers who expand their family whilst in a property which is unsuitable to move them to a bigger property. We advise that family size housing (3 bed+) has a waiting list of around 10+ years and then these customers get mad.

We're accused of allowing them to stay in overcrowded properties, or affecting their mental & physical health and inevitably an overcrowded property becomes prone to damp & mould as it's too full.

These customers also want these houses in the exact location they desire, thereby limiting even more their chances of a move.

We get so demoralised when every day it's the same thing, but social housing is at a massive shortfall for the needs of the country & family size housing is in an even greater shortfall.

My company has an extensive plan to build more properties but it's a 5 year plan!

It's like they think we're lying to them, or the old classic of "you housing immigrants straight away" note, we dont, they have to apply like everyone else. We dont want our customers in unsuitable accommodation, and we really work hard on making the housing stock we do have work.

If you're in this position what could we tell our customers to make them understand the position we are in, and the one they have put themselves in and why we cant help as quickly as they would like.

I feel like I say "we have a shortage of family size housing" 100 times a day & get yelled at 100 times a day for our association not caring.

@DillBaby
SH is allocated on need/priority, you are very ill informed and have horrible attitude. Are you just here to goad and be vile and ignorant?
Have you wondered why we need SH, why ppl are in poverty, why they’ll never buy? or do you sit in your nice middle class house spouting your DM views?

@gingergiraffe
Another anecdote about those pesky SH paupers🙄🙄 Because nobody in a private let or owned house is ever an arsehole eh?
Judgy much, guaranteed the judgy fuckers on here would be the first in line demanding help if they ended up needing housed.
Surely being on MN you see how easily marriages, jobs, homes are ripped away and you could end up on your arse with nothing.

@JKScot4 £40,000 deposit? For what? Deposits to buy homes start at 5%. What value of home do you think people are saving to buy? A home valued at £100,000 would require a £5,000 deposit.

£40,000 is a ludicrous figure to just throw around.

Does that mean I've been paying my housing association rent when I didnt need to? With it being a free house I've got after all

@DillBaby we both work fairly respectable jobs but are not high earners - our working potential is lowered because there is no childcare options for teenage boys in our area plus we need flexibility to pick up DS on the days when he can't cope at school (not as frequent now thankfully!) so there's little scope to earn more.

We pay full rent, council tax and all bills on top. We earn just over the threshold for any government help except £137 child benefit every 4 weeks. There is NO WAY we could afford a private let in our area, or even to save a months deposit. It's something we looked at due to the impact of situation is having on our DS but the instability and financial stress would be FAR worse for our family.

Bloody right I feel that we should be able to continue living in social housing, of that makes me "entitled" then so be it!!

I've recently been offered a four bed council flat in a quiet but not desirable neighbourhood. I am over the moon, I can't be picky about where I want to live if I can't afford to rent privately or buy. I do earn a decent wage but am a single mum. Yes people are very demanding and have unrealistic expectations. Council housing is like gold dust. I waited approximately 6 years but the final two I was in Band A but it still took 2 years of bidding in Band A to finally get an offer.

SH may be allocated on a need/priority bases to begin with but after that, it's theirs for life, even if their circumstances change for the better and there is a list of families more in need at that time. That's the problem.

We were lucky enough to be given a 3 bedroom housing association house a year ago and I will never take that for granted. We were in a dire position so were fortunate that we didn't wait for very long but in that time we bid on every single 3 bed property regardless of location. We won't have any more children regardless but certainly not whilst we didn't have the space! It's absolutely ridiculous. I will be forever thankful for our home.

People should live within their means. If they live in a 2 bedroom flat they should consider that before getting pregnant with their 3/4 child. 🙄

They no doubt back on the idea that they’ll be moved.

If people with mortgages have more children without the space then they have to suck it up and get on with it.

What about when Full market rent is comparable with social housing rent.@DillBaby?Where I live in a relatively cheap.area there is little difference in market rent and social rent mumsnet is so skewed towards the South East .

I don't understand it when SH tenants buy, under the 'right to buy', at such discounted prices, because they say they've been paying rent on the property for however many years, so that adds up to their deposit. People who are privately renting are paying rent as well as having to put more aside to save up for a deposit to buy a house. It doesn't make any sense to me.

There is an issue with sub-letting which needs addressing

If you’re getting a free house then you should be grateful for any roof over your head and stop whinging that it’s not big enough

I got as far as here.

You do realise that many in SH work and pay full rent don't you?

I'm going to read the rest now because it's probably already been answered.

A friend of mine pays £900 a month in full from hers and her DH's wages for their free social housing house...

People who own or pay their own rent have to limit the size of house and family to their budget, it’s not unreasonable that others do the same. Personal responsibility seems low down on the list for some.

Completely agree OP. I’ve worked in a similar field and although I have empathy for most, it was unbearable at times, the unknowingness of the scale of the housing crisis coupled with the entitlement that some had, meant I had to leave.

People having child after child and wanting bigger and bigger houses, we even had people coming in because they’d seen a new build estate they like and want to get one of the three beds ‘from the council’ (they were selling for £500k!)
My old neighbour was a HA tenant (I was in private rent) she paid less than half the rent I did, and when we had a leak that affected us both, hers were sorted immediately whilst I was left for weeks with mould forming. She still moaned that her kids were sharing a bedroom and how shit the HA were.
I really think some people just don’t realise how lucky they are to have social housing (although sadly, lots do come from difficult circumstances to get there)

And I’ll put my neck on the line and say, we are seeing families where generation after generation have lived in council houses and not worked, having children and getting ‘upgraded’ and whilst in the past, this was achievable, the crisis is here and people need to open their eyes to it.

If I was you, get a section on your website entitled ‘why is a property not immediately available to me’ and give an honest list of EVERYTHING, selling off council houses, under-occupancy coupled with lifetime tenancies, lack of build, increased population etc.
I learnt pretty quickly that ‘baby-ing’ People gets you nowhere in that line of work.

My unpopularopinion is R2B and Lifetime tenancies should be scrapped until we are out of this mess - although I fear we never will be.

We wouldnt need social housing if there was proper regulation of private landlords- rent caps- mandatory repairs and standards- security of tenure

Yes, but Villanomme, how much would your friends' house cost to rent on the private market? Probably an awful lot more, be honest.

Laura about £200 max a month more.

Me and DS became homeless. I went to my LA for help. I work a full time job but am completely priced out of private rent in the area and the LA knew this.

I was destitute is the easiest way to explain it. I asked what area has the largest stock available of 2 bedroom houses. (2bed flats aren't as common as houses here) . They said area A. Area A is well not the best, but not the worst. I said to my homeless case worker, area A it is. We were offered a house the next day. I won't lie it's like climbing Everest to my house it has 3 sets of stairs, is up on a veranda, the front garden is about a 40 degree incline, but you know what it's a roof and a home for me and DS that I can afford a single mother (which I never planned on being) It needed work but I've worked with the LA to improve it.

It's the old saying "begers can't be chosers" 🤷🏻‍♀️

Again LauraAurora in many parts of the country social rent and private rent is comparable we don't all live in London and the South East and £900 would be an extremely high rent where I live private or otherwise .

We waited 7 years for a flat in a mouldy, damp, cold flat. We waited it out. We we're given a beautiful 1 bed new build where we thanked the gods every day. We had a child. We waited another 5 years for a 2 bed flat. Again we we're given a beautiful 2 bed flat next door. We are so thankfull for what we got. Almost every week I have one friend.or another telling me to demand a house with a garden as its my childs rite to play outside daily. He has autism so many of them say use his disability against our situation. I say. Fuck off. We are living in a place which has below market rent. We are next to public transport to the city . We each have a bedroom. A park is a 2 minute walk from our flat and i have not seen my clothes ruined from damp since we moved hear 13 years ago. I am blessed. Some people dont know what hardship is and will always want more because they see others with much much more. Be blessed for the small things. Dont take the housing for granted. Live within your means. The council. Housing association and disability housing do amazingly well all things considering. If we spent more money within these sectors and not on pandering to the non tax paying wankers that run the country then we wouldn't have social housing crisis. Well done to you who work within this sector. You are doing an amazingly hard job.

there’s no reason why they can’t be built on a brownfield site instead.

Developers are building to make a profit, they don't want to build on brownfield sites because of the contamination that they would be required to treat/remove before building. Cleaning brownfield sites costs a lot of £££ and is time consuming.

This cost would need to be added onto the overall development costs which will push up the prices of the properties.

The council / government cannot force developers to build on brownfield sites.

"Customers"? What a euphemism!

It’s going to get far far worse. We’ve moved out of private rent and onto the property ladder. The house we rented has gone back on the rental market marked up from £600 to £800 pm for a three bed terrace, no garage and very small garden, and nothing done to it since we moved out apart from a lick of paint (up north). When expressing my surprise with the estate agent, she said their stock of private rentals had reduced significantly over the last 12 months due to new rules which meant landlords felt the disadvantages outweighed the benefits of renting out, so a lot are selling up. It’s going to massively impact the demand for social housing imo.

@JJScot4, you have misinterpreted what I wrote.