To think these changes to the housing waiting list are not “cruel” but simply realistic?

[Eastie77Returns]

Our council has announced changes to the local housing waiting list from next month. There are tens of thousands on the list who will never be housed as they are not deemed to be in urgent need so they will now be removed.

The council has said they will be offered “personalised support to explore their options” which probably means advising they leave London, advances to help with private rent etc. I understand in many cases that is really not helpful but a close relative of mine who works in housing has been on the phone to me in tears because of the level of abuse she has faced from frustrated residents who have been on the list for years and are being removed.

Now a parent from DD’s school is organising a march on the town hall to protest all of this and has asked parents for support. She has been offered a council house 100+ miles outside London and is refusing to leave as her support network is here and I fully understand that. However, I do think a dose of realism is needed. There are 15,000 people on the waiting list here and a few hundred council properties become available each year. This parent has been told she does not fall into the 3 bands that will be kept on the list so she will never get a council house and she has responded by accusing the council of unimaginable cruelty

I don’t understand where she expects the council to magically just find thousands of homes and change that situation?

@Eastie77Returns

Well the parent mentioned in my OP apparently now has 1 day left to accept a property she has been offered outside of London. She has updated everyone that she wants to refuse but has been warned that whether she accepts or declines, the council will discharge its responsibility to house her and the children. They have told her she has to sign a contract, pick up her train fare voucher and they will arrange to move her stuff.

I do feel for her as she does not know the area she is being moved to and says she had never even heard of it before this enforced move.

Over 150 families from our area have all been told they must move to this same town. There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason in the council’s decision making process as other families have separately been told they must move to Newcastle but were given no explanation as to they couldn’t be moved to the first town (which is not quite as far away and apparently has plenty of social housing).

Obviously being housed is better than homelessness but honestly…how many of you would happily just up sticks and move to the other side of the country, to a city you have never heard of?

Why, where are they sending her? Outer Mongolia? She is being housed. This ridiculousness has to stop. She is being housed. That is not cruel or unfair. I repeat, she is being housed. She is an adult who is being taken care of.

I grew up in London couldn't afford to stay there, not entitled to council housing, so I moved out. It's life unfortunately. Hardly anyone i went to school with still lives in the same area, if they do it's in private rented they have no hope of moving on from. In the small town near where I work in Essex there has been a new housing development built on the site of an old mental health facility that was falling down, it was promised to be 30% social housing. It is, but it's all been bought by Newham council, so none of it will go to local residents.

God there are some dicks on this thread.

@Dreamstate do you need to be quite such an unpleasant person? "No sympathy"? It is a massive thing they are asking of her.

Where do people live whilst waiting for social housing? Genuine question

@chopc

B&Bs, hostels, temp accommodation for those who are homeless. We were able to stay in our existing flat whilst waiting for somewhere more suitable

[quote Mumofsend]@Dreamstate do you need to be quite such an unpleasant person? "No sympathy"? It is a massive thing they are asking of her.[/quote]
Plenty of other people saying the same thing, why should I be sympathetic? She is being housed and the complaining she doesn't know the area so instead of using her time wisely to find out she is wasting it by complaining.

I was made redundant once, I wasn't even allowed to claim jsa, unbelieveable considering I've worked and paid my taxes that I'm not allowed some financial support when I needed it the most. I had to take a huge pay cut just to get a job so I didn't lose my house.

We all have to make sacrifices and compromises when life throws a curve ball. Noone likes change but we have to learn to deal with it.

It’s not social housing but affordable rent. I think having somewhere to live is in fact a basic right ( like water or electricity) for a modern society and needs to managed as such. Currently seen as a money making exercise.

I put this on every housing thread but my solution is;
anyone can rent out 1 property at whatever rent they like,
2 or more properties and the rent needs to be HA rates (80% of average local rent)
5 or more properties and you have take people off the housing register.
Landlords can still have portfolios but renters have affordable rates.

Supply is never going to meet demand with social housing. The properties with a tenant who has been in for 50/60 years are pretty much unavailable and are as good as being sold, a child could succeed the tenancy then it could be another 50 years before it is available for a new tenant. We simply can not build our way out of this, just building new social housing, the whole of the housing market needs an overhaul.

We also need to move away from the idea that everyone on every social housing list is living in some semi desperate situation, for a previous poster they may be living at parents with a child, they may have children who are now entitled to their own room and so need another bedroom. It is amazing how many people will bid on new build properties only though and pretty much refuse to move anywhere else.

I've always said I could build a 100* type of property in a particular area today, I would still have a new waiting list by tomorrow.

*That would pretty much meet the demand of the existing list wanting that property type and area.

I’ve no idea in London tbh… but the problem where I am (Glasgow) is that there is next to no council houses left, they were all sold. If you can’t afford a mortgage your “punished” by having to pay rent that is significantly Higher than a mortgage on the same property would be.

@Eastie77Returns

Dreamstate she has looked up the area online now as she was completely unfamiliar with it. She didn’t particularly like what she read (high crime, deprivation, limited employment opportunities). So I’m not sure what she really has to feel positive about, moving far away to a random town where she does not know a single person. It isn’t a terrible town but I would’t live there by choice.

It is quite nice up there. Does she have to find employment?

@KingdomScrolls

I grew up in London couldn't afford to stay there, not entitled to council housing, so I moved out. It's life unfortunately. Hardly anyone i went to school with still lives in the same area, if they do it's in private rented they have no hope of moving on from. In the small town near where I work in Essex there has been a new housing development built on the site of an old mental health facility that was falling down, it was promised to be 30% social housing. It is, but it's all been bought by Newham council, so none of it will go to local residents.

That is awful. More diversity targets possibly?

@woodhill - quite nice up where? She is not moving to Newcastle if that is what you mean. Other families have been placed there but she has to move to another place in Staffordshire.

She doesn't have to work as far as I'm aware. The benefits she currently receives would be more than enough in the town she is going to but will not stretch to cover anywhere decent in the part of London we live in. She tried to get housing in an outer borough but no dice.

I don't think it's cruel but I do actually think it's sad that she is being sent so far away. She has never lived anywhere but London and it is awful to be so casually displaced. Her poor children.

But still it's probably cheaper to live up there?

Is she not able to work?

It must be harder to move somewhere if you are not meeting people through work

Yes difficult for the dc

[quote Mumofsend]@chopc

B&Bs, hostels, temp accommodation for those who are homeless. We were able to stay in our existing flat whilst waiting for somewhere more suitable[/quote]
Yes. All of which cost the taxpayer hugely. So it's not as if it's economical pursuing cruel housing policies.

Also growing numbers of vulnerable singles aren't housed at all. They're literally left to die on the streets. Including outside the Houses of Parliament.

@Tealightsandd

People are currently talking about violence against women.

A lot of the homeless families and vulnerable individuals will be homeless because of domestic violence.

What a way to treat already traumatised, frightened, and distressed women and children. If ever there was a time when support networks are vital.

This is worth reposting.

Also the point another poster makes about displaced Newham families displacing Essex families... Eventually there is nowhere left to socially cleanse people to.