To be concerned about living near social housing?

[XNC]

Hi,

So before anyone starts with the popcorn emojis or snobbery accusations, I'm well aware I'm going to offend some people by asking this question and whereas I'm not happy about that, I could really do with some advice and experiences, so I've decided to ask a controversial question.

I should also make it clear that I'm fully aware that the majority of people living in SH are not anti social arseholes - I have friends in SH. I have also had issues with neighbours who own their house or rent privately. I know SH doesn't automatically equate to issues.

However, statistically speaking, there are more issues with anti social behaviour in SH areas, disproportionately so, so am I really being unreasonable for being concerned about moving to a road which has SH?

Thanks.

I live in social housing, and it’s the flat above me which is privately rented, which has caused endless problems with noise and littering! So it’s not always clear cut .

Their inherent snobbery

I live in social housing. I'm in a block of 8 apartments and it's a mix of social, private rentals and owned. Of those of us living in social housing, there's me (single working parent with teen DS) a retired single bloke and a man on the ground floor with disabilities. The most annoying ones are the young couple that private rent, they make the most noise with parties and people over.

I think you're being snobby.

Clichés exist for a reason.
I've lived it.
Most are great neighbours
A few make life absolute hell for everyone else.

In my block we had an arsonist that kept setting fire to the piles of old sofas and stained mattresses that seemed to accumulate in communal areas.
We had stabbings outside, domestic violence, malnourished, dirty children that would call you a cunt if you smiled at them. (Their "fathers" were in and out of prison for violent crimes)
Alcoholics pissing in the lifts, the whole block stank of weed.
I brought a friend over for the first time and someone had smeared human shit all over the walls of the lift.
Graffiti, broken glass, an elderly couple had their car set on fire (They looked utterly broken, they died shortly after. They had moved into that block in the 60s, theye remembered when it was an honour to choose and move into your own flat there)

But yeah, my refusal to live near social housing is just because I'm a snob 😉

Oh. And one of my friends was sexually abused by a known pedophile living on the next floor up.

Lovely.

I am in social housing, as well as all my neighbours on my side of the road. All house opposites are privately owned/rented. I’ve had trouble with 1 neighbour the entire time I’ve lived here… they’re not on my side.

Nuisance neighbours are everywhere not just SH. Bad behaviour is everywhere. Why are those that rent seen as ‘lower’ than those with mortgages?

I'm in a new build estate and have the social housing part backing on to my garden. I knew it was before we bought but I wasn't judgemental so didn't bother me.

Sadly, I would never do that again.

You can get nightmare neighbours everywhere, my parents have terrible busybody neighbours but there can be a certain sort of music/swearing/disrespectful behaviour stereotypically associated with some social housing which in my experience has been the case.

You must come from a very deprived area of the UK

No, but all of the problem tenants have been put in one place by the housing associations creating a living hell for the people that actually give a shit.

I left about 10 years ago, but I would never knowingly move near SH.

I'd warn anyone thinking of doing it not to as well.

Well where I live the antisocial behaviour is from the owner-occupiers. Dogs left outside to bark all night, people letting off fireworks in the street, dangerous and illegal parking all the time, etc. I live in social housing and have done nothing worse than let the garden overgrow sometimes. I'll be glad when I can move out.

Our semi detached house adjoins a property that's used for social housing. Sorry to say they are fully committed to alllll the cliches- loud music, revving motorbikes, shouting and swearing at all hours, mattresses and sofas in the front garden, don't have jobs etc etc.

I'd definitely think twice about doing it again to be honest.

So do people with mortgages. I’ve witnessed it. Revving if scramble bikes, smoking weed, chucking fag ends over fences, strolling across your property, screaming in the garden with the dig, kids hanging over the wall, a dartboard in the garden.

*dog

You would of been better name changing and wording the question differently.

"Thinking of moving to X area does anybody know it?" You need to research the area OP.

Pretty sure you can get good and bad areas of social housing like anything.

Still, the probability you will get some unsociable neighbours there is higher than in private areas. In my opinion anyway.

Where I live there is one cul-de-sac that is mysteriously responsible for about 50% of the crime reports in the local area, while only having about 5% of the houses.

Have a look at the crime maps if you are worried about what the neighbours might be getting up to, private or social.

I don't think you are BU OP

I live on a large council estate, in a council house, and it is a mixture of rented by council and bought private homes and buy to lets. I am happy where I am but the road is relatively quiet really,
There are a few families who are somewhat loud, and everything that some see council house tenants as.
If, however, I had means to purchase a home, I would not buy on a council estate.

If you look up the postcode on streetcheck.co.uk it will give you an overview of crime rates. Your question is difficult to answer as there are so many variables. At the end of the day, the best course of action would be to spend some time in the area you're looking to move to; especially on Friday and Saturday nights, when people are likely to have had a drink and be playing loud music, fighting, etc.

In my experience, we were FTB 10 years ago on a street which historically has a lot of council housing. The majority are either current council tenants or retired homeowners who used right to buy to purchase their house back in the day. There's been no real crime to speak of and people are generally neighbourly whilst not being too intrusive. Our adjoined neighbour is a retired lady and her son who are council tenants and they keep themselves to themselves on the whole. The house and garden is immaculate. Our neighbours the other side bought their house from the council, but are pretty noisy and their garden is so overgrown and neglected that we have had problems with rodents nesting in it and making their way into our house on occasion.

I live in an area where the houses are all bought , parents out at work 24/7 . Their kids , little shits cause havoc . Running round the the estate pocket full of money . New build estate no social housing . Very middle class .
On a nightly basis these little shits get pizza and McDonalds , never a parent to be seen .

Hi @Tidsleytiddy it's a good question. It would be interesting to see statistics or analysis.

My guess would be that the group of people who cause the sorts of problems that are being discussed on here have an overepresentation of those with behavioural difficulties, personality disorders, serious mental health conditions and criminal records. And those people are more likely to be vulnerable for various complicated reasons and therefore qualify for social housing.

Will definitely be driving round at different times of the day/night. Regarding street check, it says crime within a mile of that road. Is there anyway of narrowing down to that road specifically?

That’s a decent answer

What sort of scale are we talking? What type of housing? There's a world of difference between having a few new-build houses housing working families and a concrete, high-rise, sink estate with inter-generational social problems.

My uncle lived next to the sink estate for a couple of years and it was hell for him. By contrast, my Mum's street of 1-bed bungalows was mostly owned by a housing association and it was predominantly elderly folk and their cats. She'd never had quieter neighbours....

I wouldn’t live on a council estate again through choice. My old house was an ex council house. We moved a year ago and I am so happy to be out of there.

The vast, vast majority of people on the estate were good, decent people but unfortunately the tiny majority of people that weren’t made it a horrible place to live. The last straw was having my 3 year old witness someone being stabbed with a broken glass bottle as we left the house to take him to nursery. The antisocial behaviour on the estate was incredibly hard to live with.

I wouldn’t want to live there, no