Social housing - unfair reputation

[LinRuns]

We moved into a new build area a few months ago and a lot of people ‘warned’ us about the levels of social housing. We loved the house we were buying so looked beyond this.

I have to say - everyone there has been lovely, regardless of whether they own or are in social housing. Just normal people who mostly work and are polite.

This has made me think - is the stigma actually quite unfair?

I think for many people in social housing the stigma is unfair, but like most groups there’s always a significant minority that ruin it. If you look at statistics like crime rates, they tend to be higher in areas of social housing.

We also have just moved into a new build and are next to social housing. Everyday we have issues with them, inconsiderate parking, noise, drugs, throwing litter on our garden..I wasn't concerned when buying by social housing but would not do it again..I'm aware not all are like this and we are just unfortunate.

The odd social housing pepperpotted around new build estates will have much less issues than the old fashioned sink estates. That’s why all developers have to build a % of affordable properties.

YABU.

Most the social housing tenants are lovely but then it's the not so lovely ones that need a roof over their heads that spoil it for others.

In our quiet village they built some 1 bed flats in the newbuild estate which were social housing. One was given to someone who was a junkie. He was a lazy junkie as he mostly broke into houses within a 100 metre radius. He went back to prison. Next came the registered paedophile who had been released from prison. After that came a couple with a baby and the windows permanently open due to their weed smoking. Not sure what happened to them... we now seem to have a guy with MH issues that spends all day walking round and shouts at people.

And that's just ONE property.

So you can see where the reputation comes from...

There is always a minority of people that ruin it. Round here they are messy and loud and rude and park everywhere without a care of anyone else.

Depends where you live. I live in SH no problems at all.

Got a house behind us that’s let by a HA, that’s just become void. All but one tenant that has been in there has been a pain in the arse.

I’ve not got high hopes for the next lot.

I grew up in social housing and most people are lovely. The problem is one bad tenant can cause issues for lots of people. Most of the flats were normal families but one was used to house a series of short term drug addicts. That block reeked of urine, always abandoned mattress/ sofas outside. I assume drugs= a degree of incontinence.

Problem is it only takes one bad tenant and you’ve no chance pretty much of them moving unless they choose too as social housing is bloody hard to evict from. Though often you end up of a group of bad ones as the good ones get their houses straight on house swapper before the issues are too known.

Were as private the landlord often gets fed up of complaints and serves notice then the council pick up the pieces.

obviously shit owners too and you can’t get rid of them either but much less likely to have a whole group of shit owners.

When I bought my house I didn't realise that I was the middle house between all the privately owned homes and the social housing.

I know not all people in social housing are bad neighbours but in my street they are the worst neighbours by far. Park in my drive, despite being told it's mine and not to do so (it's not directly outside my house but numbered). Constant parties and loud music blaring even midweek at silly hours. Let's their wild kids run riot, playing knock door run and kicking footballs at cars (however amazes me how it's never near their cars!)

I genuinely hate them. And am even more pissed off to see they have the most expensive cars in the road and don't come at me with I don't know their finances and they could be leased/on finance.

waits for the SH haters.

I've lived on a council estate for 52 years. I loved it when I was a kid. My parents worked. There were many Good people. Good neighbours who you knew. Good schools. Good friends. My husband was from the same kind of upbringing. We bought our house and still live there but when the youngest goes to uni we will be looking to downsize to a private estate. Society is different now imo. Times have changed. Speaking about my estate only as i cant speak for all obvs...there are still some amazing lovely people here but there are less people who care about where they live and more who dont. Less people working. Less people who care about their house and take pride in it. Less people caring about their street. Less people being neighbourly. We have had serious issues with one family. 3 x 15 and 16yo who don't give a flying fk about schooling or manners or anyone . Kicking footballs off our windows and doors. Giving cheek when passing their door. They think they're untouchable. In the old days we'd go out and say be careful with the ball kids and they'd say sorry. Now they say I live here and will kick it wtf I want so fk off. They lit a bbq 3 foot from our front door and sat there with sausages lol. Needless to say this has resulted in lotttttts of arguments. We reported them to the council 2 months ago after they said theyd smash our daughters face in and called my husband a fat cnt after smashing the ball off the window and giving the vs to the ring doorbell. That went down well 🤣. Theyve been quiet since. But we dread the summer holidays. We just had the front garden fenced in last week because of this. They're just vile tbh. Windows are smashed. Council won't fix them. School and social workers there wvery week. They've been moved 3 times already round the estate. It's these people that spoil it for everyone else.

New builds have to provide a certain number of affordable properties. This isn't the same as what we think of as 'council housing'

There are lots of loopholes among housing association properties that exclude those who are most likely to cause problems.

For mine the stipulation was that tenants had to be in paid work & have no 'support needs' so that excluded anyone from applying that was in any kind of supported hostel, shelter etc, anyone with drug, alcohol or complex disability or mental health needs.

Affordable housing can also be 'keyworker' housing so only eligible to people employed as doctors, nurses, teachers, police - so actually middle class groups rather than typical social housing tenants.

Obviously makes these estates 'nicer' & more marketable whilst getting around the 'sicial housing' stipulation for the development.

It also raises the problem of where will the most deprived 'problem' people be housed.

Not sure. We were looking to buy a gorgeous house,put an offer in as there was a lot of interest,then checked the crime stats and it had an obscene amount of robberies and burglaries for the area,which had council housing close by. We pulled out.

I live in an area where there's no social housing and believe when I say inconsiderate neighbours come from all walks of life.

There's good, bad and extremely entitled people in a majority of areas.

Just because you had a lucky escape doesn't mean everyone has.

There are stories upon stories of people who have spent hundreds of thousands of pounds and then struggled to sell because of social housing occupiers or had to live in fear with nightmare neighbours.

i remember a colleague complaining about social housing being built in estates.
i was not impressed with her complaints
i think it is a great idea

My estate of over 100 houses has a handful of SH scattered around it.
The selection criteria was that you had to be working but on a very low income.
Most of the houses on my estate range from £260-£400K. You genuinely can't tell whose SH and whose not. Unless they've changed their front door then you know they own 😂

I really like our estate, it's got lovely views, it's quiet, the kids do normal things like play outside, the parking can be a pain at times but that's a problem everywhere.

Society is different now imo. Times have changed.

A family moved in next door to my mum's council house who were pretty awful-swearing over the fence, stealing bikes, causing damage, throwing stones and often being brought home by the police. This was in the 60s-I think there have always been some families like this.

I’m glad it’s been nice for you. I’ve known other people have a terrible experience with it. And it can be very hard to sell up and escape from, as PP said.

I live in a development with social housing and the SH tenants are my favourite neighbours by far. What I would say though is that the large number of residents who privately own and have a big financial stake in their homes create an atmosphere of extreme care in the estate. I am a huge fan of mixed developments.

We had a new build next to us with social housing. The antisocial behaviour is appalling. Even if 80% are perfectly nice people you got the 20% who ruin everything : music blasting, honking horns, dogs running loose, a lot of yelling and screaming swear words. I know one mother who lives there who is greatful to have a nice newbuilt appartment for her family (pays 200/month) but even her says she's sick of her neighbours and would like to move (but good luck finding a 3 room appt for 200/month).

These new estates 😩I would be pissed off too if my mortgage/rent cost three times as much as the rent of someone in an identical house on the other side of the street.

no I am not a "snob" before someone starts I grew up in one, mother still lives in it today and complains every year about the rent going up (she genuinely has no idea that some of her neighbours pay three or even four times as much rent for the same thing)

I live in a street with a mixture of council houses and private houses, was previously all council but people have bought them over the years. We’ve been here 2.5 years, both neighbours either side of me bought. I’m a council tenant. I was fortunate to be given a home after a very traumatic marriage breakdown and me and my two kids moved into a shell of a house and slowly made it a home. I work, always have, albeit part time. I’ve poured my heart into this home and had nothing but problems. One neighbour has pretty much bullied me into replacing the garden fencing, objected and reported me to the council when I put a shed up even though I’d had written permission to do so and is generally an absolute arse. I’m seen as scum, how can I have nice things? Even questioned me when I bought a bbq and garden furniture last summer! Their house is bloody awful, she asked for my net curtains when I put up blinds and insisted on taking the old fence panels (which were apparently falling apart according to her) and used them at the back end of her garden! CF doesn’t come close 🤨 Oh and we now have a gutter issue out the back on her side adjoining my gutter which is leaking and will need replacing. She’s made it clear she’s not doing it.. I need to get the council to sort it out 😤 the other side is an elderly couple who’s garden is completely overgrown with 8ft weeds and the fence is caving in - I’m saving to replace that as well now. Just thought I’d share the other side of the story. I just want to be able to live a quite life.. never been in trouble with the police, have two amazing teens and we love our home but sadly our neighbours are less than favourable.

There was an interesting history of one council estate near where I lived for a bit.
At that time it was known as an absolute shithole, I believe most were now demolished. But when it was originally built and allocated by council it was lovely. The old timers had amazing stories and pictures of how everyone cared for the estate. Then the mandatory housing rules came and council had to house everyone (can't remember details, that's what they said) and that brought issues. Alcohol, drugs, anti social behaviour, crime. One by one old timers left because they couldn't deal with breakins, the mess and the assaults, were replaced by more problem people and it ended up as notorious "don't walk there even during daylight" area type.

We had lots of SH on our street. Mix of owned and SH. All were lovely, cared, worked etc. One family was moved in and all hell broke loose. Many owners and most SH tenants went after the HA like there was no tomorrow. Peace was restored. The SH tenants were actually the most vocal about this (i think it had bit of a "stop giving us bad name in it too).

It's the few who ruin it. The big issue comes when the HA etc move more than one or two of "the few" into one place.