Where will they go?

[WonkyDonkeys]

In this article about the Nottingham riots (specifically about an 11yo girl being charged, but that's a whole other thread), it says:

"The city council has also said it will seek to evict any council tenants found to have taken part in the trouble."

So... they will be out on the street then?!

Not sure this is the right approach...

I don't understand though - if these people have broken the law then they should be punished through the courts or we setting a different set of laws and punishments just for this occasion. Does this mean that anyone who breaks the law or causes any kind of affray or criminal damage will be evicted in future?

In most areas I have found. My rent is double the rent on a council property and I am not in the south East.

Reshape It won't necessarily bring an end to it will it. But neither has the life they have now, so what difference would that make? DM Reader??

I don't have an ounce of sympathy with any of them, whether they are professionals or run of the mill folk. They all know it is wrong to steal, fire set, mug etc. There is no excuse for any of it. End of.

I don't understand. Surely the anti social/criminal aspect of the tenancy agreement can't apply to anything other than the tenancy? In other words, the criminality applies in relation to the tenancy and not any other criminality?

for instance if I was a council tenant and was convicted of speeding, would this mean my tenancy would be revoked?

I don't understand this either.

Unless you are going to remove these people from society by killing them or locking them up forever, they will be around. And then do we have people housed or living in the streets in our society as a preference? And what will happen when people who have shown criminal inclinations are made homeless? Thus ensuring that they will never be able to get a job in the future or join in with mainstream society? It sounds like a recipe for disaster to me.

What counts as an evict able offence would depend on the wording of the relevant clause.

Wandsworth are the first council to start an eviction.

there we go then,its being carried through......

So they don't just evict the person who rioted, they evict everyone in that property?

So children, elderly people, disabled people, people who are vulnerable for other reasons and had nothing to do with this, are going to be put onto the streets?

I don't really understand this approach. Can someone explain it to me?

Shitter - none of the people convicted are the same as the next one. IT does evoke strong feelings, but the 12 y.o. who appeared in m/c for theft of a bottle of wine is not the same as the person who burned down the furntiure store in Croydon.

When people keep referring to "them people" or "scum" it's absurd. Are we then calling the 11 y.o girl arrested who is in foster care scum??

no that's it SQ - the tenancy holder in this case is likely to be, from the sounds of it, a single mother. She is responsible for everyone at the address. They offend, she is made homeless.

Hopefully a judge will use proportionality, reasonableness and common sense in considering the case.

Oh great. If they have more children, what is the benefit of putting them on the streets?

I assume that they won't be able to get any alternative council accomodation, otherwise what is the point of this exercise...

parents across the land were told to KEEP THEIR KIDS INDOORS!!

interesting,17% of those charged so far are under 18

Yes, I still don't see the point of putting their younger siblings out on the street. Why that would be a desirable thing in our society?

Only 17%? From the papers you'd think it was 90%.

So say you have a 30yo living at home who was involved in this, living in council accomodation with his elderly parents, they all get chucked out?

It just seems a bit odd.

Take away their houses?

Take away their money?

What will they do?

Obviously they will do the obvious to feed themselves.

Courts should punish criminals and not knee jerk reactionaries.

organic - it will be heard in civil court and hopefully he will set a case example and NOT evict.

Good ole Wandsworth Council. As corrupt as fuck in the 1980s, now leading the Old Testament revenge-justice charge.

read one report (don't know how accurate it is) that a young guy walking home from his girlfriends got caught up in it and was found with acarton of water bottles worth 3 quid - seems he got six months - so will he also get evicted if he's in council housing?

That will depend on: whether he's a council tenant in the first place, whether there is a "good behaviour" clause in his lease, the exact nature of the wording of that clause, the exact offence, whether there are any other factors in the individual case and the attitude of the council (only a few have said they are looking to exercise these powers and none have said they will do so automatically to all offenders).

Apologies for the source

There's a couple of things here;

Firstly I didn't realize there were so many council houses around I thought they'd been sold off.

And has it always been the policy to evict offenders from council property?
It does seem to me to be happening to look good.

And will it be the policy to evict all offenders from now on?

I can't say I'm very comfortable with it, I've known families with three model children and one wild one, would they all be evicted?

The leader of Wandsworth council interviewed yesterday said that it was in the contract tenants sign when taking up a council house that they or their family did not engage in criminal activities in the local area. Therefore, if a member of the family is convicted of being part of the riots they have breached their contract and forfeited their right to live in subsidised housing. As to what happens next, they would need to find temporary or private accommodation. They could reapply for council housing but would have to go to the bottom of the list and their application judged on its merits.

I think it's an courageous approach and I can see many advantages. Not least that it shows that the tenancy agreement is taken seriously. Decent council tenants typically find it extremely difficult to get nuisance neighbours evicted. I think it also dilutes the influence of families with a criminal element by moving them from the area. And there is a long waiting list of homeless, well-behaved families, and if a property is vacated they get a bit closer to the top of the list. My only concern is about where the problem families end up and if they'll cause new kinds of problems.

Cogito - what about people who own their houses, as Tiffany said earlier? You can't have one family suffering worse consequences than another if one of their members commits the same offence.

I suspect that Wandsworth are using this as an opportunity to evict a family that they have wanted to get rid of for a while - while getting brownie points for being tough on rioters.

When we were kids, my brother was always getting into trouble - fighting, drugs etc. In the meantime, I was working hard at school, never got into any trouble

So really, I should have been made homeless, taken out of my school and made to live in another area away from my friends. It would have served me right for having a shitbag brother.

And btw, my brother is now an upstanding citizen with his own business and a lovely bloke. But you're right, bad behaviour as a kid should mean an end to any opportunities for both kid and family. That'll fix it.

When we were kids, my brother was always getting into trouble - fighting, drugs etc. In the meantime, I was working hard at school, never got into any trouble

So really, I should have been made homeless, taken out of my school and made to live in another area away from my friends. It would have served me right for having a shitbag brother.

And btw, my brother is now an upstanding citizen with his own business and a lovely bloke. But you're right, bad behaviour as a kid should mean an end to any opportunities for both kid and family. That'll fix it.