What does a 62 year old man on just above minimum wage do when served with section 21 eviction notice and cannot afford anything on the current rental market?

[Mxflamingnoravera]

I have a friend aged 62 who has been living in a pretty awful but liveable one bed flat for six years. He works full time in a call centre on little more than minimum wage. The flat was recently assessed by the local authority as part of a new local licensing scheme for private rental properties in our city. It needs a lot of work done on it and today he was served with a section 21 order because (he was told) the builders say it's too much work to have him stay there whilst the place is brought up to standard.

He has looked around an there is nothing under £900 a month in our city. He cannot afford this. He has no car and cycles everywhere. So he needs to live fairly close to his workplace.

He is devastated, he cannot live in a shared house at his age. He is a very private, shy man, has few friends and no family.

I'm at a loss to know how to help him. He cannot live with me, i have no space and do not want a lodger.

There is literally nothing affordable in our city. He is looking at homelessness in January. What happens to people like him?

Oh this is brilliant news !! So happy for him . Was really hopeful he'd get something in the over 50 plus market as demand is less .
Well done for taking the time and attention in your friend and being a great advocate for him !
Hope you all have a peaceful Christmas and New Year x

Wonderful news -so happy for him!

Have a look at turn2us.org.uk and search grants. He may be able to get a grant for essential furniture (you can base your search on loads of different criteria). Some grants you can apply for yourself but some need to be applied for by CAB or a welfare benefits charity (there's several in Bristol) on his behalf.

@MrsMoastyToasty that's a really useful suggestion, I've had a look and there is one that he could apply to for carpets and furniture. His furniture won't stand up to a move, 7 years in a damp flat has taken its toll. Luckily the new place has built in wardrobe and drawers (he's over the moon about that!).

I am so happy to hear your friend will be rehoused soon. You are a wonderful friend.

Apologies if this has already been mentioned but it's worth getting him to check if the HA will be removing the carpet/flooring before he moves in. This happened to my family member. Apparently it's standard for most HA properties - even if it means tearing out perfectly good carpeting left by the previous tenant.

I don't want your friend to get a shock when he moves in.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-65596282

Brilliant news OP, and well done for supporting him, god knows what would have happened without you. Chances are this is a blessing in disguise as he now has secure housing as long as he needs it, which is far better than his current privately rented place.

The fact that some older people are ass screwed as many younger people doesn't mean that there aren't a lot of older people who have done incredibly well in a way that their kids won't be able to.

Yes. As a generation Boomers did astonishingly well, and have been busy screwing over anyone younger from house prices to the climate.

At the same time, thousands upon thousands of Boomers are poor, kind, disabled, or some combination of the above.

Both things are true. See also 'men', 'white people' and 'neurotypicals'.

@SalmonWellington or in our case by the time we were earning really good money we were too old to get a mortgage high enough in anywhere we would want to live- so it's likely we will buy if we inherit enough!!

I saw this BBC news article today, re an older man in London forced to live in his car, and thought of your friend:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-67631491

Poor guy, glad it turned out better for your friend.

Could he take in additional hours at work or get a second job?
Has he considered moving to a cheaper part of the country and looking for jobs there?
Could he be a lodger? - he may find this cheaper than paying rent on a full property.
Take a house share?
Could he rent somewhere with a friend or rent a place and take in a lodger himself - this way he gets to pick who he lives with.

@Icannoteven the OP's friend is sorted now, thankfully he's been offered a HA flat.

That’s great. Renting in Bristol sucks.

It's now looking like he can't move in until after Xmas because of the decorating that needs to be done. He's frustrated but resigned. He wants to be back at work by 2 Jan so it's going to be hard work and he's going to spend Xmas in his awful place surrounded by boxes but at least there's an end to it.

Some wonderful local people have donated curtains and rugs, he'll go to the re-use shop to pick up things like a new table and a fridge.

He has learned a lot about homelessness over the past month and is very grateful for the support he's had from here. He got his first UC payment this week. Only £68 but that's the equivalent of a 3.5% pay rise for him, and he's ready for the change in circumstances stuff he'll need to do when he does move.

I was moved to tears when I read all your messages of goodwill over the weekend. Thank you everyone from me and more importantly from him.

@Mxflamingnoravera small blip in plans, I hope he can remain positive until he’s in his new home. For me, this has been an important thread, because so many people are unaware of what might be available for them. It’s brilliant how you’ve picked up the meaningful stuff, and used it to inform and support your friend to a much better situation. It’s also lovely to hear about the local help thats been forthcoming.

Do keep us updated, I wish you and your friend a relaxed Christmas (after all the hard work) and a much better 2024.

So pleased to see this. There are various Bristol Facebook pages that offer free items but most seem to be old/inactive. This is a for sale page

https://www.facebook.com/groups/BuySellTradeAndfreetocollect/

This was active in 2022, might have advice?

https://www.facebook.com/BristolFreeShop

He got his first UC payment this week. Only £68 but that's the equivalent of a 3.5% pay rise for him

This, for him, is great news and I am glad to read it.

I'm now going to climb onto my soap box.

So much for "National Living Wage" being enough to, y'know, live on like the name would suggest. Remind me why the State gives handouts to businesses like this? It is the employer that is subsidised by in-work benefits, not the worker, because it is the employer's pay bill that is lowered when NLW is set so low that it is not enough to live on and has to be subsidised with UC.

Absolutely @VitoCorleoneOfMNMafia

So glad things are moving towards a stable home for your friend.

Every time he gets a date to move in, it gets moved. First it was 19th, then 27th, now 29th and he keeps booking a van and has to keep changing it and now he's getting the shakes again.

On the upside today, a lovely local woman gave him some curtains (she'd even had them dry cleaned for him), and she'd tucked in a voucher for Asda too! How wonderfully kind.

His mental health is up and down with the constant date changes, but I keep trying to get him to focus on the bigger picture. He will be in there and by the new year.

He's applied for a loan from the credit union to get carpet and pay the deposit- that was thanks to the homeless prevention team who suggested he do that. Right now he's in a pile of boxes, with the sound of rats in the ceiling, knowing freedom is in his grasp, but it still feels so far away, especially now over Christmas and new year.

Great he has somewhere lined up. Just a thought in terms of the double rent, is his current place legally compliant? E g. Have they done the annual gas safety check? If not it would be worth tallking to Shelter to see if he has scope to refuse to pay the last rent on the basis the place isn't legal to let?

Also in terms of him getting to work, if he finds it too difficult physically he could get transport funded by Access to Work potentially.

I strongly suspect his place is not legal to rent, but he's too worried about losing his deposit and his rent ends Jan13th because that's the date of the s21.so I doubt he'll try to argue this.

He struggles to walk more than a few metres but he can cycle, he has a good bike and his journey to work will be about 5miles each way. The new place has a lockable garage so he no longer will have to his have bike in his living room. I think as he gets older he may move to an electric bike. He's not given up on PIP, he just says he can only handle one thing at a time and he's managed a lot really considering his health (mental and physical). I think he's been depressed for a long time, the antidepressants are starting to work and a new, less Eyoreish man is emerging (but slips back- understandably, every time the moving in date gets pushed back).
His heart is set on going back to work after 8 weeks off sick on 2 Jan. But moving is going to be the determining date. His pay will drop to statutory sick pay if he's off any longer so he really needs to get back for his identity, his mental heath and his economic well being.

I have everything crossed for the latest date of 29th. I have a few housewarming gifts ready and happy to help get him settled as possible by 2 Jan. It's his birthday on 3rd Jan.

It’s understandable really if the date has changed seeing as decorating is being done and decorators want time off themselves at Christmas. At least it is a few more days where he won’t be expected to be paying double rent ( looking on the bright side). And he gets to move into a freshly decorated flat which is important because it doesn’t sound like he will have the energy to sort that out after he moves in.
Crossing my fingers for him and you that the date is fixed now at December 29th. It’s heartwarming that people in his community have helped him.

If he is not too fussy about carpet he could put out a request on any community sites. Sometimes people get new carpet for Christmas and are happy to have someone take old carpet off their hands. A friend of mine once got a really good carpet off someone who moved into a house nearby and just didnt like the colour. She just had to pay to get it fitted.

Fingers crossed for 29 December.

This is a sad situation and lots of good advice has been given. I just hope people realise that this is far from a unique story and that a decade or more of political choices have caused it. There used to be a real safety net for people in this kind of situation but it has been systematically dismantled. Votes have consequences.