How do you get social housing in London?

[HappyNewTaxYear]

Just that really. How do you get on a list? How long are the lists?

@caringcarerdo you believe everything you read on mumsnet?

https://www.shareandcare.co.uk/

If your son is single then another affordable alternative would be to be a lodger in a care and share accommodation arrangement. Lots of older people are willing to share their home for reduced rent in exchange for 15 hours of caring duties. Have a look on the link to see how it works in more detail.

They don’t

7 kids won’t help, in fact it would probably make things harder since you can’t be offered something you’d be overcrowded in.

A friend of mine got a housing association house, not in London but commutable to (v close to a station and the train is approx 45 minutes). Fleeing domestic violence, single mum of 1 and key worker. She was on the list for over a year.

IDK about your son’s circumstances but if he’s a single chap moving to London for work then there’s no chance of social housing and his best bet would be a flat share.

Good thing it isn’t true then!

Landlord sold our private rental. We went into a hostel for over a year and then into a one bedroom flat for another 4 years I think it was with two children. I believe the time we spent in temporary accommodation would have been shorter without covid.

I bidd for a flat and had priority because I was working and homeless.
It was a long road but feels super lucky and blessed to have a stable home and cheaper rent.

A single working male would be so far down the list as to make it impossible to get anywhere.

I live on a mixed estate in London, some private, some shared housing and some social housing. The social housing families all have at least one disabled child. So I think that is how you are prioritised (which seems right to me)

This is not true. Asylum seekers are placed in hotels (often two in one room) with no cooking facilities and are given less than £50 a week to live on. It takes years to process their applications and they're often moved from one hotel to another at short notice. As soon as they're granted refugee status, the weekly allowance stops and their stay at whichever hotel is terminated. At this point they're officially homeless so will be offered whatever that council offers homeless people (in my London borough it's either the YMCA if they're lucky, or a grotty room in a one star 'hotel')

…while they wait for social housing.

Each borough is required by law to have a council housing allocation scheme. If you go on the individual council websites and search for that you can find out their rules.

The housing crisis is so bad that unless you are homeless, have a local connection to the borough, and have some kind of priority need, then you are vanishingly unlikely to ever get social housing.

Priority need means that you are pregnant, have children, have a disability that would make you more vulnerable than another homeless person, are fleeing domestic abuse, are a care leaver etc.

A single able man is at no disadvantage to a single able woman.

Refugee status can count as having a priority need, but not asylum seeker status. Asylum seekers are not entitled to social housing and are also not allowed to rent privately. They receive subsistence from the home office until their case is decided.

This doesn’t happen in my area (admittedly not London) but I register Council Housing applications for a living. On one hand we get accused of giving properties to all the migrants, on the other we’re being called racists because we won’t give a migrant with no priority a property when they’ve been bidding for all of five minutes.

I agree. I know someone in my area (not London) who has social housing because of this. Her life is hard enough without worrying about insecure accommodation.

Get housing elsewhere in the country then after a year you can do a mutual exchange

i had so many offers for London properties when I advertised my house recently

Absolutely clear.

When you get LTR you’re classed as priority homeless (you are because the hotel only takes people waiting for ltr) and also a refugee (ie a successful asylum claimant) ie in priority need.

But… the council doesn’t have to house you in London because you have no local connection or work there, so you might get a house in eg Swindon.

This sort of offer doesn’t go down terribly well in many cases, but it’s increasingly common and children have a much better quality of life.

OP, DS doesn’t have much of a chance.

When I grew up (old person). Council housing was plentiful. Then came Thatcher's Right To Buy disaster and now it's all in private hands and social housing is rarer than rocking horse shit

What’s your son’s situation OP? He’s taken a job in London and working out where to live?

I’m in London with three young adults all still at home and working and it wouldn’t even occur to me to think they’d ever get social housing. It goes to families and migrants.

This is absolute rubbish. Others have confirmed, but it bears repeating in case other people believe your propaganda. In the event someone is granted asylum, they are then subject to the same process, priority and allocation system as any other resident of the borough/council area. So most will be at the end of a very long waiting list and will never be offered housing.

And boat people? Really? You're not even hiding your disgusting agenda.

I was going to rent a flat after quitting my flat (mortgaged, but ex is getting half the equity after being sold which isn’t much) in SE London but I almost fainted when I logged onto Rightmove. £1600 and up for a two bedder! I’ve decided to leave London and rent in my home county where renting privately is about half as much.

the People from overseas have been housed in social housing over the years in London however much you want to pretend they haven’t.

And single females. Its not the gender. Its not having children

‘disgusting agenda’ = bingo!

It's not disgraceful because it's made up nonsense

https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/council_housing_association/how_to_apply_for_council_housing/priority_housing_register