Panorama: Britain's Hidden Homeless Crisis

[expatinscotland]

NOW!

oh im for kevin....

the kids, the big house comments are re the family with the 2 girls, not patricia

If only it were as simple as allowing a lodger to safely stay in your spare room

but then there is a huge potential risk etc but what else can we do?

I used to buy a man who sat outside tottenham court rd station lunch everyday. :(

Then I changed jobs so never saw him again!

i hope those 6 kids can make something of their lives, I really hope for them

I would lay money on them not unfortunately ifso

Depends on the size if the debt jelly, that was a half a million pound house and he was unemployed.

I bought a flat in 2006 and its in negative equity. It was only a little starter one nothing fancy and I thought I was doing the right thing!

I rent it out and rent a house. But depends if the rent will cover the mortgage I suppose.

The rent arrears one is tricky because it was a council house.

Hard to believe this is 2012 watching this...

ok so if they sold off most of their gadgets and offered a repayment of 10quid a week to repay the rental debt...wouldnt that persuade council?

yes lodger/selling/renting is not always going to be the solution, or all of the solution, but that family really aren't comming across like they tried/considered anything at all and just let it snowball a bit!

So will they have to rent private now expat?

Oh, that's a BAD situation.

we have been two months away from losing our house twice in the past four years. Just been fortunate that I've been able to get jobs. It's just not clear cut :(

How on earth would they be able to rent privately?!

God I can't bear Patricia it's too too sad.

There but for the grace of god...this is shocking. Barclays should be thoroughly ashamed for evicting a woman with cancer, and I don't believe for a moment that the family of 6 deliberately made themselves homeless. The government should be ashamed; The richer are getting richer and they don't care about anyone else.

Well, they aren't eligible for Croydon's bond scheme because they are not unintentionally homeless. They might be able to go to another borough or there are some private landlords on Gumtree who specialise in people who are bankrupts, no deposit, etc.

So bloody sobering....

yes there are landlords that exclusively cater to people like that, their places are shit holes though and they are not to be messed with!

another thing, and I hope david cameron hears my idea somehow through MN, naive of me to think so, but if there is a shortage of housing, and a failing construction industry in the UK, why cant the govt do a DEl with construction to fast build housing on blocks of vacant land

creating jobs, boosting economy and housing the desperate

PLUS we need MUCH MORE education in schools on finances, how to save, what mortgage jargon really means...etc etc from a very early age, not when it's too late for so many people to be able to manage

i was homeless once upon a time - i was offered a room in a shared house which wasnt safe. i was 16. when i refused i was also told i was making myself intentially homeless and they washed their hands of me.

i could have been one of these statistics.

Hope Kevin gets good flatmates.

I feel so sorry for Patricia. That could be me in 15 years or so if anything goes wrong.