Panorama: Britain's Hidden Homeless Crisis

[expatinscotland]

NOW!

as I said upthread, education about finances needs to happen each week, in schools from the age of 12

kids of the next generation need to know how not to make the same path

but over on the MortgageFree when will you be thread, I have posted the link to the programme and am astounded that many posters are asking me why they should feel ashamed for owning their own homes and not getting themselves into debt

but this programme is such a wakeup call to anyone, regardless of how stable they think things are. Sad.

^ I agree!

Housing is all messed up in this country. On the one hand, you have over a million empty properties and a couple of million more second and even third properties. Not to mention all of the buy-to-letters, some of whom own an obscene amount of houses and many of whom are having their 'investments' paid off through the housing benefit/LHA that their tenants claim.

Then on the other hand, you have millions of people on the council house waiting lists, and hundreds of thousands of families living in temporary accommodation which is unsafe and often indeed unsanitary and at great cost to the tax-payer when they are made homeless often because of situations that are to do with circumstances beyond their control. And there are many hundreds of thousands more people living in private tenancies where the properties are simply not up to scratch so even while they are not homeless they are definitely inadequately housed.

The situation strikes me as almost feudal, and indicative of a massive gap between the 'haves' and 'have-nots' and yet nothing is being done about it. To say that it is a 'crisis' is not an exaggeration.

I felt hugely sorry for all the people shown in the programme tonight but I wasn't at all surprised because people are being made redundant, losing businesses etc all of the time in this double-dip (soon to the triple-dip recession) and I lay the blame firmly with this coalition which in my view cares nothing for the people we saw tonight. Their only interest is in looking after the rich.

I hope this programme does "open the eyes" of people who have no idea that this sort of thing is happening. Local Housing Authorities as the programme stressed are completely inundated with people facing homelessness because of being made redundant, fallen ill and unable to work etc and just do not have the housing available, especially in London.

Sadly things are going to get much worse next April, when the ceiling on Housing Benefit comes into force and thousands of people (including those in work but on very low pay, or those who have had their hours cut) will not be able to afford the "top up" to be able to afford their rent, and will become homeless. They are likely to be be found intentionally homeless through rent arrears, and therefore the LA will only have a duty to provide temporary accommodation to those in priority need i.e. those with children. SO it is Catch 22 - the govt puts a ceiling on Housing Benefit; their policies mean that more and more people lose their jobs, or are in very low paid jobs, or are on much reduced hours and so get into rent arrears and then the Housing Dept find them intentionally homeless because of rent arrears and unless they have children, they are turned away and unless they have friends or family willing to put them up, they will be on the streets or in the parks. Even if they have children, as we saw tonight big families will be put into 1 bedroom flats.

The other thing that the govt are "sneaking" through (it has all been kept very quiet) is that they are changing the Housing legislation. The new legislation states that Local Housing Authorities will only have a responsibility for homeless families is to set them up in alternative accommodation (and that can be private rented accommodation) for one year only and that means that after one year, if they lose their accommodation for whatever reason - they are on their own. SO we should be seeing families on the streets........and will Cameron and the posh boys care - NO.

The other

LHA caps will lead to more people homeless and/or living in slum housing.

I agree with you Wallinson - it is like the feudal system. Things are going to get far far worse and I actually believe that this govt is taking us back to the 1890s and the Poor Law. With their talk of "shirkers" and "strivers" we are back to the deserving and undeserving poor. Intergenerational unemployment stands at about 2% of the population. What they fail to recognise is that many of the "strivers" will become homeless when the housing benefit ceiling comes in in April 2013, because they are on minimum wage, or can't get sufficient hours to make ends meet.

Unless you are very rich, you need to fear this government.

Amazingly sad story, and I have a feeling it's just the tip of the iceberg. Barclays evicting the cancer victim was horrendous, Twitter was in a frenzy last night and Barclays PR department have got a big job to resolve the bad feelings.

Kevin had an air of complete resignation and hopelessness, his calm and cheerful mannerisms are possibly all he has left, returning to the UK was possibly the last alternative after his business folded in the States in 2008, he's had four years of trying other options. But it's a scary thought.

The family with two girls and the detached house, yes it's awful what has happened, however 'selling a car to pay for Christmas' does not seem a sensible idea, possibly paying down some of the mortgage arrears would have given them a few more months in the property, at least for the eldest to finish her exams. Also they didn't seem to plan at all well for moving out, yes they couldn't afford to stay in the area, but I am confident there would be other areas to choose from. At least to give a more permanent and secure home life for the children.

Final the family of 6 living in a one bed hostel flat, I really feel for the children, the mother seemed to be making some monumentally silly decisions, the key one is taking the children out of school. Surely as all the children were of school age she could have done something to help the situation during the day rather than push every responsibility on her husband who was clearly exhausted after working nights.

I remember seeing a similar documentary in the 80s about repossessions when the yuppy generation had over extended themselves with debt and finding themselves with mortgage payments doubling due to interest rate rised and me being scared of being homeless. This set me on a course to be mortgage free as soon as possible. Before my 36th Birthday I made my final mortgage payment and vowed never again. However the times have changed and the frightening thing is that families are being put out on the street, and there doesn't seem to be any assistance or help for them.

Barclays are going to be doing some grovelling this morning I think.

Depressing. Shame on barclays.

Thought the family in the hostel were quite chaotic, kids not in school etc but wanted to grab the children and cuddle them when they were evicted from the hostel

I felt really sorry for the hostel kids, the 10 year old girl seemed so sadly wise beyond her years. I felt really sorry for the dad aswell, he really seemed like he was trying hard to keep control of everything.

I did the Great North Run this year and raised about £700 for Shelter through sponsorship. I actually feel like I need to do more. This is unacceptable in this day and age. It's like something from a Dickens novel.

This will all get worse very shortly!

It was very humbling watching this last night.

wrt the repossesions, I wondered why banks dont have a clause where they can force houses up for sale in the first instance or can reposses the house but rent it out to the families, property is still an asset so they wouldnt be loosing money and they wouldnt be quite so heartless. Or am I missing a point somewhere?
It makes me feel quite sick actually, you pay for a house for 15 years, you come so close to paying it off (on a normal mortgate she would have had 5-10 years left before it was hers) and the bank can ignore the last 15 years of paying and just take it back. it just doesnt quite seem fair, especially as she had cancer, through no fault of her own.

This is why the govt are keen on low IRs atm as many many people would be in this situation if they were 'normal'.

Just had a quick glance at the mortgage free thread and am seriously astounded at how many people are clear! We haven't even got off interest free yet - tied up in a ridiculous rubbish deal for two years :( should get out of it in Feb though. The programme was really really frightening.

This is true, noddy.

If interest rates went up god knows what would happen. Loads of people are on standard rates their payments could double.

Yes I agree it's going to get worse.

Interest rates will have to rise, though, if inflation starts getting worse.

The winter before interest rates started falling there would have been 45k plus repossessions all saved by low IRs. But ut would be interested to see how people cope when they return to a more realistic average. I have a friend with an interest only and the payments fell from 900ish to about 210. She has been spending the 700 and not saved a penny of it and says she will be in trouble if it even doubles

Do you think IR will have to rise, though, noddy? No real reason why, I guess, unless inflation rises more, but perhaps someone with more knowledge of the market knows.

DP and I found this programme very sobering. I felt for all the people featured. I don't understand the situation well enough to have a clear idea of what is going wrong with the housing situation in this country- but reading this thread has been very enlightening.

I was a bit confused by the family with two girls, they had decent cars and a lot of stuff. If they sold these wouldn't that have helped them afford rent somewhere, (possibly a silly idea, but seemed sensible to me). They seemed very very angry but possibly hadn't explored all options.

We live in a modest house, with a fixed rate mortgage on a really high rate. The fixed rate ends in one year and we can't wait to benefit from lower payments (providing interest rates don't rise), but I want to put what we save into savings, so we have a buffer.

I was left a small sum of money last year- enough to cover 6 months of mortgage. I've saved it just in case anything goes wrong- part of me wanted to treat us to a holiday but watching this programme makes me feel I did the right thing. I now feel guilt about treating myself to a few new clothes with it.

After watching Patricia's plight I've decided to look into getting some life insurance. It's always seemed ridiculously expensive until now, but as the main bread winner Patricia's situation sent shivers down my spine.

Did barclays pull their twitter account? I can't seem to find it?

They will have to rise.