Anyone watching Growing Up Poor?

[besmirchedandbewildered]

On BBC3 now.

Tough times, and they are so young :(

that is madness! dont they think it might save them some money in CCGs if they left the carpet/laminate/vinyl down when people moved?

i wonder what the logic is behind ripping it all out. i mean it's not as if they rip the paper off the walls too is it?

paint and paper you can do without but when you have children especially and older people you need flooring, if even to keep the heat in!

No councils definitely do not provide any flooring, after waiting 18 months for a council place on a sink estate it was just as zukiecat describes.....chipboard floors in disrepair, cracked and broken tiles downstairs. It cost a fortune (well a relative fortune to me) to put down vinyl and carpet. When I was rehoused I was told to take it all up even though it wasn't going to fit anywhere in the new place and the incoming tenant might not have had anything!
Thankfully my problem neighbour (and believe me she really was a neighbour from hell) who had nothing on her floors was extremely grateful for everything.

i cant believe the council dont provide basic's - ie carpets or paint the walls, and why on eart tear them up again

nailak duh, of course, tho i do use smash a lot

jake did they say why you had to take all the flooring with you when you left?

They strip properties back to council/HA fittings and fixtures only between tenants, apparently its due to H&S or something. I knew someone whose job it was - if nice taps had been fitted they had to be removed and replaced with standard council issue ones. Same with showers, door handles, light fittings

When we moved into our council house there were holes in the floor the bathroom had been wallpapered and had mould everywhere the hallway quickly devolped black mould too as has the back door and electric cupboard. It took me 3 years to get them to do something about the hallway which was painting it with anti-mould paint and it obviously hasn't worked as its now starting to come back In cold weather the walls run with water and the house is freezing even though its insulated. The blinds I brought in the bedroom are mouldy now at the bottom I had to move my bed from one wall after it devolped mould.

The council says the house is fine its our fault if we get damp mould everywhere in the damn shithole they won't do a bloody thing. I'm nearly 6 months pregnant and I don't know how the fuck I'm supposed to move a baby into this hellhole but I can't afford to move we're on benefits I can't afford to try anything more than I have already which includes just about every anti mould/cleaning spray out there and various dehumidifiers. I can't not switch the heating on when its below 10c in the house and we're devoloping nasty chilblains on our toes from having baths.

Thats the truth of social housing this is what people complain we get "for free" its shit I'd love your beautiful warm mould free homes but I doubt I'll ever get that.

Gixer... Wow. I haven't seen the programme yet, but I can imagine what it's like. I work on an employment programme and your level of ignorance is astounding.

Some will even charge tenants for removing them if they leave carpets behind, even if they were nice ones that the next tenant would have loved

peach that is shocking!

i agree. i hear people go on about other being 'given' council houses and how they get everything done for them and i know it's bollocks but i really didn't realise it was that bad.

i've always been a private tenant, mostly because until last year i didn't realise that anyone could apply for a council house ( @ my ignorance) and i used to be a bit envious of council tenants being able to decorate how they liked but after reading so much on MN i realise there are far more important things than just being able to paint. my mum is constantly nagging me to go get my name down because "they give you a big garden and a shed and everything gets done for you". i know that she is just repeating ignorant myths she has heard from other ignorant people.

so sorry you are in this situation. it is awful.

(boys' programme on bbcthree now)

When my great grandma died we had to rip out her carpets that had been fitted about 6 months beforehand and were in perfect condition (were still producing extra fluff they were so new looking) we also had to take out the blinds that had been specially sized for those windows - the new tenants didn't even get a chance to say if they wanted them or not first!
We agreed with the flat manger that they could store the carpet for a few weeks and offer it to the new tenants. They werent supposed to do that but knew how good the carpets were and that they wouldn't really go anywhere else but the bin/recycling centre as the rooms were quite small and weirdly shaped.
I don't know if the new tenants took them but I like to think that they didnt go to waste!

I remember some of my school friends not having any carpet for years because their house didn't come with it and they couldn't afford to get them.

That's awful peach :(

peach have you spoken to citizens advice? If you had damp around windows from condensation it's fair enough to say its your problem ( as I experienced) but what you are describing seems to be a major fault and your health is at serious risk. Hopefully someone at CAB will be able to give you advice. Failing that, newspapers? Local MP?

When I was a HV, I embarked on a protest about crappy housing. I started making complaints regularly to the council and also photographed mouldy walls and ceilings which I uploaded onto the medical records of children and babies. I pointed out that breathing in mould spores was setting young babies and children up for a childhood full of respiratory illnesses.

Do you know where it got me....and more importantly the families in my care? Nowhere at all....in the worst cases the council might come along and put in humidifiers which cost families extra to have running as often as needed. Usually though they did nothing, there were no properties to move the families into and the most they could offer was a few more housing points which might increase the family's priority for moving.

Anyone watched Lads?
So far they a bit more promising than the girls.

Re the council housing. They don't redecorate any more but if the condition is god awful enough they give you a voucher for paint etc and you have to do it yourself but you have to argue for this voucher and they won't offer
The flooring thing is so infuriating - they could put something basic down and add a couple of quid on the rent for a couple of years to cover it. I have had clients who can't scratch the money together (for various reasons I'm not judging) for years for flooring so it's always dirty and freezing I think this really adds to the misery/poverty cycle

You can donate specifically to one or more of the young people by bank transfer (the money goes straight to them) or send an item by post through this website here:

truevisiontv.com/films/details/163/growing-up-poor-girls

I just sent Shelby £20. I'm lucky enough that I won't miss that too much and her attitude and commitment moved me to tears. If she wants to spend it all on cigarettes, I hope she really enjoys them but hopefully she'll receive a fair bit from her behaviour on the programme, and I have faith that she'll use it wisely.

I missed the programme about the girls and Shelby. Is there anyway I can catch up? I watched the one yesterday about the lads and their struggles. It was so sad. It was frustrating to see the young lad who was doing his computer course desperatly trying to get employed and feeling "blacklisted" because he got a criminal record when he was a child. Unless he physically harmed someone then I think his record should be wiped clean. He seems sorted now though and I hope he achieves all that he wants to achieve. I felt sorry for the lad who wanted to join the army particularly when his mate said he wanted to live a little before he went into combat knowing that he could lose his life. The lad didn't want to be "bumming" around like his dad living on benefits. These youngsters and many more like them deserve a chance. They are just so vulnerable.

guns i think frankie broke the jaw of the boy he tried to mug. that's why he got 2 years.

Guns, Frankie mugged a boy and broke his jaw. He went to Feltham for two years for it. It's a part of his very recent past.

The boys one was a bit less heart breaking. I was a bit at the mum if the boy who joined the army. He was thrown out but she was pregnant, it appeared. Not nice, not nice at all.

Just seen the Boys one...so sad...trying to make a difference to their lives in difficult circumstances. Was very struck by me of the girlfriends (who was mother to their child) who said the boys make silly decisions and are too immature to be Dads really. Felt so sad for her struggling without any realisation that she was perhaps not any more mature but had to pull everything together because she was responsible for a baby in equally difficult circumstances.

I thought the mum of wes' baby was c sensible but sounded old before her time and world weary

The boys one was equally heartbreaking