How to get a council house -C4

[heyhulahoop]

Anyone watching? It's so depressing. So many zero hours contracts and racist rants.

I mean, how much of people's lives is local? I know it's different for a family vs a single adult but even for a single adult you'll have friends locally, family members perhaps, you might work locally, you'll know people in the community like the person who works at the post office or your neighbours even if you don't count them as friends. You'll have your local pubs or other social venues. You might have a boyfriend/girlfriend or a crush. You'll have memories there if you were born in the area, you'll have gone to school there, grown up there, perhaps thought about bringing your children up there. You might be a member of a local church, voluntary organisation, clubs, etc.

It's a lot to give up when you move away which is why people don't normally do it unless there is some kind of benefit like reduced living costs and even then they don't stick a pin in a map at random and just take whatever house they land on.

I've watched a few series of this, I'm sure the previous series were Salford and Portsmouth councils.

They seemed a bit more understanding at least, not as hard-faced!

Obviously some of the public who go in are a bit nasty sometimes, one woman threatned suicide and said her death would be on the housing officers conscious, which although she was desperate wasn't fair.

However I think some just really need help understanding paying bills and finances which would stop them getting in to rent arrears, one woman was over £6k in rent arrears, the council should not let it get that far in the first place.

The Hounslow council do seem very hard-faced and uncaring, I'm sure they get a lot of abuse and stories so have hardened but their default position seems to treat every person as a liar.

The girl was offered a place in Birmingham was treated pretty badly, the woman from the council had such a smug, uncaring attitude. The narrator said the council have a duty to make at least one offer of housing before they can say they have tried and then discharge the applicant. So what do they do? They offer a girl in Hounslow, who has lived there all her life, a place in Birmingham! She has no friends or family there and has never been. They expect her to make her mind up there and then ("you don't get to view first, you go there to live"!) and are basically waiting for her to say no (most would!) so they can then give her a letter saying they've discharged their duty to house her as they have made an offer and it's been turned down!

How would the Hounslow housing officer feel if her manager said "tomorrow you are going to Birmingham to work there permanently so you will have to live there too"!

Nah the first one at least was Tower Hamlets.

I was watching series 2 episode 3 and that was Portsmouth though, they had a system there where people could get help with finances which looked good.

It's things like that which are needed. I know they don't have the money, staff or other resources. Sad.

People renting privately or owning may well move to different areas but they get to choose which area, research it, know a bit about it etc before they go.
I got told I was going over 150 miles away and that I had to leave right now to get there. It's really scary. I remember the second day there I went for a walk with ds to try and see what was about, if I could find a park, shops etc, I got lost for hours and my phone died, eventually I found a phone box and called my dad in tears asking if he can look up on Google maps where the fuck I am and how I get back to the house I was staying in, no money for a taxi or anything not that I even knew where a cash machine was or a local taxi number anyway.
Then I finally get home and a weirdo man who I was living with shouts at me because I didn't want to take a 9 month old baby to the pub at 9pm and apparently I "promised" and then oh great, one of the men didn't pay his rent so they're changed the lock to his door and he's trying to kick it down whilst I'm trying to get ds to sleep.
It's really not the same as moving somewhere else with an alelement of choice and planning

No chi chi cafes, more greasy spoon . I know as I used to talk to people, I didn't sit in my ivory tower judging. It wasn't where I would have chosen to live but it was where we could afford.

I don't agree with the you're given 10 mins to decide to move (I am shocked that really happens)but I don't disagree with the principal. It would be great if we could all live exactly where we want but that isn't reality.

I think the staff have probably just got hardened. You try to take emotion out of the decision when it's a job and just look at the facts. That sounds terribly harsh but I don't see how they could do it otherwise.

I just find it hard to reconcile my hospital midwife who was 6 months pregnant travelling an hour plus to get to work with people who lived 15 mins away.

Personally in London I'd like to see keyworkers getting more help to live closer to their jobs.

But I think it's an interesting program that highlights the dire housing situation in London at the moment.

i think we all need to remember that any one of us could fall on hard times, sickness, reundancy etc and shouldn't be so sanctimonious . OUr circumstances can change and one day we can pay the mortgage and raise two kids no trouble and then something happens outside your control. I just thank my lucky stars that we have a nice stable home

I think the staff have probably just got hardened. You try to take emotion out of the decision when it's a job and just look at the facts
I know this sounds a bit extreme but the day you get hardened to other people's suffering because you're "just doing your job" is the day you stop becoming a human being and become a machine.

Maybe - you'll be glad to hear I don't work in a job which requires empathy . But I actually am very empathetic and I really feel for these people whose find themselves in these situations (even those where its of their own making).

But you can't let it affect your decisions - there are rules and processes to follow, and no matter how much you personally feel you have to detach yourself from it. I think that's why they come across as so tough.

After watching this - no way would I trust the council to find me accommodation. Although they do seem to be fair based on the rules and guidance they are given to follow.

The young mother being offered a flat in Birmingham was brutal.

Posted too soon! Maybe a little emotion can help sometimes with a particular case, but if I heard the same stories day in, day out, which I expect they do it must be very hard (and I suspect if they did they'd be worn down very quickly by the system, and the lack of anything they could actually do to help).

I'm a bit mistrustful of the govt to actually do anything in most cases.

Did we ever find out why the 21yr suddenly had his 3 kids? Did the mum abandon them with him? Makes a change from men leaving woman to
Cope singlehanded

Thought his mum lived in a 3 bed home so why was he on the sofa with one of them?

Or did he have younger siblings who lived with his /their mum

'Thought his mum lived in a 3 bed home so why was he on the sofa with one of them?'

Yeah, I thought that, too. She said she and her partner lived in the house. So why didn't the kids go in one and the son in the other? They admitted they were lying, anyhow, so I doubt he slept on the sofa.

I had mixed feelings about this show.

At one level it seems to be a Channel 5-style bit of poverty porn. At another level the makers are saying something quite important about the effect of RTB and the council house sell-off.

I am not particularly sympathetic to the various very young adults with one or more children complaining about their housing situation - maybe it's the reaction the show wanted to get out of (some of) its audience, but like a PP I thought, well, those children weren't brought by the stork. Yes people's circumstances can change and we may all need help at some point, but this seemed like an assumed/implicit dependency on the state.

And imo there needs to be a genuinely zero-tolerance approach to racism etc aimed at the officers - you want our help, speak politely and in a normal tone of voice.

Yes agree people should be polite to the housing officers but the same for the officers who were rude , abrupt and interrupted the customers as well

expact what do you mean they admitted to lying?? I missed that bit

The mother/homeowner did. She said she would never kick them out but told the council that as that's what you have to do.

They said there were 9 people living in the household so it's likely the others taking up the other bedrooms didn't want to be filmed.

If he was 21 he may have had younger siblings in their teens.

The housing officers were all fairly vile I thought (well all the female ones were, the men didn't seem so bad for some reason!).

The rules are harsh, and they obviously have to stick to them, but the way they spoke to the clients was just unacceptable. Why couldn't they explain, for instance, to the girl being told to move to Birmingham, why they were doing this (no properties available in the area) and give her a little time to consider, not bark 'There's no choice' at the poor girl who was obviously shocked, and give her only ten minutes to decide. But by behaving this way they 'discharged their duty to house her and got her off their waiting list. Which was probably their aim, I wonder if it's their policy and they instruct staff to act that way for just that reason? Very unethical.

And yet when that particular housing officer was being interviewed by herself on camera later she said 'I''ve got young children, I know how she feels'. Well why could you not express a little of that empathy when talking to the client then? Shame on her.

And they clearly have no problem being seen on TV behaving like this! They could give the unwelcome news in a more constructive and far less aggressive way, which would also be a lot more professional.

It crossed my mind that they were offering out of borough properties to people to basically get them out of their hair. Either the person will accept and be another borough's problem or will refuse and the council will have no more duty to house them. I mean are they really saying that everyone who needs housed in hounslow will be going out of the borough? There are no properties?

We do all have to realise though that this could have been cut selectively. Maybe the housing officer had had the explaining and empathetic talk but became exasperated then we only saw that bit.

It is such a difficult topic. Why should people be uprooted because they are poor and homeless but, on the other hand, why should these people be housed in areas that others, who may work or earn more, still cannot afford? There is no easy answers

The thing is, even if some are being sent off to birmingham that doesnt free up the housing for those who can afford to live there. Its still council stock, there will still be people in the area paying council rates for the properties. Its not like it will suddenly be available to others who earn more. Applicants are being sent elsewhere because there are no available properties, they arent being sent elsewhere to keep it free for those who earn more.

They did seem almost pleased with themselves whenever they Informed someone they made themselves intentionally homeless, it just seems so spiteful.
The lady on a 0 hour contract I felt sorry for, if you earn say, 300 one month you might get full housing benefit for that month but then earn more next month, the housing benefit goes down but also for the previous months too so you have to find the extra for the previous month out of a low wage and you just don't have it. This is happens to us all the time and I can see how you end up in arrears because it's impossible to budget like that and keep on top of it. We have a spreadsheet on our fridge, and we still fuck it up every now and then.

I understand they don't have the housing but these are all people in a horrible vulnerable position, they could atleast be a bit more polite. Like the mum who was being evicted and was trying to explain to the housing officer that the council knew exactly when she was to be evicted and that it's stupid she has to wait to be evicted before they can even tell her where she is going, she was right it is a stupid rule especially when you have a young kid to organise and no idea where you'll be etc

I think they cant tell her where she will be going because i suppose plenty of people will get their situation sorted before the eviction date. So if they lined up properties and arranged viewings/keys etc ahead of the actual eviction then they would be wasting a lot of time and effort in many cases. I suspect there are also a small number who lie about getting evicted and when they realise they arent getting a property until they are actually homeless they dont proceed with the application.

Basically we're watching the last days of social housing in London, social housing only for the completely desperate.