How to get a council house -C4

[heyhulahoop]

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

The direct payment to landlords has not stopped completely. I have a tenant and her housing benefit comes directly to me from the council. So did my last tenant, and my husbands tenant the same, direct paid from the council. You can request it when the tenancy starts and I wouldn't have a tenancy without it. In fact we choose to have tenants who we hope and think are decent people and we insist on the direct payments to us. That way there is never any failure to pay rent. And the council often find us the tenant.
And the council pay the going rate. In fact, I put my rent up recently cos I saw the council would pay more than I was charging. I hadn't put it up for over 5 years though, before everyone jumps on my back for that one.

Uchi's heart visibly sank when that couple brought their paperwork....they were very ignorant which is why they didn't show them the first time round!

She was mean and unkind to them.

Reality, when universal credit comes in everywhere, direct payments will stop. So landlords won't get their money direct anymore.

Those saying they shouldn't have cried - have you ever been in that situation yourself? I have, and the way they investigate you and question you, go over every item in your bank statements and wage packet, question your parenting, you feel like shit. It's no wonder you end up crying.

I was bloody lucky to get a council house 7 years ago. Without it, God knows how I would have coped.

I also cried and I NEVER cry in front of people.
One of the housing officers I had to see was known for being particularly nasty, I really REALLY didn't want to cry in front of her but she just told me I have to take my baby and move 2 hours away oh and I had 2 and a half hours to get there or rhe landlady wouldnt let me in. She wouldn't let me even have time to organise a way to get there and it was on purpose, because the landlady phoned me and said the HO had said I'd be there at 6 but obviously I won't be as I lived so far away so just call her when I'm almost there.

Then I got a phone call accusing me of not really having DS with me because I asked the maintenence guy if he could take the (disgusting filthy) cot out of my room (so I could fit his travel cot in) and when I was trying to explain to her about the travel cot is why I don't need the cot she just started telling me I will get in trouble and have to leave. I had ds with Mr ffs, clearly the maintenence man was for some reason reporting on me to the housing officer but I'd didn't know I had to explain my use of a travel cot to a random man ffs
I think they forget they are dealing with actual people sometimes

People who've never been in the situation can't grasp the reality of it. If you work and yet you're still poor, how can you ever save up enough to have saved for a deposit? You can't! So when your landlord sells, there you are again...buggered!

It feels just dreadful to have no security in your home. To always feel you're living in someone else's house.So you can't make changes or relax!

I hate renting. We might be able to buy in the next few years but who knows? Anything could happen.

I dont blame any of them for crying.

Tbh if it does 'wind the advisors up' then they're in the wrong job, they should understand how vulnerable the people they are dealing with are?

Interestingly, this current job vacancy at Hounslow indicates the housing officers have "challenging targets to meet", it also seems to suggest that potential applicants will feel encouraged to apply if they have watched the Ch 4 programme:

Housing Officer vacancy

The solution is to stop selling bloody council houses! Absolutely ridiculous state of affairs.

Butterfly £30 K salary I am surprised they can afford to pay thier London rent on that salaryin London! how do they get anyone to work for them?
I couldn't do it I would have too much empathy for everyone that came in with a sob story

Just begin watching.

I'm surprised by the clothing that the Romanian family is wearing. There are quite a few visable logos... Belstaff, Moncler, Stone Island.

I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and say that they may be copies but part of me can't help but question their story.

What part of their story are you questioning based on their clothes?

Kiwi they're all knock offs!

I don't envy them though, I really would not want to do that job it would be awful. I have a feeling the nicer ones end up leaving because it must be depressing wanting to help people but knowing you cant

I have watched the last 2 of these programmes and they have scared the life out of me. I am facing this situation right now as my family have been given notice to leave our privately rented home that we pay for without benefits and have been unable to secure another home to rent. This is because we are a large family. Myself, dh, and 5 dc's. The minute landlords or agents hear we have 5 dcs they say no way! So we are currently awaiting a court date so the landlord can take possession as the council wont help us until the bailiffs arrive.
It's terrifying that I have no uncertainty over our lives right now.

Vajazzler I've been there too...not with a large family but still scary I know. And as you say, hard to find a property.

What area are you in? Not London?

Violet Not London no, but not far away. Just outside Watford in the bottom corner of Hertfordshire.

This is the problem with private landlords (those saviours of the poor tenants according to other threads who provide such a wonderful service) They give no security - can object to pets and children, can decide to sell and boot the tenants out, view the house as essentially 'their property' instead of a home for families just like them.
No wonder everyone wants a council house - security, freedom and no unjustified rent increases.

Abbinob Your story sounds horrendous and I hope you've come out the other side? I agree that they sometimes forget they are dealing with human beings. It must be very draining at times but when watching this particular documentary some of the HOs gave off an air of being on a massive power/ego trip.

Yes we are fine now! Have a lovely little flat and a job and ds has somewhere stable to live finally but I do worry about the people who don't know to research the housing act etc and argue their point, you shouldn't have to argue for someine to help you.
My advice to anyone would be to print out the relevant Information and highlight the bits that apply to you and your situation and take it with you to the housing team. Fortunately I had a lovely lady from sure start to help advise me on all this stuff

I haven't watched this series...I have experienced homelessness and it was awful.

The council were the most unsympathetic people I had ever met.

My parents had a mortgage on their house. They became landlord of a pub and so rented their house out.

Me and my dh had my dd who was only a baby and we rented a house two towns over.

My parents rang one day and asked if we would take over the tenancy of their house because the tenants were messing them around. Refusing to pay rent and essentially destroying the house.

We agreed so notice was served to the tenants and we handed the notice in to the landlord.

On the day of moving, they were moving out the same day as we were. They hadn't contested the notice and told my parents they were leaving. Tbh looking back now we should have made sure they had left before we moved things out but we didn't know this then.

After we moved all of out things out of the house and headed towards my parents house, the tenants suddenly changed their mind. They had rang the council who told them to stay put and wait for the bailiffs to kick them out.

We had no where to go. The council didn't want to offer is emergency housing at first because we have left on our own accord.

Eventually did but dragged their heels about it and the house was a shit state. Covered in mould that was our fault apparently etc etc etc.

When the tenants finally left my parents house I couldn't believe how terrible it looked. They had removed all the light bulbs, took all the furnished furniture to the tip, illegally main lined the gas so they didn't have to pay for gas. Stripped all the plaster to bare bricks

Luckily where we are now is much better but for those few months my life was hell. I cried a lot. Sometimes to the point of vomiting

Kiwi, DS picked up on the Romanian clothing labels immediately.
Violet, how could you tell they were knock-offs? (Not disputing that, just wondering what gave it away)

This programme seems to be playing right into the hands of the Brexiters.

sigh -why is everything down to the so-called xenophobia of the people who want to exercise their democratic right to vole 'out of the EU' if they wish. I am so tired of the constant refrain that those who want to leave the EU are evil personified!

Having seen this programme and knowing the experiences of friends and family i think there needs to be a massive change in the communication involved with homelessness.

Those housing officers are incorrectly named IMO. They arent housing officers. They are application processors. Other than saying "you need to actively look for private rental" they arent providing any guidance. That romanian family only got help through SS because that priest knew to call. Why wasnt that advice given in their meeting with the housing officer? I see on Mn so many times people asking what they need to do because when they go to the council they arent told. They are told "we can do nothing until you are homeless" people are dependant on others providing them with information that may be incorrect or out of date or not relevant to their borough. I think when people present as homeless or about to be homeless they should be assigned a proper housing advocate who explains the process properly, tells the person what info they need to provide and gives them all the relevant numbers of support services. Rather than sitting there suspecting their story and giving sarky responses to people who dont understand what their mistake was.

Abbinob I'm glad to hear that! My mother went through something similar decades ago when the HO was thinking that my sister and I were figments of my mother's imagination as she'd sent us off to live with my aunt whilst she got things sorted.