How to get a council house -C4

[heyhulahoop]

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

I'm a landlord - yes i know boo hiss....so have seen this from the other side...

i DO let to dss and we have no bother in letting to single people etc...just need the rent to be paid and the house not to be wrecked. its the tenants home and we dont impose or interfere otherwise

we had a situation with a single mum who over a few years got into a lot of debt with the rent, we really tried to keep letting her off but eventually she couldn't pay and wanted to be in a council house etc - so we started the eviction process.
she went to the council with the LO's - they advised her to stay put until the bailiffs came. she said she didn't want the kids upset etc, but they said she had to stay or they had no duty to help her.
so she told us this and we had to issue the court paperwork - reason was her rent debt,
and then after months the court agreed and the bailiffs came and asked her to leave.
only then could she turn up at the council and be housed.
and on top of that, she had to pay all the court fees etc - and her rent arrears...at £5 a week or something silly, she'll be paying it forever.

crazy system.

for last few years we've had a single dad, few kids, we still accept dss and most of the time the rent is paid no problem....we are all happy :)

Specter exactly! They are negligent....allowing that family to walk out into the night with no roof and children! How hard would it have been to call SS for them?

Just caught up - I'm not sure it's going to help with the perception that immigrants can just walk in and get a council house is it - sigh..

As an aside there's currently a huge outcry in my area as a London borough has just outbid the local council for 200 new council houses, has not gone down well totally understandably.

Perhaps London needs to consider some form of rent control?

I'm voting for Brexit (for issues not specifically related to immigration). I watched this show earlier this week and saw a Romanian family housed, at taxpayers expense, (by Hounslow I believe) in Birmingham. It struck me that this is not sustainable.

We moved out of greater London (years ago). It was becoming too crowded and we had a young family. In our younger days, we'd have preferred to live more centrally, but couldn't really afford it, so guess what?: We didn't. NOBODY has a right to live in London. If you can't afford it, go somewhere you can afford. If you've got established connections to the area, you should be given some assistance, but if not.......

The State should be responsible for housing only the most vulnerable. Whilst there's insufficient subsidised housing for those that want it, fixed term tenancies are the answer.

Nobody in that programme did get a council house though The Romanian and the Polish/Ugandan families both got private rents. Just help to find them, which is fair because it is difficult to find one when you're on housing benefit even if you are working.

I thought the Romanian family's house was council?

Nope. It was a private rent they said.

But covered by housing benefit, yes, so "at taxpayer's expense" if you like.

They followed the rules - they were on jobseeker's allowance. That means they must have jumped through certain hoops to get there because you can't just rock up in a new EU country and claim unemployment benefits. That's the case in all of them. The programme also said that according to JSA rules, if they haven't found a job within 6 months of being on JSA, they are no longer entitled to help (and would need to go home or find some other way to support themselves).

The Polish/Ugandan couple seemed clearly upset at not having been given a council property. What they seemed to want was subsidised housing (cheaper rent).

I must admit to being a little bit uneasy about supporting people (even temporarily) that have yet to contribute.

malice

what is actually wrong with that?? wanting to be able to afford your rent and have some stability

"subsidised" ....so much wrong with the UK today that we think working peoples rent needing topped up with benefits is normal and actually being able to afford your rent and still live is somehow sponging off the state

also interesting choice of words..... "given" a council house. I have had one,. no one "gives" you one, its not yours, its the councils,. you are just renting it.

Council / Housing Association rents are also higher now compared to what they used to be. Still a decent saving comapred to Private but not the big amount that some people think it is.

Yes that's correct asprilla I have been in both and my HA was similar to most private rented houses with the same spec, council was slightly cheaper maybe by £10 a week

The security is the main plus point

We need more of them! Why cant those in power see that (or maybe they can and just don't give a fuck)

My HA flat is almost 700 every 4 weeks, the private ones opposite (almost the exact same flats, new build thing where they make some private some HA) are about £900-£1000/month depending on which one and the private ones are obviously nicer and have 2 bathrooms and have appliances etc inclused in rent so its not a huge difference but yeah it's the security

I've got an interview with a housing officer in a couple of weeks. I've taken a section 21 in from my landlord who wants to sell up. She basically said that I'll be getting one of the houses I've bidded on yesterday or one from next week if suitable
From watching this series I was terrified of going in but it must be a lot different where I am.

I've been wondering if the manager who speaks at the end is being 'trained' in what to say at the end. It sounds kind of scripted and is near enough saying please don't bother applying for a council home.

The programmes are filmed in London and Portsmouth. The most densely populated parts of the UK. Things are bad in other cities but not that bad. If you're semi rural or rural then even better. It's not like the supply is abundant in most of the UK but the waiting lists are not 10 years long. Not if you're in band A priority (homeless is immediate Band A)

Also, what I've taken from this programme is that they will help you if you've done everything within your power to help yourself. They can't/won't help if you've buried your head in the sand and ignored the issue (which is, unfortunately, a fairly natural reaction to panic especially when people are suffering with MH difficulties or similar.)

Haven't seen programme but totally agree with you Malice.

lou totally agree with your replies

Florin - Why would you leave another country to come to uk with nowhere to live or a job - yet then go back (assume fly so how did he get the money?) then bring over his 5 kids ? Or do they enter illegally via lorries /boats ?

Sorry if a silly question

Yes the priest was lovely but he did agree that the man shouldn't have come over with his 5 kids

I don't think ulce was that hard. It's her job.

Not sure how he got jsa

Monika - Family who got into rent arrears - why rent a 3 bed with 'spacious area for children to play' when the rent was practically £1300 yet get less then £300hb a month

Tbh their rent was cheap for a 3bed. Next door to us pay that for a 3 bed and I'm in Kent

I do think 0 hour contracts should be banned

Lisa - Lady from Bermuda. She had been in her friends spare room for 9mths. Why didn't she get a job in that time? She came with £4K

In the 9mths she was here she didn't make a single friend ? And then mum pays for a flight home

I said in a previous post if the hb got sent straight to the LL then more would accept them

*Woman who went back to Bermuda –

For her she probably was the person who I felt least sorry for. I wasn’t too sure why she was here in the UK*

She had a chronic long-term health condition. She was trying to establish a home here for NHS treatment that she had not contributed to.

Bertie in my town homeless is no longer band A. It's band C. You have no chance of getting a home if your landlord sells etc as you are low priority now. It's disgusting. People are in "temporary" housing of 1 bedsit room for a family of four for up to five years. Paying an additional charge of £50 per week for being "homeless" on top of the rent. It's disgusting treatment.

Blondes, most travel in cars. Buying a banger for a couple of hundred quid, and the petrol to drive across Europe is cheaper, especially if you then return with a full family.

Lady from Bermuda admitted herself that where she was from they didn't aid ill health (she had fibromyalgia) like the UK is rumoured to. However since the change from DLA to PIP, the U.K. Isn't such a soft touch on illness and disability. It is much harder to qualify for help now, even with life changing illnesses if you're over 16.

That makes sense trixie being blonde 😉 I couldn't work out how they would get there /here without spending lots of money what they don't have

Wow trixie, where do you live?

Bertie Also, what I've taken from this programme is that they will help you if you've done everything within your power to help yourself.

Not necessarily. You also have to be priority need and so on.

The second time I was homeless (first time is a whole other post) the council decided I wasn't mentally ill enough to qualify for priority need. (And my worsening mental health due to the situation didn't count/was ignored by mental health services as it wasn't mental illness but obviously a reaction to circumstances...) Fortunately, just as I was bedding down for the night sleeping rough, a local homeless charity called me up and had managed to convince the council to let me into a hostel - but only for as long as they took to investigate whether I might be priority and make a final decision. This took about 6 weeks, duing which time I desperately sought rooms to rent (constrained by under 25 rate HB (now under 35) and reluctance of landlords to let to tenants on benefits). I actually secured a job in this time too, but one wankery landlord in particular wasn't happy about it because it was only part time. It wasnt the top-up benefits he objected to, but that I'd be at home during some days and "have friends over and things". Gosh - in my home! How dare I!

Anyway, after 6 weeks council decided I wasn't priority. Social worker was outraged, as others in the hostel were basically holding out for a council house, whilst I was despertely searching for a room to rent yet not entitled to stay in the hostel. They knew I had nowhere to go (or did they think I was lying?) They were quite happy to chuck me out onto the streets because I wasn't "ill enough" despite having been signed off work for some time. They told me I was "lucky" to be given a week's notice.

The day before I had to leave the hostel I got a call about a room - the guy had been deciding between a few of us, and I'd got it.

I'd say I was lucky, but he then got together with a maniac who decided he couldn't be near other women so I was served notice and had to leave about 6 weeks after moving in (they'd only just got together when I moved in!), with the lovely experience of her physically dragging me from the house (no shoes on, November, raining) and chucking my belongings out the upstairs window because they expected me to leave first thing rather than the arranged time when friend with van was coming (or even the next day which was the official day I was meant to leave). I'd also lost my job when they found out I was potentially going to be homeless again, and somehow managed to get a new one... Oh and later that day in the new house my new landlady suddenly decided I was "too young" to live there (was 23) and must move out ASAP. Bonkers. Bearing in mind I was super tidy and agreed not to have friends over etc but she wouldn't budge! (Until next tenant she obviousl had lined up bailed and suddenly wanted me to stay...)

Oh and before the original homelessness I was living in a shared house I considered to be good - I considered my landlord a "good landlord", apart from his coke habit and sexual harassment. That is not a joke; having a room to rent in a cleanish, fairly well maintained house seemed so amazing that the rest seemed incidental .

Sorry have rambled a bit - just want to point out that I now have nightmares about this sort of thing. I strongly suspect that had I had a safe, stable home earlier, I'd be a lot less 'mental' now, as much is trauma based and stems from there being nowhere to turn in housing and mental health services. My cost to the state is terrifying, and rising. Housing has a much wider reaching effect than simply being a place to sleep.