Disability and getting housed (council)

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Rather than rely on posters' advice - which may be accurate for their areas, but certainly isn't for mine - try contacting your nearest housing aid society. Shelter is unlikely to help because 'it's a disability issue' (their words). Lots of illness charities won't deal with 'housing issues'. So you have to go to a specialist housing charity. And be prepared for quite a wait.

Strange how the press thinks people just snap their fingers and they get houses for nothing.

blue_monkey_2

OK, I have recently been through this.

Anyone can apply for social housing, however, there are certain criterias to be met and if you meet them and have enough points (usually points these days) then you are able to get enough points t put you in the running. The points enable you to bid on the housing that becomes available.

We had been given a S21 notice to leave as the house was being sold, did not earn enough money to rent privately and have a child who is disabled. Our doctor wrote a letter but the councils doctor needed to verify the disability for their critera and tell us whether we was entitled to additional health points (we got 15/50 for ADHD/ASD/OCD) but we was also able to have a room for our son because of his condition so we was allowed to bid on 3 bedroom places rather than 2. Children of different sexes and up to the age of 12 can share, then they are entitled to their own room. But if you have 3 girls they will be expected to share and so you would be 'entitled' to a 2 bedroom house.

I do know of someone who lives in a 2 bed flat, couple, 3 children - 1 boy, 2 girls, eldest girl is now 10, they still do not need to be housed as there is sufficent room for them. Once the girl reaches 12 she will need her own room and they will get more points for overcrowding.

The council would not help us while we had somewhere to live and things only kicked in once we had received a date for the bailiff was coming to evict us. Oh, and to add, we was living at my mothers house and she had to evict us through the courts, had we left on our own accord we would have been making ourselves homeless - likewise had we been evicted for rent arreas we would have been making oursleves homeless so if you are tempted to stop paying rent and get yourself evicted you should not do this as they then do not have to help you. It took 7 months from her asking us to leave to being kicked out but we was packed to go into a hostel but we got lucky and the house came up and we bidded, we got the keys on Thursday and the bailiff was due on Friday!! In the next town you will be expected to go into a hostel for a minimum of 12 weeks before being housed.

However, you should bear in mind that those in most need get more points so will be needing it more. The councils initial response will be that you need to find somewhere bigger and you will need to show that you cannot get somewhere bigger. They reduced me to tears many a time. We was even prepared to get a cheap caravan and pitch up in that in caravan sites if nothing came up.

You can apply to go on as many waiting lists for housing associations in your area, even if they say the lists are closed call them anyway and ask for a form to apply. However you can only accept one house of course. Some HA will have just 2 or 3 houses in your area but it is still worth applying as you never know what is going to come up. You could also ask your MP for help but ours never helped in getting anything as such, just was able to keep us more informed on how things were moving along. They themselves stated to him that a hostel would be unacceptable for him - but beggars cannot be choosers and all that and we had no other alternative and packed for this option.

Here they only give one lot of disability or health points so they will take the most severe condition and give points for that. We have since had a visit from OT and they have contacted the HA and we are getting the doors replaced as they are have huge panes of glass that is not saftey glass.

I think we all know someone who has managed to get a house 'easily' but from experience, our experience, it is not easy at all and there was a lot of stress and tears along the way, even if you have a child with disabilities - it does not automatically mean you can get somewhere to live but it can get you more points.

The point about social housing is that if you are desperate enought to need somewhere to live then you'll take it - we said we would take anywhere except one area but that is because I had been in a very violent relationship where my partner had tried to murder me (and was a complete nutter so would try again if he knew where I was) so I told them and they accepted there as a reason for me turning down this area, otherwise we said we would take anywhere else. The more places you want to live the more choice you will have. However when you see the lists it does make you realise how little ther eis available. You are literally waiting for people to die, go into a care home or win the lottery.

Hope that helps somewhat for anyone else that might be reading.