Please help - sick with worry

trotter09

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

Can immigrants jump the queue?
Some foreign nationals are eligible for social housing but they are selected on the same criteria as everyone else on the waiting list. Asylum seekers and those from outside the European Economic Area are not eligible for social housing. Asylum seekers are generally provided with accommodation by the Home Office.

Jack Straw famously said in a TV interview that no asylum seeker had ever been given a council house. What he did not comment on, and what your quote above does not cover, are people who have been granted asylum. They are no longer asylum seekers.

Also, the Home Office has contracts with some local authorities. They make some of their housing stock available to the Home Office and the Home Office places asylum seekers in those houses and flats.

parsons

trotter09 wrote: »

Jack Straw famously said in a TV interview that no asylum seeker had ever been given a council house. What he did not comment on, and what your quote above does not cover, are people who have been granted asylum. They are no longer asylum seekers.

Also, the Home Office has contracts with some local authorities. They make some of their housing stock available to the Home Office and the Home Office places asylum seekers in those houses and flats.

Yes I was about to mention that. Councils under contract with the Home Office, are required to hold in stock, property that is available to them at any time.

This could mean that these homes are left empty for years, but whilst that contact exists and the Home Office are paying for them, they cannot be let out to the general public.

This is quite a common thing up and down the country.

There was a similar set up years ago where the MOD and the Foreign Office also held stocks of Local Authority housing foir their purposes.

Sixer

parsons wrote: »

Yes I was about to mention that. Councils under contract with the Home Office, are required to hold in stock, property that is available to them at any time.

This could mean that these homes are left empty for years, but whilst that contact exists and the Home Office are paying for them, they cannot be let out to the general public.

This is quite a common thing up and down the country.

There was a similar set up years ago where the MOD and the Foreign Office also held stocks of Local Authority housing foir their purposes.

So what you are saying is that these houses are already let and the Home Office is paying the LA rent for them? So, technically, they are occupied? In the same way a holiday/second home is technically occupied, even though the owners are only there for two weeks a year?

Oldernotwiser

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

I think your links are a few years old ONW, (as they mention things that WILL happen in 2007) maybe things have changed, I will see if I can find a amore recent one.

ETA: Here we are, the rules in the above link still apply:

From this link:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/6691927.stm

Can immigrants jump the queue?
Some foreign nationals are eligible for social housing but they are selected on the same criteria as everyone else on the waiting list. Asylum seekers and those from outside the European Economic Area are not eligible for social housing. Asylum seekers are generally provided with accommodation by the Home Office.



So to the OP,I would go back to the Council and try again!

But your link proves the opposite as it specifically states that asylum seekers are ineligible for social housing.

seven-day-weekend

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

But your link proves the opposite as it specifically states that asylum seekers are ineligible for social housing.

Asylum seekers are are provided for by the Home Office (although as other people have mentioned, the HO could have allocated some social housing for this purpose).

Not directly the responsibility of the Councils.

In practice and to the casual observer, this means that asylum seekers will get social housing. Whether it is allocated by the HO or the local Council is irrelevant.

viktory

To be honest, you'll be lucky to get a council property at all. My council would deem that you had made yourselves deliberately homeless by failing to pay your mortgage. Added to the fact that the waiting time for a three bed is about 10 years - private renting looks like a safe option. Where are you based? I have had a quick look at 2 bed properties (I appreciate you have three children, but they will have to share, beggars can't be choosers) and I have found a couple of properties for £395 PCM. You don't state whether anyone in the family is working - the LHA rate for the same area as that property is £109.62 per week - so that easily covers the rent.

ETA: Also found a few three beds at £450 a month. That is less than I pay for a HA property! Might have to move

Oldernotwiser

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

In practice and to the casual observer, this means that asylum seekers will get social housing. Whether it is allocated by the HO or the local Council is irrelevant.

If LAs contract properties to the HO then they are no longer theirs to allocate.

I think that the OP is being over optimistic about being allocated a 3/4 bed council house after only a 6 month wait, particularly as they can be seen to have made themselves intentionally homeless.

Mupette

I hit similar brick walls here in Bristol when i needed rehousing last year.

I lived in a block of flats with temperamental lifts, i was housebound, the council refused a ramp, even with social services helping the one the came up with was a waste of time and effort as i could not lift it..

and again on the housing list asylum seekers took priority over my needs.

they even bid of my new home which were for disabled only, i was later told 4 families were bidding and were above me but i won because i was disabled not them.

Keep on to the council, be a pain in the backside, yes the MP is a good idea

Sixer

Mupette wrote: »

and again on the housing list asylum seekers took priority over my needs.

Mupette - this can't be correct:

Asylum seekers aren't allowed to even go on LA housing lists.

Refugees (those granted asylum status) are assessed on need in the same queue as everyone else. Their refugee status gives them no extra points, and no advancement on the list.

Legal economic immigrants are assessed on need in the same queue as everyone else. Their immigrant status gives them no extra points, and no advancement on the list.

Illegal immigrants aren't allowed to even go on LA housing lists. In some cases they stay with friends or family until eventually deported. In others they go to detention centres.

The lack of social housing in the UK is a disgrace and many people suffer because of it. But it's the fault of neither asylum seekers nor immigrants.

Oldernotwiser

Mupette wrote: »

I hit similar brick walls here in Bristol when i needed rehousing last year.

I lived in a block of flats with temperamental lifts, i was housebound, the council refused a ramp, even with social services helping the one the came up with was a waste of time and effort as i could not lift it..

Did you not read the links above; no asylum seekers are allocated social housing.