Single male's chance of getting a council/social housing flat?

custardy

puddy wrote: »

Outside of London, is there much point in a single male with no health needs and not living in overcrowded accommodation putting himself on the housing list?

Im thinking Bournemouth if its any help?

when i came back from Oz i got a 3 bedroom flat from the council
yes it was a rough area but it was a newly refurbished flat
just me,no kids(then) and working FT

Matt1977

It is worth joining the housing register - but don't hold your breath!

HappyMJ

It's always possible. In my area, according to the lettings report on the housing associations website 3 people registered in April of 2011 who were in Band 4 and they successfully bid for a property in August.

andya99

Hi,

Read this thread with interest and thought I would share my experience. About 15 years ago my partner (he was registered disabled and received benefits) and I (working full time) split up and we had a private rented house on a fixed tenancy, his half of the rent was covered by housing benefit and I paid the rest from my salary.

Anyway when it came time to move towards the end of the lease, we both approached various housing associations / local council to make applications for social housing. He got offered and took a city centre 1 bed flat within 6 weeks, with supported moving and costs and decorating allowances and I got 'you can apply but you will probably be on our list for at least 2 years before we would consider you for something, if you can't rent privately you will have to make yourself homeless'.

Now I am not knocking my ex's entitlement to benefit or support etc but it always sticks with me the stark contrast between how we were both dealt with.

sock-knitter

i live in a big city in west yorkshire, and there are lots of one bedroomed flats which are only small, and are only allocated to singles, priority is given to homeless etc, but average waiting time is only 12 months, each area varies depending on the housing available in the area

Gothicfairy

In my area you would have more chance of winning the lottery, dating your fav film star and being the son of Richard Branson then getting a council anything, let alone a flat.
I left my first husband after he put me in hospital for the third time ( I was younger and stupider then I am now ) and I was told that as I had made myself homeless I would have to manage on my own and the council worker even went so far as to tell me that I would have been better staying with my husband until he rendered me disabled.

puddy

HappyMJ wrote: »

It's always possible. In my area, according to the lettings report on the housing associations website 3 people registered in April of 2011 who were in Band 4 and they successfully bid for a property in August.

do all boroughs publish this information as went into the linnk above for bournemouth and it didnt seem to show this sort of information

HappyMJ

puddy wrote: »

do all boroughs publish this information as went into the linnk above for bournemouth and it didnt seem to show this sort of information

It's available. You might need to email them. This one is close to Bournemouth and show that someone in a Red band which you would most likely be in doesn't take too long to get a flat. http://www.dorsetforyou.com/media.jsp?mediaid=150543&filetype=pdf

There is only 1 flat available in Bournemouth itself http://www.dorsethomechoice.org/PDFFiles/PublicFreesheet.pdf which you could get and it looks terrible. Not available to priority band. 2 flights of external metal steps to get to the property above shops. Limited head room and all that for £78.05 rent and £7.90 per week service charges. I'd look around for private rentals. That sheet details only 1 property at the end of it and how long they were on the waiting list for. A top banded "green" applicant registered in Jan 2011 and applied for the property in April 2011.

Mrs_Arcanum

People seem to have few problems here but they won't do choice based lettings.

puddy

HappyMJ wrote: »

It's available. You might need to email them. This one is close to Bournemouth and show that someone in a Red band which you would most likely be in doesn't take too long to get a flat. http://www.dorsetforyou.com/media.jsp?mediaid=150543&filetype=pdf

There is only 1 flat available in Bournemouth itself http://www.dorsethomechoice.org/PDFFiles/PublicFreesheet.pdf which you could get and it looks terrible. Not available to priority band. 2 flights of external metal steps to get to the property above shops. Limited head room and all that for £78.05 rent and £7.90 per week service charges. I'd look around for private rentals. That sheet details only 1 property at the end of it and how long they were on the waiting list for. A top banded "green" applicant registered in Jan 2011 and applied for the property in April 2011.

wow, thanks, i dont know how you found that

mrs arcanum, what does 'choice based lettings' mean?