Britain's Hidden Housing Crisis

mel48rose

BigAunty wrote: »

There's no way that the landlord of their 1 bedroom flat only gave them notice to leave on that particular day after their eldest smashed a window.

It is staggering to think that they left it to the morning of the eviction to go to the council and that they left children alone in the flat at the actual time it was due to take place. They seemed bewildered that the landlords representatives actually had the temerity to turn up when they said they would - it was the parents that were to blame for their childrens distress in the flat by being absent when they knew the repossession was actually due.

I absolutely agree. Totally appalling lack of responsibility on the parents part. I did get choked when I saw their young son sobbing outside by the taxi though. Not the kids fault that they have crap parents eh.

Errata

BigAunty wrote: »

On another forum, someone looked up the cost of the lady's property as the address was mentioned on the programme and said it cost £40k originally and a nearby property sold a few years ago for £160k.

If so, perhaps her OH wanted half the £160k either from her, through remortgaging, or by selling it.

ash28

SailorSam wrote: »

I thought watching Kevin that before the banking crisis that led to his downfall he must have thought his life was made, he must have had a nice home and top income , then to see it all disappear and his marriage fall out. And then at 52 to be in the gutter sleeping in a park shelter and doss house full of violent druggies, how many people in his position must start to think that suicide would be the only way out.
I hope he comes through this well.

Before the crisis Kevin left his London flat and lived and ran his own business in the USA (on Wall Street) - his flight back to the UK was paid for by charity.

It may seem harsh but Kevin took his talents and set up a business and then lost everything in America, then came back here to be housed and fed by UK taxpayers.

Although he came across as a pleasant guy, why should be people feel more sorry for him (living the good life in the USA) than the family with the £500k house and the father's engineering business that went bust? It was a similar situation. Or the lady with breast cancer? Or even the bus driver and his children.

I actually felt sorry for them all.

Kevin made his choices long before the financial crisis by going to the US and we pick up the pieces. And he lost a lot of sympathy from when he "you British......", isn't he British?

Errata

If Kevin doesn't have a bean, how is he paying for his accommodation, utilities, food?

BigAunty

Errata wrote: »

If Kevin doesn't have a bean, how is he paying for his accommodation, utilities, food?

They delay at the start seemed to be about whether he was habitually resident in the UK to qualify for benefits so I imagine once they confirmed this, he then qualified for HB and JSA.

BigAunty

ash28 wrote: »

...



Although he came across as a pleasant guy, why should be people feel more sorry for him (living the good life in the USA) than the family with the £500k house and the father's engineering business that went bust? It was a similar situation. Or the lady with breast cancer? Or even the bus driver and his children.

I think that the programme was vague about how he ended up in such dire poverty from such high affluence compared with the rest whose stories seemed a bit more transparent and explicit how their poor decision making may have contributed to their predicament, so that increased the 'sympathy' element, that lack of context.

He was the only truly street homeless person, too, and exposed to other people's violence, theft and addictions in the hostel so he endured more (or perhaps its more accurate to say a different type of) hardship than the other cases.

Despite his greater hardship, he seemed to be a bit more proactive in dealing with his situation and more grateful for the assistance than the others - contrast his reaction in getting keys to a shared property compared to the lady from Essex.

He just seemed a bit more philosophical about his lot and optimistic about the future than the others who were more prone to finger pointing at external causes to their homelessness and expecting a higher standard of assistance than they got.

He used to live in Kensington and it didn't seem to trouble him too much to bed down on the floor with 25 other people, he lived more in the present and wanted to look more to the future than the other people who were living in the past.

Errata

BigAunty wrote: »

They delay at the start seemed to be about whether he was habitually resident in the UK to qualify for benefits so I imagine once they confirmed this, he then qualified for HB and JSA.

Surely he wasn't habitually resident if he'd been living in America for a number of years?

olivia84

my heart just absolutley went out to kevin. yes, i suppose we could feel a little less sorry for him because he upped sticks and left the uk and is now back with his begging bowl, but we don't know why he went to america in the first place. maybe it was his marriage, his wife may have been american, maybe he worked for a uk company in america first before he had his own business there. but he looked the most genuine and in need to me.

honest to god, and i don't mean this to sound patronising (but i probably do) but i think about him eating his little sandwich and soup and having to be in that hostel with violent drug addicts and looking back at his old flat and where he used to play with his mother and i could totally cry for him.

he honestly seemed the most grateful for any help he received and when he was at the outdoor soup kitchen you could hear him saying "oh i didn't get some soup earlier...sorry about that" he just seemed so humble. i really hope he will be ok, and i know it said at the end he was looking for work as an investment banker, the programe makers may have glossed over that a bit. he looks like the kind of guy to me who would honestly do anything if he had to. if the council came and said to him he had to sweep the streets or pick up rubbish for his accomdation, i think he would do it with no problem and not bat an eyelid, because that would be the rules and just what you had to do.

the lady with cancer...i did feel for her i really did. but; and i know we don't know the entire situation, but if my mum was ill and £9000 in arrears and about to be turffed out on the streets, i would do anything i could for her. whether it be finding the money for her or having her move in with me, i couldn't let her doss on a friend's blow up bed or live in a flea pit. but as others have said, these are the hoops you have to go through with the council to 'get there in the end' and be given permenant social housing.

one thing i did notice about the lady with cancer and the skiing familoy, they had lovley houses! as in, you could tell money had been spent on them and i wonder if this is where money in the past has went instead of towards the mortgage (hell, we've all done it)

the programe was a real eye opener to me, and i have been silly in the past and missed the odd mortgage payment and been on interest only. but never again. i am thankfully up to date and back on repayment but even if i have no carpets or possesions, i will always always pay my mortgage.

wow - i fair went on a bit there - sorry!

BigAunty

Errata wrote: »

Surely he wasn't habitually resident if he'd been living in America for a number of years?

Habitually resident now....

AFAIK, expats have to go through a test to check that they've really returned back to the country. I don't know the full details on this.

But I still think the way he came over more positively is due to the fact that he fell so far that he welcomed the prospect of a hostel (okay, was diabolical in the end) and grateful for a room in a shared property.

The others hankered to have what they couldn't afford or weren't entitled to, they really clung on to what they lost.

The family who had a council property and were evicted for arrears from that, followed by their eviction from a hostel for their daughter's anti social behaviour were delusional and expected to get another council house, then when it sunk in that they couldn't, they then expected the council to find them private accommodation.

The family with a big house still could not find a rental property 3 and a half months after they receive a notice to say their property would be repossessed. The lady with her own house that was repossessed was disgusted at living in a shared property, she obviously found it hard to re-adjust to a much lower quality of accommodation.

Kevin just soldiered on and sucked it up.

BigAunty

olivia84 wrote: »

...

the lady with cancer...i did feel for her i really did. but; and i know we don't know the entire situation, but if my mum was ill and £9000 in arrears and about to be turffed out on the streets, i would do anything i could for her.

Yes, I was very moved, too, and also wondered why her family and friends, perhaps ex husband, could not help her more.

Obviously we don't know their circumstances but I wondered why her close relatives could not have arranged a loan between themselves. If she was looking after her grand kids on a full time basis that would mean that even if the parents only had NMW jobs, their gross income would be 25k so could have qualified for credit but then we don't know if her daughter was a lone parent working part time with debts, for example.

I also was baffled in how she was in arrears for so very long, even prior to her illness, and could only come up with an offer to pay the current interest only part of her mortage at most which would not have dealt with the back log at all.

It was painful to hear her say 'I only really needed a few more months to get back on my feet' when she was approaching 4 years of mortgage arrears and probably did not stick to a previous repayment plan. A bank will stay repossession if they think there is a good chance that the home owner will in a position in the future to get to grips with their debt.