Couple with child near me, offered a 2-bed bungalow in social housing!

lighting_up_the_chalice

jjj1980 wrote: »

I live in Leeds so know the areas well. If you look at the type of house, number of bids etc where a property has gone to someone in band Called, they have very low numbers of bids (3 in some cases). Also most of the properties are either highrise flats or bedsits/sheltered housing, although there are some houses. It does come down to the areas mainly though.

The average time to be rehoused if in band C here is 5-10 years if you are looking at the better areas. The houses in such areas regularly get between 200-300 bids!

There's an old saying in housing...... "Good, quick, cheap... Which 2 would you like?"

dodger1

lighting_up_the_chalice wrote: »

I see you are making the very common mistake of confusing "subsidised" with "affordable". There are parts of the country where private rents are lower than social housing rents. Are THEY subsidised?

POPPYOSCAR wrote: »

Really?

Why go for social housing then, better to move to private.

Yes really. I live in Southampton in a HA flat, my rent is £490 per month and there are many private one bedroom flats bigger than mine for less rent. LHA is £115 per week for one bedroom properties in my area. Why go for this? All older residents so nothing anti social but mostly security of tenure.

jjj1980

lighting_up_the_chalice wrote: »

There's an old saying in housing...... "Good, quick, cheap... Which 2 would you like?"

It's much more complicated than that though.

As an example, one house let I know of recently close to me (I know the person who was allocated it as well)
2 bed house
Wet floor shower
Stairlift


It had received over 150 bids and is classed as being in a not so nice area. The person allocated it was in band C and had been registered for 2 years. There wee bids from people in the A and B bands which naturally took precedence but as none of the applicants had the need for the adaptations the person in band C got it.

Also I know has happened in past, a band A or B applicant has been offered first and turned it down, or there has been a local connection requirement that higher priority bidders had not been able to meet and a band C bidder got the property.

I do wonder whether the OP has issue with the fact one of the tenants of the mentioned property works, whether it's because they have a child, where the property is or whether their issue is with it being a bungalow. This doesn't seem to have been stated.

POPPYOSCAR

jjj1980 wrote: »

It's much more complicated than that though.

As an example, one house let I know of recently close to me (I know the person who was allocated it as well)
2 bed house
Wet floor shower
Stairlift


It had received over 150 bids and is classed as being in a not so nice area. The person allocated it was in band C and had been registered for 2 years. There wee bids from people in the A and B bands which naturally took precedence but as none of the applicants had the need for the adaptations the person in band C got it.

Also I know has happened in past, a band A or B applicant has been offered first and turned it down, or there has been a local connection requirement that higher priority bidders had not been able to meet and a band C bidder got the property.

I do wonder whether the OP has issue with the fact one of the tenants of the mentioned property works, whether it's because they have a child, where the property is or whether their issue is with it being a bungalow. This doesn't seem to have been stated.

I think it must be something to do with it being a bungalow as the OP goes on to to say they are not elderly or disabled. Perhaps they think only the elderly or disabled would qualify i.e. no stairs etc?

seven-day-weekend

POPPYOSCAR wrote: »

I think it must be something to do with it being a bungalow as the OP goes on to to say they are not elderly or disabled. Perhaps they think only the elderly or disabled would qualify i.e. no stairs etc?

I think that is what the OP objects to, but I still maintain that many elderly people or those with mobility problems would not want to live in such an isolated place.

The_Earl_of_Streatham

Chrissie72 wrote: »

Just wondered; how could this happen?

This couple are mid 40s, they have a child of 13, and have been in private let for 3.5 years since going bankrupt in late 2009.

She told me that she has been on the housing list for 5 years - 1.5 years before she and her husband went bankrupt. And last week, they were offered a bungalow from a local housing association!

I am baffled as they're not elderly or disabled. Only under occupied (the private let has 3 bedrooms,) but I think you would only get priority for under-occupying, if you're on housing benefit and her husband actually works, so they can't be. She is a stay at home mum and he works full time. The rent is only £70 a week, instead of £150 a week that their private let house is! They will have masses of surplus left. If they have been paying £150 a week, then they will be saving £80 a week!

Spare me the 'you sound jealous' and 'what's it got to do with you' lectures please I just wonder why and how they would be offered a bungalow. It's in a very nice area too.... a village with only 450 people, 4 miles from the nearest main town, half a mile from a main road, and with no shops or schools for a mile. I would have thought that kind of area would be highly sought after! It's so quiet and rural, yet only 4 miles from a large main town.

You think that's bad? There's a Polish bloke up the road fixes cars for a living.

POPPYOSCAR

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

I think that is what the OP objects to, but I still maintain that many elderly people or those with mobility problems would not want to live in such an isolated place.

Quite possibly.

Lou67

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

Sounds in the middle of nowhere to me. I would not want to live there, I want to be able to walk to places.

Well they need two bedrooms don't they? And someone with a mobility disability probably wouldn't want to live in the middle of nowhere. Therefore maybe this couple were the only ones who wanted it.

4 miles from a main town; in the middle of nowhere?! I don't agree with you there.

And so the upshot is, if you have a car (as many people in villages that are 4 to 10 miles away from a main town do have,) then there is no problem. Millions of people (including some people I know,) live in small villages that are not two minutes walk away from main shops or bus stops or doctors etc, and have lived happily for many years in these settings. I really can't see an issue at all, and think that it would be much better than living in a big busy town or on a sink estate. I would LOVE to live in a wee village like this, ESPECIALLY one that is only 4 miles away from a big town. It sounds wonderful. They never come up on our housing list though. The lovely little villages in my county, are outside my town, and are on another town's list.

The only reason I can think of why anyone would have an issue with it is if they cannot drive, or they are alone.... I think some people are just spoilt and have got so used to being close to everything, and they are mortified (or scared) at the thought of moving into a situation where the amenities are not on their doorstep. Frankly, it wouldn't bother me in the least.

Where I live, there are many wee villages, but none of them are more than 7 miles from a main town where there's multiple shops and a train station, doctors, dentist etc.... and virtually anyone who lives out there has a car. Yes it would be more of an issue in the snow, but half of the town I live in, couldn't get out of their part of the town to their workplace anyway! (The buses weren't running on a few of the days!) 2 women I work with, that live in one of the villages in the county that I live in, weren't any more unable to get to work, than people who lived in the town itself.

When I am much older - say 75-ish (in 20/25 years) or if my situation changes (like I become disabled,) and I feel isolated (and 4 miles from a main town is hardly isolated!) then I may consider moving. Then again, I have family and friends and I will have neighbours: it's not like you would be alone, 20 miles from a soul! Like I said, my mother lived close-ish to amenities, and yet she STILL needed people to take her to the shops, the doctors, and the hairdressers, and she refused to use the bus, even though the bus stop was a few minutes walk!

I live in a big town and I used to live in a suburb of the far south of my town that was 5 miles to the main shopping centre, 15 minutes walk to the bus stop, and 20 minutes walk to the doctor. Also it was 5 miles from the dentist, and 4 miles to my daughter's secondary school! The bus wasn't an option to school, as it was a 15 minutes walk to the bus stop, then she had to get 2 buses. It took 80 minutes in total to get to school on the bus! So it wasn't any better or 'more convenient' than living in one of the county villages! I mean, we had to go in the car to just about everywhere anyway. My husband worked 10 miles away from where we lived, and he works shifts, so he had to drive to work, just the same as he would in a village. In fact, we always drive everywhere.

All the villages in my county have mains gas and electric... maybe not in *some* counties in the country, but in mine they do have. No way in hell would I turn down a social housing property in a lovely village that was only £70 a week, PURELY because it was 4 miles from a main town (especially if we had a car, which we do.) Even now, my daughter's college takes 1.5 hours by bus, when it's only 15 minutes drive!!!

I think some people are just too fussy. Insisting on having the doctor, bus stop, and a shop within five minutes of their doorstep is fine, but you are much more likely to have to wait a long time for social housing. Whenever WE bid on properties with amenities closeby, we always have 100s above us! As long as you have a car, I see no problem in a village setting, even if there *is* no shop and the closest town is 4 miles. Like I said, most people don't live close to their work anyway, and many people STILL use their car to get virtually everywhere.

So I don't agree with your points tbh. But each to their own.

lukieboy96

People, this day and age want to know everyone's business. They have been allocated it by the housing. They shouldn't have to explain themselves.

RosiPossum

I feel sorry for the family who have moved in to a small village and probably thought they'd made a friend who they disclosed personal info to. That new friend then went on a forum to air all of the family's business and express their surprise.

I wonder how they'd feel if they logged on here and read that? It's pretty specific, and they could well be members.