Would you buy a house next to mentally handicapped children?

Rosemary7391

elsien wrote: »

On the other side of the coin, a person with a learning disability who shouted and slammed doors all night was put by the housing association into a new build end semi. No-one should be expected to have to put up with that for months on end, so I would imagine it could have a huge impact on saleability.

As with anything, it's around specific circumstances and not blanket assumptions.

Precisely how I would think about it. I'd probably look at the organisation who ran it - if they have a reputation for being good at what they do then I'd have no problem with it. Part of that is going to be making sure the accommodation is suitable, and it isn't suitable if it's likely to cause an actual problem for the neighbours.

The situation described by elsien would have me going absolutely spare, I don't sleep well at the best of times and people shouting/screaming is the worst sort of noise for me. Any sympathy for the problems of my neighbour would be drowned in lack of sleep and anger at the organisation responsible for providing such inadequate housing. It isn't nice to set people up such that they're going to antagonise the neighbours for anyone involved.

SailorSam

elsien wrote: »

On the other side of the coin, a person with a learning disability who shouted and slammed doors all night was put by the housing association into a new build end semi. No-one should be expected to have to put up with that for months on end, .

It's not just people with learning disabilities that scream & shout and slam doors.

elsien

It isn't, but if you know this behaviour is there, will be an issue, and the person has little/no understanding of the impact on others then it's different to a noisy neighbour choosing to be antisocial and getting an Asbo slapped on them. Why set someone up to fail when it's not their fault?

MothballsWallet

sammyjammy wrote: »

I think I wouldn't use the term mentally handicapped for a start!

Do you work for the Equality and Human Rights Council (EHRC)?

If not, then please stop breaking UDOHR Article 19.

hubr

I had a good, well-paid job in Reading, but we were surrounded by high-security fence, floodlights and barbed wire. Although it seemed like a prison, it wasn't one. Next door was some kind of school for mentally ill children, and passing it one day as loud singing emanated from an open window my boss remarked to me, " We slave away all day, grappling with insoluble problems to earn a crust, inside this awful compound, for our slave-driving masters, but just listen to how happy those children sound next door!"
It did make me think....

AdrianC

I feel sorry for the kids, having to live next to him. Insult to injury, an' all.

phoebe1989seb

I wouldn't. We once bought a detached house next to a private nursery school that had opened a couple of years previously. These were quite large, six bedroom Victorian houses in a quiet residential conservation area and initially only the ground floor was used by the nursery, as the owners lived on the upper floors. Only six children were allowed in the garden (65' x 35') at any one time. These large properties - many of which had been divided into flats - had no off-street parking and only two had garages. Every morning between 8 and 9 and again between 4pm and 6pm the road became congested with parents dropping kids off.

Within a year or so the owners moved out and the rest of the building was incorporated into the nursery which now accommodated forty-five pre-school kids and babies. Overnight twice as many were allowed in the garden and the parking was a total nightmare. One mum was wheel-clamped for parking across an entrance to one of the two houses with driveways (the owner of said house thought he owned the street!). The staff regularly flouted the garden rules and often twenty-odd kids were out there making a racket. Fortunately we had no issues with noise inside the house due to being detached.

The final straw was when the owners bought another property opposite and the numbers between both branches grew to ninety!

Shortly after we sold up and it put us off living next to any kind of school for life.

Incidentally the neighbour who had the mum wheel-clamped had two kids with severe mental and physical disabilities. Although our houses were not attached we could very occasionally hear them screaming/shouting, but that didn't bother us at all. Five would be a different matter, imho......

Lummoxley

Standard children's homes have far more complaints as they have the kids who there are no foster placements for, often due to behaviour.

However, any well run home will work with the neighbours, who, on the whole are great. There is usually one neighbour who will continually complain and every noise or anti-social incident within a hundred yard radius will be raised by that neighbour when many will have nothing to do with the home.

Sounds like you met that neighbour.

Caveat. There are a few poorly run homes that blight their area, as would any neighbour from hell.

And remember it is as much those kids home as the neighbours is his.

kingfisherblue

I would live next door to children with severe learning disabilities - I live with my own son, who is in the category of moderate to severe. However, he hates noise. He scares easily if there is a lot of noise, and is happiest with a pen and paper, writing endless lists of the same things.

My friend's son lives in a small group home, due to his severe learning disabilities. He can be very noisy and shouts a lot. Sometimes he can help it, but other times he cannot (he also has Tourette's, which usually presents as physical tics, but sometimes as verbal ones). He didn't ask to be born this way, and he has to live somewhere.

Both boys attend the same special school. Most of the children (and young adults - my son is 18), don't scream and shout all the time. Many are non-verbal, and few are aggressive.

There are far worse neighbours to have, in my opinion. The people who play loud music every weekend, those who park inconsiderately, snobs who judge others, and the parents who allow their children to be out at all times of day and night.

cadon

I wouldn't want to live next door to any children, given the choice.

People prefer to live next to similar people as they make the same sort of noise, which falls within their own personal acceptable limits. As I don't have kids, it's no surprise that my preference is not to be near them. I don't enjoy any of the sound they make, whereas parents/grandparents etc might find it pleasant.

I don't mind the sound of people coming home late at night or watching television after midnight. But I imagine parents with young kids might find that irritating.

Of course, you can't control your neighbours. People move all the time.