Renting in Greater Manchester? Shelter needs your stories!

Shelter_Ross

Hi everyone,

I work for Shelter - the national housing and homelessness charity - and we are currently planning a campaign in Greater Manchester to fix renting. We need as many personal stories as possible to strengthen our campaign and reinforce our argument.

So if you and your family have had to struggle with mould, damp or bad conditions, we want to hear from you. If you struggle to afford inflated rent prices, or if your children have had to move school several times because your rental contract has come to an end, then tell us!

Please share your story with us through the link below to help us fix renting in Greater Manchester.

http://england.shelter.org.uk/support_us/campaigns/share_your_story

Your stories are the most powerful tool we have to really engage politicians on this important issue. Together, we can make renting better.

agrinnall

Surely 'fix renting' is something that has to be tackled at a National level (England in this case as Scotland has already taken steps to tackle many of the issues that still exist in England) and that attempting anything on a local level will simply be applying a sticking plaster to a severed artery.

Jackieboy

Isn't asking for only negative experiences going to skew your research?

tim123456789

agrinnall wrote: »

Surely 'fix renting' is something that has to be tackled at a National level (England in this case as Scotland has already taken steps to tackle many of the issues that still exist in England) and that attempting anything on a local level will simply be applying a sticking plaster to a severed artery.

a simple fix is a register of landlords/rented properties

something which can (currently) only be legislatively applied at a local level. (Obviously, HMG can vote themselves the same power if they want)

tim

JP08

Jackieboy wrote: »

Isn't asking for only negative experiences going to skew your research?

I guess that only the landlords providing negative experiences need fixing ...

Cakeguts

What are you going to do about people who are economical with the truth? You cannot accuse anyone of doing anything unless you have proof. No one is going to admit that the reason why they have had a lot of short term contracts is because they have made the life of their neighbours hell with anti social behaviour. They are going to tell you that there was something wrong with the house or the landlord.

How are you going to fix local councils who don't repair their social housing? How are you going to fix universal credit payments that include rent that doesn't get passed on to the landlord? Who is going to tell you that they spent their rent money on Christmas presents?

Shelter_Ross

Hi Agrinnall - we agree renting needs fixing at a national level as well, and we have a number of national campaigns you can see on our website. However, as Greater Manchester will be electing a new mayor in May with new powers, it is a good opportunity to ask them to be a champion of the cause in the region.

Jackieboy - this isn't meant as research, we see the problems that renters face every day through our services. We just need people willing to share their personal stories to strengthen our campaign.

theartfullodger

Very pleased to see Shelter taking an interest in MSE & utilising MSE's strength: Best wishes with your work Ross, hope Shelter can also explore other ways of helping anyone with a housing problem (tenant, homeowner...) electronically on MSE or other, similar, services.

No, I don't expect this small exercise to hugely change the world of renting for Mancunians - though it should make at least a small contribution - but should we not have the charity to applaud initiatives to try & help? I make no comment on the world of ranting....

Best regards to all, including those who disagree with me.

Artful (a landlord btw..., as well as a lodger)

PS The Shelter website(s) are really great resources for landlords to understand the law on landlord/tenant: Plural as in England,
http://england.shelter.org.uk/
Scotland
http://scotland.shelter.org.uk/
&, I once had a free trial, the Shelter Legal service.
http://england.shelter.org.uk/legal/home
Seriously landlords, save yourselves time & money & learn (usually..) for free!

Shelter_Ross

Thank you Artful, so pleased to see landlords making the most of our resources! We have many supporters who are also landlords, and you can find specific advice here:

http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/advice_for_landlords

Cakeguts

I looked at the website and found a whole load of sob stories about children living in hostels. While this is very sad it is actually the job of their parents to house them.

I had to actually do a search to find out what Shelter was doing to help the mentally ill who are sleeping rough. Some people who suffer from mental illness have nothing. However there isn't much of a sob story about someone who is sleeping rough because they have a mental illness. So as far as I am concerned it seems that if you are a child living in a hostel you are going to get much more out of shelter than you will if you are addicted to drugs and living on the streets because you have an illness that hasn't been treated properly. It wasn't even clear to me whether you understood that the mental illness was not caused by living on the streets. The living on the streets was caused by a mental illness that wasn't treated properly. If you really want to do something about homelessness you need to do more about the people who are living on the streets. A child who has to open their Christmas presents in a hostel is housed. It may not be the best housing but it is housing. Lots of people would like to live somewhere bigger if they could afford it. Some people would just like somewhere to live.

sparky130a

Shelter_Ross wrote: »

I work for Shelter

Then i expect better from you.