Council Housing.

stellagypsy

Phoenix - Councils are not allowed to build new houses. Now we are a Housing Association the rules are different BUT thanks to the govt again, we have got to put new homes up for shared ownership so I hope no one gets their hopes up too high.

Assylum Seekers are funded by the government until they get leave to stay. Then they are in the same boat (so to speak) as every one else. They have to go through the procedure of registerig their interest in proeprties BUT as they can only register when they get their leave to stay and usually have about 10 days to find somewher eto live their choice is very limited. It is a popular urban myth that they jump the queue and get a nice 3-bed house. Where I am they have to accept the grot that no one else wants. And we are talking seriously grotty properties / bad neighbours, etc. One area we put them in was so bad they decided to go back. (true story).

DavidLaGuardia

pingua wrote:

Hi ,
We have been on the council waiting list since Feb 04. We live with husbands father in 2 bed house. Two children,three adults and five large dogs. We have 145 points and are still waiting. Not too sure how they have worked the points out. I know for a fact that people already in adequate housing have been moved to different areas for whatever reasons.
We have often tried to work out their system but as you can tell have failed.


Not happy.

Who owns these large dogs? I hope they belong to your father, otherwise how on earth do you have the cheek to go on a housing list?

Fran

DavidLaGuardia wrote:

Who owns these large dogs? I hope they belong to your father, otherwise how on earth do you have the cheek to go on a housing list?

This is not a fair comment as you don't know their personal circumstances.

LearningToSave.

DavidLaGuardia wrote:

Who owns these large dogs? I hope they belong to your father, otherwise how on earth do you have the cheek to go on a housing list?

i agree with fran,not a fair comment.
you shouldnt comment harshly unless you know the full story if there is no blatant reason too...me,my husband and two year old were homeless at xmas whilst i was pregnant...people who didnt know me or our situation kept asking me why i had gotten pg and slating us for it!!well when it all blew up i was 28 weeks pg-if i had known it would happen i wouldnt have tried for a baby obviously.so dont judge people without the full facts.
thankfully the council did act quickly....we were homeless as of 10th dec at which point they put us in a b+b for two days...then into temp accom in a family unit(was a self contained 2 up two down flat) and then on 22nd dec offered us a two bed house which we moved into on 14th jan.
to the original poster i hope it all works out for you,please pop back and keep us informed.

margaretclare

Learning to Save

I don't think your situation is quite the same - you and your husband had a 2-year old and a baby on the way - you fall into one of the groups of people who are meant to be helped and to be high in the list of priorities.

5 large dogs do not quite come into the same category!

I once had to re-home several of my late husband's dogs when he died and I had to go away to work just to keep paying the mortgage. They were small dogs though (he used to breed Yorkshire Terriers). But the problem was still the same. As I saw it my option was - be made homeless and keep the dogs? Or re-home them and do residential work which enabled me to keep paying the mortgage. It was an easy choice for me.

Aunty Margaret

margaret_3

margaretclare wrote:

Learning to Save

I don't think your situation is quite the same - you and your husband had a 2-year old and a baby on the way - you fall into one of the groups of people who are meant to be helped and to be high in the list of priorities.

5 large dogs do not quite come into the same category!

I once had to re-home several of my late husband's dogs when he died and I had to go away to work just to keep paying the mortgage. They were small dogs though (he used to breed Yorkshire Terriers). But the problem was still the same. As I saw it my option was - be made homeless and keep the dogs? Or re-home them and do residential work which enabled me to keep paying the mortgage. It was an easy choice for me.

Aunty Margaret

Sensible post!
It's amazing how we can divide people into two kinds--the ones who think the world owes tham a living and your kind who believe in helping themselves.
:j
Margaret

Murtle

stellagypsy wrote:

Assylum Seekers are funded by the government until they get leave to stay. Then they are in the same boat (so to speak) as every one else. They have to go through the procedure of registerig their interest in proeprties BUT as they can only register when they get their leave to stay and usually have about 10 days to find somewher eto live their choice is very limited. It is a popular urban myth that they jump the queue and get a nice 3-bed house. Where I am they have to accept the grot that no one else wants. And we are talking seriously grotty properties / bad neighbours, etc. One area we put them in was so bad they decided to go back. (true story).

sorry off topic, but if they decide to go back, how/why were they granted assylum in the first place???

I don't understand

edited to add; this is a genuine question as I really don't know how any of this works and was wondering?? I thought assylum seekers were moving from *bad* places that they couldn't live in ie torture etc??

Fran

Murtle wrote:

I thought assylum seekers were moving from *bad* places that they couldn't live in ie torture etc??

Perhaps living in our worst housing is still worse than being killed. Perhaps it was torture to be harassed/abused etc. and they couldn't bear that either.

LearningToSave.

i didnt mean i put myself etc in same position as dogs!!
i just meant dont judge harshly....as in we dont even know if the dogs were the op's or not so it was unfair to judge harshly.dont judge unless you know all facts.
and also i dont think we were 'owed' anything either........i am so,so unbelieveably grateful for the help we recieved.......and even wrote a letter and sent card of thanks to our homeless officer,i dont intend to ever try to buy this house either as i dont think people should be allowed too anymore.we could live here until we die and then the house passed on to others if they so need it although i personally hope to dig ourselves out of the mess we are in financially and buy ourselves so the house can go to those who need it then.

stellagypsy

Hi Murtle.

When A. S. 's arrive in the UK theyare first sent to an assessment centre and then when they are sifted and sorted they are "sent" to a town or city (they have no say where) and the Local Authority has the responsibility of providing homes for these people (often they are family groups) in social housing stock whilst the Home Office consider their application. As soon as the decision is made that they are bona fide A.S.'s they have to move OUT of this temporary property and fight for a house / flat with every one else. Some get priority as homeless if they have kids (under the terms of the Children's Act), others don't.

Like everything else the govt has it's hands in, there are quotas and performance targets and the LA's have to provide a certain number of properties under the contract with the govt - the only ones available in the quantity they wanted were in bad areas. Fran has it right - the conditions on some inner city housing estates in the UK are terrible, the A.S.'s suffered harassment because they are "different", threats, petrol rags through letter boxes at night, burglary, assault - it goes on and on.

The fact that they went back raises several questions - were they economic or political refugees? How serious was thier application? Did they think the streets of England were paved with gold? Perhaps they tried another country, perhaps they "dissappeared" in to the black economy.