Council Housing.

Murtle

Thank you stellagypsy for taking the time to respond, it puts things in perspective when you understand the workings behind them. Thankfully I have never been in a position where I have needed the help of housing so don't know anything about the situation. So it is interesting to see the problems being faced in areas unknown!

Thanks

Murtle

kellemeek

Hi there,

I have been into housing and they said there is no chance i will get a house because we have our housing needs in a 2 bedroomed. But she has given me a form to fill in to apply for special allocation points.

Does anyone think they will award such points for depression and wanting to be near my mum for support?

I also help my mum look after my father who is disabled and 89 year old grandmother.

Just thought someone might know because i might just be wasting my time yet again with more forms!!!!

Thanking everyone for advice!!very useful

kelle

DavidLaGuardia

LearningToSave. wrote:

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.

I was a little harsh and I should not have been.
I am not going to make any judgement of the situation you are in. It is not even relevant whose fault it is, You are in a situation that needs to be resolved and I truly hope you can be assisted in finding a way out and become self dependant and it seems you also want that.
What irks me (and you are welcome to offer an exaplantion) is that having found yourself in this situation how keeping five large dogs is really the best thing all round however hard it is to let them go (a dog may miss its owner initially when put elsewhere but where its life and emotional needs are met). They are doubtlessly a financial burden and if you do become dependant on others it is not fair to use it on keeping them. Most of all, large dogs need space and there might be enough people to provide it if there wasn't so much excessive breeding particularly of pedigree freaks that often have cruelly had problems bred into them for the sake of some selfish humans who are only pandering to their own peverse needs (I'm not aiming this last comment at you I'm just airing a view about something that really gives me the hump. I think there should be a dog licencing scheme introduced to police dog welfare)
I don't know your situation, but if it was brought on by a crisis maybe the cost of a few less dogs could be appropriately allocated when you are back on your feet (and I hope you will be) to making provision for a crisis or even having unemployment/sickness insurance (if this is relevant to the current situation).

Savvy_Sue

I think we are getting confused. There are at least three different families within this thread who seem to be being subsumed into one family unit.

There is the OP, kelleemeek.

There is Pingua, who AFAIK is the only one to have mentioned that she is sharing her home with dogs, and we don't know whether the dogs are belong to her or the family member she is having to share a small house with.

There is Learningtosave who described a good experience of being rehoused and asked us not to judge people without knowing their situations. Hear, hear.

My comments about Pingua's dogs were restricted to the fact that you don't get extra points for dogs. Someone else pointed out that it might actually adversely affect your chance of being rehoused, which is true, and we've had reasons given for that. And Aunty Margaret described the hard choices which sometimes have to be made where animals are concerned. Now, since we don't know whose dogs they are, and since if someone's been kind enough to let you move in with them temporarily you can't very well tell to get rid of any dogs they might have, can we leave it to Pingua to work out what to do for the best? Please?

Savvy_Sue

kellemeek wrote:

I have been into housing and they said there is no chance i will get a house because we have our housing needs in a 2 bedroomed. But she has given me a form to fill in to apply for special allocation points.

Does anyone think they will award such points for depression and wanting to be near my mum for support?

I also help my mum look after my father who is disabled and 89 year old grandmother.

Just thought someone might know because i might just be wasting my time yet again with more forms!!!!

Thanking everyone for advice!!very useful

They ought to award some points for depression, it would be worth going to see your GP to see if they will support your application. Make sure your GP knows how bad you are at your worst.

I don't know that they give any points for 'family connection' BUT you may be able to get some more points if someone will write to say how much help you are giving your Mum with your dad and grandma, and how much better it would be for all concerned if you were closer. Is there a social worker who might do this? Age Concern? Help the Aged? Is there anyone giving your mum 'official' support, as it were?

margaretclare

kellemeek wrote:

I have been into housing and they said there is no chance i will get a house because we have our housing needs in a 2 bedroomed. But she has given me a form to fill in to apply for special allocation points.

Does anyone think they will award such points for depression and wanting to be near my mum for support?

I also help my mum look after my father who is disabled and 89 year old grandmother.

Just thought someone might know because i might just be wasting my time yet again with more forms!!!!

Well, if you've been given forms to fill in, what can you lose - a bit of pen-and-ink and the time it takes you to fill them. Which should be simple if they're asking you to describe your situation - just write it as you've told it here! It doesn't have to be great literature, just keep it simple and to the point.

I doubt if any of us can tell what someone else (i.e. Housing Department staff) will decide! They have their rules and guidelines to keep to and they have 'bad days' like the rest of us.

Do you mean that you're already living in a 2-bedroomed council property and you've been told that this is enough for your housing needs? Well, there are 2 of you with a little boy - that means that you have a bedroom for yourselves and one for the child. If your coming baby is another boy that will still fulfil your needs - 2 boys are considered to be able to share. If it's a girl it's different, after a certain age a boy and girl mustn't share a bedroom, but I don't know what age that is.

Aunty Margaret

margaretclare

DavidLaGuardia wrote:

What irks me (and you are welcome to offer an exaplantion) is that having found yourself in this situation how keeping five large dogs is really the best thing all round however hard it is to let them go (a dog may miss its owner initially when put elsewhere but where its life and emotional needs are met). They are doubtlessly a financial burden and if you do become dependant on others it is not fair to use it on keeping them. Most of all, large dogs need space and there might be enough people to provide it if there wasn't so much excessive breeding particularly of pedigree freaks that often have cruelly had problems bred into them for the sake of some selfish humans who are only pandering to their own peverse needs (I'm not aiming this last comment at you I'm just airing a view about something that really gives me the hump. I think there should be a dog licensing scheme introduced to police dog welfare)
I don't know your situation, but if it was brought on by a crisis maybe the cost of a few less dogs could be appropriately allocated when you are back on your feet (and I hope you will be) to making provision for a crisis or even having unemployment/sickness insurance (if this is relevant to the current situation).

I take SavvySue's comment about different people's situation getting confused, but I also want to say how much I agree with David.

Any animal costs, if you're going to take care of it properly. Large dogs cost a fortune in food and they also need a lot of exercise. But any animal costs a lot, even a small dog or a cat. There's not only the food to consider, there are vet's bills, even with pet insurance. Their grooming, their vaccinations....

A few years ago we were down to one cat, and I'd always been used to having animals around me for most of my life. This one elderly cat couldn't be insured because she was over 9. We used to like to go away for long weekends when we were both still working. Overnight wasn't such a problem - neighbours would feed her, she could get in and out through the cat-flap. Anything more than one night, we had to put her in kennels, which meant that her vaccinations had to be all up to date, then the cost of kennels. I even had one cat when I was still going away to work, I was away for 2 weeks, cat in kennels, I was going away to pay my mortgage etc but also to pay costs of cat!

Since that elderly cat died we no longer have a live-in pet. We don't want the responsibility and the hassle! We've turned our back garden into a wildlife refuge complete with pond, boggy area, woodland edge and small wildflower meadow, and we get just as much pleasure (and less responsibility!) from that, than we did for all the years of keeping pets.

Bit off-topic, sorry. But I do agree with David.

Aunty Margaret

LearningToSave.

the council dont consider a boy and girl sharing a problem in most areas until they are 8,however some areas it is 10!!!

Fran

kellemeek,

The things that you get extra points (or give you higher priority, depending on how your local authority works) should be on the form & info that came with it. Some authorities will give priority for health reasons and or social reasons, but it's something you need to check locally with the authority.

Make sure you also get on any housing association lists in your area as they have their own rules which can be different to council. You should see if you can get on their waiting lists independent of the council if relevant.

margaretclare

LearningToSave. wrote:

the council dont consider a boy and girl sharing a problem in most areas until they are 8,however some areas it is 10!!!

So, Kellemeek, your present housing could still be considered as 'meeting your needs' for another 8 - 10 years. Unless you can convince the Housing Dept about the other factors you describe - your need to be near your mother etc.

Aunty Margaret