unsuitable housing

geekgirl

It seems you are going to have to accept the offer of the flat. In all honesty if it is in a so called 'dodgy' area you are going to be much safer 4 flights up anyway.

My daughter and her husband has just been given housing and they are over the moon. It is a two bedroomed house in a less desirable area but they are so grateful as they cannot afford to buy for a good few years yet. They have already made the house look amazing (all done cheaply) and once they shut their front door it doesn't matter what the rest of the estate is like.
There is nothing like living somewhere you would rather not be to give you a kick to do something about it.

I hope you manage to make yourself feel at home there until you are able to change your situation. Good luck.

wizard5353

I've been waiting 6 years and not got one offer. Granted I chose not to include the dodgy estates which is why I've been waiting 6 years.

It's not good and I don't think the social housing is something to be proud of. But I wait and accept I have to wait or get moved to a war zone.

For those of you who said it's better than nothing, no I don't agree. My neighbours were in the same boat as us and moved to one of the dodgy council estates instead of waiting. Their car was robbed the first night. The second night the window was put through. The third night the house was robbed.... I'm glad I stayed put and waited. It's not as easy as saying once you close the door to your house you can forget about the scum outside because they don't forget about you! Not everyone can go through the hassle of getting a new car each week to replace the one that was stolen the week before. Not everyone can hire a 24/7 security team to watch over your house day in day out.

I'm renting private for now and it's costing me a bomb. But at least I'm not filling in insurance claims each week and watching my premiums sky rocket through the roof!

cindy100 one thing I have done and others have done to avoid being in this position is to relocate to another county. I know it sounds drastic but this way you can find better areas to live and you will be using another housing association so the 3 strike rule drops back to zero. In my area we get to pick which estates we will not live in so my count is still at zero even though we have not been offered anything!

neas

Unfortunately if as another poster has said, you will have to wait years to get a house in a 'good' area. Best to take the one in a worse area, to motivate you to move up.

asea

I think I'm going to give up working so hard & just start popping out the babies. I'd always thought I couldn't afford to & thought I should wait until after my OU degree (that I'm working so hard to pay for). Now I just feel stupid!

cindy100

asea wrote: »

I think I'm going to give up working so hard & just start popping out the babies. I'd always thought I couldn't afford to & thought I should wait until after my OU degree (that I'm working so hard to pay for). Now I just feel stupid!

yes it's great being on benefits, and not being able to afford the things i would like buy for my kids and finding it hard to pay the bills, my partner was working when i was "popping" out babies and we are now trying to train to get better jobs, would you prefer it if we both took dead end jobs that we hated and would never be able to get out of social housing? you should feel stupid and stop being so hateful. :mad:

asea

Well I don't feel stupid (I feel proud of myself for what I've achieved) & am not hateful. I left school with no qualifications, no family help nothing & have been working for myself in dead end jobs which I hate & have made me miserable. I did years of working night shifts in hotels putting up with abusive people as well as doing admin work during the day - I couldn't afford my rent & money for books & university fees most months yet alone luxuries & I give my cousin (who's other half died leaving her with 2 children in a country that doesn't have benefits) money from my salary for the past 2 years so she can afford to eat.

I've put off having children even though I really REALLY want to have children just because it would be unfair to expect anyone else to subsidise me & my children. That is why I've been working so hard in these dead end jobs for so long - to earn a future for myself & my children. Just because you think a dead end job will make you miserable doesn't mean it's an excuse not to do it!

Spendless

Cindy- was it today you viewed flat? What happened? Is your 3yo almost out of his buggy? My eldest was at 3. When I was using public transport a lot, I was given a buggy with a strap., so could hoist that on my back which leaves your hands free. You could ask on freecycle if you can't afford one.I also had a net shopping bag that attached to buggy so no need to be carrying an extra bag.

MrsE_2

pinkshoes wrote: »

I'm not sure what the rules are, but in some areas of somewhere like North Lincolnshire, you could rent a 3 bed house with garden for around £450 a month. Most towns/villages have bus routes to Lincoln and/or Grimbsby, where there are big colleges that would no doubt do the same type of course. Why not contact the local councils and ask about HB etc...?

If you're not working in London, then it would be to your advantage to live in a cheaper part of the country for now. All my friends and family live 150 miles from me, but I moved to get a good job. Or I could have stayed at home and earnt much less, and give up my expensive hobbies!

A friend of mine in London is applying for jobs elsewhere, as they're sick of living in a pokey 1 bed flat with no garden in a not-so-great area.

I know your friends and family live in London, but you need to decide what is important. I'm sure you'd make new friends if you moved.

My first post wasn't being negative, it was just pointing out that you make your own choices in life, and you can't always have everything you want, and sometimes you have to make sacrifices.

The answer to "not enough stock & too expensive" housing in London & the south is not for everyone to move "up north":rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

There is a MAJOR shortage of council & local authority housing, add to that the massive private rents & silly housing prices, we have a major problem in the south.

But some of us southners actually like it. I don't have a "housing" problem/issue/gripe, but if I did it would have to be pretty desperate to make me move north:mad:

Stop rolling that out as the answer to every question & problem concerning expensive housing, if everyone on less than 40k moved north, the south would collapse.

MrsE_2

cindy100 wrote: »

Nobody quit their job, my partner lost his job and is trying to gain more experiance so he can find a job that will last and not a temp thing. so we can buy our own house and come off benefits.

While I do feel for you with the social housing situation & being from London & now Surrey I TOTALLY understand the strain of expensive housing in the south. I really don't see how ANYONE could ever be out of work in London, I never was.

Its my personal theory that anyone in London or other prosperous areas on the dole is on it because they want to be or it suits their circumstances.

So while I feel for your housing problem, I don't believe your partner couldn't find a job in London.

neas

southwest isnt too bad 3 bedroom atm markets at average 160-170k. They dropping with HPC but slowly.