Council help please, urgent!

moneysavingmumofone

My sister lives in a 1 bed flat. Its through a co op scheme run through the council so not actually a council owned property. The flats are due to be demolished and she was supposed to leave by feb but has not been given any help with finding a new place to live. I think it was her support worker who advised her to stay until taken to court. She's recieved a letter today saying she has to be out by 31st march which was of course, 2 days ago! Now here are the problems with her finding a new place to live.
1. No chance of getting a council property, can only go private.
2. The council have said they wont pay the deposit or rent on a 1 bed flat, only studio And she has to find one for £450 a month or £500 at the total max at the discretion of a manager apparently.
3. She is finding it nigh on impossible to find a studio flat for that price, most are at least £550. She also needs a flat that is available right now which makes the search even harder!
4. She has not been not given any help to find a place, they basically said you're being thrown out, find somewhere else!
A lady at the council said its either a studio or waiting until shes actually homeless then going into a hostel. She's been in a hostel twice in the past 3 years, once for a year, 2nd time about 6 months. Obviously she doesnt really want to go back to one as the rules about people visiting/staying are strict, not as much privacy and she had a lot of problems last time with people constantly knocking on her door asking for things. She also has all of her furniture and there'd be nowhere to put it in a hostel room (sofas, washing machine, fridge freezer, wardrobes etc!) But obviously she'd go in a hostel if she had no choice!
Few details on my sister:
She is 23.
Slightly disabled and classed as medically vulnerable.
On income support and signed off working indefinetely. Also gets dla.
If anyone can help that would be great. It just didnt sound right that she can only have that much for rent

pinkshoes

Could she not go into the hostel and put the furniture in storage? It may not be perfect, but it's better than nothing. Beggar's can't be choosers.

This will buy her time to eventually find something more suitable.

Where does she live, as £500 a month sounds alot!!??

ifonlyitwaseasier

surely the council should be able to help if she has dla.

have you tried contacting the CAB?

good luck

BobProperty

ifonlyitwaseasier wrote: »

surely the council should be able to help if she has dla.....

That would be taken into account by whatever "scoring" system the council uses to allocate houses.

moneysavingmumofone

Thanks for your help.
She currently lives in the borough of hillingdon. If you found a flat for £500 a month there that'd be very cheap! Even in slough where i live you'd be lucky to find one for that.
She wouldnt be able to afford storage, she barely scrapes by as it is. Last time she was in the hostel they let her store her stuff in their garage. When she went to get it out they'd 'lost' her bed and dining table? Not easy things to lose:rolleyes:
She's been to the cab but they werent much help:o

blue_monkey_2

In this area, if you are given a demolition order on your property then you get 200 points. They house people who have 120+ so they see this as an urgent need for being housed. Has she actually applied to the council and filled out the forms for housing and been to the housing assiciations if there are any around there.

Also, if she is classed as vunerable has she contacted Social Services? Failing that mail your MP and get them involved, turn up at the open surgeries they have and take as much info as possible. Some of them are helpful, some not, you take your chances it seems.

Am I right in thining she lives in Berkshire? The Home Counties are so expensive to rent - it is more or less the same prices around here for a one bed/studio as you have easy reach of London via train.

moneysavingmumofone

BobProperty wrote: »

That would be taken into account by whatever "scoring" system the council uses to allocate houses.

Her council uses a 'bidding' system and you have different bands. I think she is a band d, very low as obviously its below a b and c. She has bid regularly in the past 3 years but no luck.

blue_monkey_2

Not sure if this would be of any use to her:

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-19704692.rsp?pa_n=1&tr_t=rent

moneysavingmumofone

blue_monkey wrote: »

In this area, if you are given a demolition order on your property then you get 200 points. They house people who have 120+ so they see this as an urgent need for being housed. Has she actually applied to the council and filled out the forms for housing and been to the housing assiciations if there are any around there.

Also, if she is classed as vunerable has she contacted Social Services? Failing that mail your MP and get them involved, turn up at the open surgeries they have and take as much info as possible. Some of them are helpful, some not, you take your chances it seems.

Am I right in thining she lives in Berkshire? The Home Counties are so expensive to rent - it is more or less the same prices around here for a one bed/studio as you have easy reach of London via train.

She has been on the housing list for the past 3 years and has gone to the council offices rather a lot lately trying to sort this out and has spoken to various different people.
She has a support worker but hadnt helped at all until my sister recieved the letter today and now she is apparently trying to call the council but getting no reply so my sister will probably have to go to the council offices tomorrow.
No im the one who lives in berkshire but she lives in hillingdon and its expensive there too.
Thanks x

moneysavingmumofone

blue_monkey wrote: »

Not sure if this would be of any use to her:

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-19704692.rsp?pa_n=1&tr_t=rent

Thankyou but no good to my sister unfortunately as she has to have ground floor as due to her disability she finds stairs difficult. (sorry should have said that before, that makes the search harder too)

blue_monkey_2

moneysavingmumofone wrote: »

Her council uses a 'bidding' system and you have different bands. I think she is a band d, very low as obviously its below a b and c. She has bid regularly in the past 3 years but no luck.

I would get her to check this out, if her property has a demolition order then she would get put into a higher band. Has she spoken to someone at the council at all to have her points amended? Can you check the local council website for her and ensure they have got her on the right amount of points. Be prepared to fight. I had to involve my MP just to get the right mount of points. let's not even get started on them housing us. Have an eviction date of 16th April and we will get an appointment with the homeless people around the 14th April (still waiting for confirmation bt they have not yet called me back) - and they have known this is coming since NOVEMBER!!