[Dirty Boy]

[MRA]

SORRY BUT GETTING A HOUSE AND NOT BEING ON THE COUNCIL WAITING LIST IS NEAR IMPOSSIBLE. I USED TO WORK FOR THE COUNCIL. APPLY NOW AND MAYBE YOUR CHILDREN WILL GET A HOUSE

[candice22]

Hi,

I'm sorry to say, but there is no quick and easy way to get Council Housing.

First of all, you need to find the best council for YOU.
I mean, every council has their own priority system. If you are not on this list- try your best to be in ANY of these categories.
No council will give you housing if your not a priority.
Next, You need to apply to the homeless department this is called declaring yourself homeless.
Don't, I say it again, Don't Just go to the housing office and fill out a housing Registration form. You will be on that list forever.
If you are really ready to get a council house, be really ready to GIVE UP YOUR JOB.
The council does not house people who are working. You need to be on some sort of benefit.

With all the right documents, you be put in temporary accommodation within a month. Then you will have to bid for a place like everyone else.

PLEASE NOTE:
Some council's you have to pressure more than others.
The main point, you need to convince them you are homeless and have no where to go!!!

Good Luck to everyone

Cans

[jane55]

[EMIGRATINGSOON!!!]

lol@ bobbins

Q: How do you solve a problem like the UK housing market?
A: EMIGRATE

When all of the honest hardworking British people vote with their feet (and plane tickets) then we will see what all of the lowlife lazy moneygrabbing benefit thieves and buy-to-let landlords will do. (yes, they are in the same catagory to me)

[mailman]

I think getting a council house (quickly) relies on having a child, so I ve heard, though I grew up in one up North i have no intention of going back into one maybe housing association to get on the property ladder as its the easiest way to buy a house right now, with out the hassell of a mortgage and the price can be reduced to.

[beckyboo-30]

YOUR STATEMENT IS NOT TRUE AT ALL!!!

ME AND MY HUSBAND BOTH WORK AND I HAVE ONE CHILD AND WE GOT A COUNCIL HOUSE IN SIX MONTHS!!!

[unmitigated audacity]

[frannor]

my partner, 3year old daughter and myself lived in a one bed high rise flat in an area that the council stick the alcoholics, drugies, criminals. i found out i was pregnant with a little boy, council send i would have to wait til baby was a year old before they moved us. 5months later my partner was attacked outside our home. it was only then the council rehomed us. still only to a 2bed flat but i was thankful we were away from those people.

[Bluey]

"The queue for a council house has nearly doubled in a decade in the most crowded parts of the country, it was revealed yesterday.

Waiting lists of those hoping to get a housing association or council home have gone up by 87 per cent in London and 95 per cent in the rest of the South-East.

For the whole of England, the register of those waiting for a flat or house has lengthened by more than half since Labour came to power in 1997.

..the Communities Department ...estimates that 309,000 council or housing association homes are occupied by foreign nationals, 8 per cent of all social housing. "

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=545333&in_page_id=1770

[frannor]

interesting as your facts are, it stil dont help us feel any better

[unmitigated audacity]

[crabs]

[Bluey]

[frannor]

to bluey, sorry, didnt mean to bite. every1 thinks if your in a council property then your trash. what about the idea that its harder to get private accomadation thats not too expensive for basic wage.

[Bluey]

[22yrwaitandstillnowt]

[Dirty Mom]

[markinberks]

OK so my experience is from a fair time ago, but then the way to get a council to provide you with accommodation was as follows

First of all, you stand a better chance if you are female. This is not me being sexist, councils will assess your risk rating and most put women as being more at risk than men.

Next, you have to be homeless. No good being threatened with being on the streets, you have to have nowhere to go. So this means you have no relatives close at hand.

Oh and while you're about it, make sure you are unemployed and drawing benefit, that gives you a bit more priority. Being a single parent also gives you more chances.

If you are able to suggest that the council may be discriminating against you on race/creed/sexual orientation grounds then you may get a higher ranking.

Forgot to mention. Not only are you unemployed, you also have no savings or items of value, so your PC goes out now.

Finally, you have to find a council that has some housing stock. Pretty hard that. DOn't think you are going to get a nice flat. The usual starting point is a bedsit in a block with shared facilities. Good job you have no possessions as any you might have had are at risk of being stolen and flogged. Usually find the block is in the grimmest part of town. Oh and you'll be there for years.

My experience was in Penge (south London). The bedsit block was a place called John Baird House. Place made a dump look palatial. I knew familes of four who were living there in crappy accommodation. I opted to borrow money for the deposit on a better bedsit in a shared house and claim housing benefit. Only lived there till I got back on my feet and then hightailed it out pdq.

If you are young, male and single you stand no chance of getting a council place, so don't even bother.

[jenni-jen]

Well I certainly dont know any easy way to get housing, council or otherwise, my husband and I were both lone parents before we got married, we're quite new i guess, only on the council list for a year now, we have 6 children between us but only 3 to be housed with us, my husband lives in his home town of Stourbridge with two children and his elderly mother,and I live in Birmingham with my youngest child, It has taken me a year to find a decent job with good training (i'm a carer) only to find i may have to turn it down as we still cant be housed (the job is in Stourbridge) we seem to hit a block whatever we try. I wish luck to anyone trying to be housed by the council.

[Bluey]

The social housing sector has been decimated by the significant reduction in stock because of the Right to Buy legislation, plus a significant increase in demand (population growth).

The policy to allocate properties has gone from a waiting list principle to one based on needs. Such is the shortage of availability in some areas, that pretty much only those classed as homeless are housed and only because council's are obliged to - The UK is one of the few countries in the world where specified groups, such as the homeless, have a legally enforceable right to housing.

This site points out that 2 models of social housing are in conflict

1/ public service - provided by the community -for the use of all, paid for by all.

2/ everyone should provide for themselves - by buying their own house - and social housing should only exist to prevent serious hardship at times when some people cannot cater for themselves.

http://www.tenantshistory.org.uk/socialhousing/index.htm

1979, nearly half the British population lived in local authority housing; then came Thatcherism and the Right to Buy, and now only 12 per cent of us do and it will presumably diminish over time into single digits despite the fact that the waiting list has doubled over the last decade.

The following article indicates that more than a million immigrants live in social housing with one in nine social housing properties now occupied by a migrant family. Since the principles of allocation is one based on need, it has been observed that migrants are more needy - higher poverty, larger families (overcrowded accommodation), higher rates of illness, etc.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=558273&in_page_id=1770&in_page_id=1770

[what!!!]

[Bluey]

There are quick ways to get a council property but as the allocation is based on need, you have to be particularly needy to get to the top of the list as a priority

- if you are classed as homeless
- if you are classed as vulnerable (i.e. a teenager leaving care)

In fact, squatters that are being legally evicted from a property upon a court order can get housed by the council under their homeless legislation.

My understanding is that homelessness applicants who have an income tend to get advice or short-term accommodation only - they are expected to find private accommodation.

I believe that when social housing first started back in Victorian times, it was always intended to be for the 'decent' working-class - it wasn't dished out on need but on character and only those with an income were granted a tenancy. Of course, that was before the welfare state as a safety net.

If the original principles were restored, those on benefits would be automatically excluded from social housing. Olivia Hill was a pioneer of social housing who wouldn't have any truck with modern allocation policies (or free school meals or state pensions, either) for encouraging the workshy.

"[Olivia Hill] made her name on the 5% philanthropy principle: that the wealthy who invested in her housing projects would see a 5% return on their capital, which meant tenants had to pay their way. There was to be no indiscriminate charity on her estates. "We have made many mistakes with our alms: eaten out the heart of the independent, bolstered up the drunkard in his indulgence, subsidised wages, discouraged thrift, assumed that many of the most ordinary wants of a working man's family must be met by our wretched and intermittent doles,"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/may/06/past.housing?gusrc=rss&feed=politics

[weeme]

[Cov]

How much more does it take to tackle the problem for our legislative ?

At the moment we're not solving the housing issues - we're administrating them.

1. The people who are in charge have lovely housing and can't see the need because they're not affected.

2. The council employees on the frontline, in touch with the people in need couldn't bother less to tell you how the situation really is. They're just plain rude.

3. Our society allows some people to have 6, 12 or 243 properties while others get a kick in their faces. Yeah, they're being legally bumraped (!) and NOBODY cares about it. The word dignity has been erased from our dictionary.

4. I have read all comments of this thread so far and they're very good. I'm happy to see a subject so serious being discussed without nonsense.

5. A cheers to the community moderator Bluey who has a very high level of knowledge on the housing sector and always stays perfectly reasonable without letting emotions taking over. Nice one dude.

6. I'm looking forward reading the next postings. Thanks God we have a voice via Gumtree Forums.