Animation produced by children and young people that have been helped by Shelter.

http://www.caketime.org.uk/

Download this poster:

http://www.caketime.org.uk/downloads/2010/downloads_poster.pdf

This content is from Shelter:

Some children live in housing that’s making them ill. Many are missing out on a decent education. Others suffer chronic insecurity, shuffled from place to place in ‘temporary accommodation’.
 
And yet homeless children are an invisible group – all too often ignored by national policy, sidelined by local authorities, and a low priority for front-line services.

They deserve better than this.

CHALLENGE HOW YOU THINK ABOUT HOMELESSNESS.
 

Even if this family is in work, they are unlikely in this current climate to be looked at favourably by banks and building societies. Neither are they realistically likely to save enough for a modest sized sum to even cover legal costs, let alone a deposit.

I’m not talking about families already in social rented housing who, depending on their landlords still currently have the ‘right to buy’ or ‘right to acquire’ at a discount. Whilst it is true that these people might still find it very difficult to get a mortgage, I am thinking mainly of families who are still desperately on the waiting list for better suited housing that is permanent.

So, my big idea, whilst it hasn’t fully formed in my mind yet, looks something like this:

Grants provided to people on low incomes of under £30k who are in proven bad housing as defined by Shelter, to enable them to build a new home or renovate a home that is standing empty to environmentally sustainable standards.
(Those people now taking in sharp breaths and preparing to shout at me for ‘giving’ people a house for free need to read on for a moment).

Who decides the client need and distributes to them?: A newly formed charity along with consultation with other housing charities and bodies in order to get the funding to the right people.

Where would they get the money from?: Lottery funding, Government, business backing, anyone kind with more cash than they know what to do with.

Will the people receiving the grants actually get to own the home? Yes only if they choose to. They can rent at social rated rents from the charity which will be registered as a social landlord with no obligation to buy and with a secure tenancy.

If they choose to part rent/part buy they will be able to do this at way below market price.

The amount of rent and/or buy amount the client has to pay per month will be worked out by taking into account:

* the total cost of project

* minus worked out ‘man hours’ that the client has put in on the building/renovation of the project

* minus a percentage rate to make it extra affordable so people do not fall into difficulties in paying later on.

(I am unsure at this stage what those values would be. The idea is that the project covers all costs from funding initially and later with the addition of income obtained from renting/selling shares in the properties. It is clear that the project itself has to be sustainable, so big government assistance is essential to keep it going!).

Keeping families in bed and breakfasts and over priced private rented housing must cost the tax payer much more over the ensuing years than providing them with this opportunity? Especially if much of the costs met for building and renovating came from Lottery funding and business!

I hate the idea of properties standing empty for years and homeless families with nowhere to go. It is about giving our country’s children the best start in life. If they have nowhere secure, clean, of adequate size and safe to live, then how do we expect them to grow healthy and happily and get the education they deserve living like that?

This is not about chucking money at people who ‘should have done better in life, it’s their own fault’. People become homeless through a wide variety of reasons and it is surprisingly easy to lose one’s livelihood and home. In fact it could happen to anyone.

We are all just one step away from the possibility of becoming homeless.

Dispensing with judgement of people who are experiencing housing hardship is necessary to allow their children to have the best start in life. This will give our country the best chances of welcoming balanced adults into society in the very near future.

What do you think? I welcome your views, pointers, funding ideas etc. Please use the comment form below.

Our family is just one of the 1.6 million families in housing crisis. To see more facts and figures about children in bad housing go to:
http://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_issues/Creating_better_neighbourhoods/supporting_families_and_children

When Gordon Brown said he’d make sure we’d have loads of affordable housing by 2020, did he mean to buy or did he mean to rent?

What we need is more social rented housing.  And before people start bleating on about not wanting ‘those sorts of people’ living near them, I would like to remind them that most people living on benefits or on a low earned income are not criminals and are very capable of achieving an education and contributing positively to society in many ways.

Why wouldn’t you want to live amongst people like that?

Many people feel that ‘it isn’t worth it’ or they don’t know how to complain, but please you must try – it is one of the ways in which to make councils sit up, listen and correctly do the jobs they are paid for!

1) First of all, check your housing position before you complain. Are you right in your complaint? Check at www.shelter.org.uk

2) Go to your local council’s website or telephone them asking for a copy of their complaints procedure. This usually has around four steps to go through. If you believe you have not been treated fairly, or they have made mistakes, dealt with you slowly or abusively, make sure you follow the steps properly.

3) If you don’t get the outcome you want. Go to the Local Government Ombudsman. It is alot easier than you think.

It involves writing letters back and forth. If you are worried about writing letters, ask for help from someone like a friend, relative or an advisor at Shelter, or Citizens Advice.

TIP! Although it costs more, you should send all letters Recorded Signed For 1st or 2nd class post. This ensures you can track the letter and that it has been received by the council and keep the receipt in case you need to show it as evidence of your correspondance.

Rest assured, you are not alone – many more people are taking action and not allowing themselves to be fobbed off by their local council housing departments!

A person only becomes a full ‘person’ when they turn 10 years old. Children between 12 months and 5 are classed as half a person. Babies under 12 months are not even classed as a person at all!

Rooms under 50sq ft are not counted. Rooms between 50 and 70sq ft can sleep half a person. Rooms between 70sq ft and 90sq ft can sleep 1 person. Rooms between 90sq ft and 110sq ft can sleep 1.5 people. Rooms over 110sq ft can sleep 2 people.

Bedroom 1, 71 sq feet
octuplets(!) under 12 months = classed as 0 people
two children under 5 = together classed as 1 person.

Bedroom 2, 78 sq feet
one child aged 12 = classed as 1 person

Mum and dad have no bedroom and under the law, are expected to sleep in the living room or dining room if there is one.

Crazy isn’t it? Have a think about how small 71sq ft and 78sq ft rooms actually are.
You would have trouble fitting a bunkbed and wardrobes in a room that size, so you would never fit 8 cots in as well!

Along with the stress of no space, imagine being an adult couple with no personal privacy for peace, discussion, undressing, etc. Nightmare!

Unfortunately this nightmare is reality for many families who cannot afford to buy their own place or privately rent a bigger home.

If you agree that this isn’t right, please sign the Shelter Overcrowing Petition for No.10. (petition closes 29th March 2010, so please hurry and sign to get your view counted!).

The changes mean that basically, any losses made on a holiday let will not be allowed to be offset against the landlords’ other income and so if they don’t rent it out, they lose a heck of alot of money.

The reason this is a slight step in the right direction is that for many landlords, they will have to start letting the properties out as homes to families instead of leaving them empty for vast months at a time.

Although there are still problems in the private rental market, the quality standard of the old holiday lettings rules means that at least more better quality homes will become available for families to stay in.

Say goodbye to ‘ghost villages’ everyone!

Here’s the gumpf from the government:   http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/budget2009/furnished-hol-lets-1015.pdf

Yes we were receiving Jobs Seekers Allowance, yes we were entitled to the full Local Housing Allowance and yes, it did actually (shock!) cover the rent on this place.

That’s because this place is a shoebox with no workable heating and creeping black mould on every available surface.

We started renting in the summer and although we knew we were going to be cramped up (we couldn’t afford anything else you must understand), we did not expect the disgusting conditions that ensued later when the weather turned as nasty as our landlord did.

Our landlord knew we were in receipt of Local Housing Allowance and despite her insisting that we apply to get it paid direct to her (after all we were on benefits, we obviously couldn’t be trusted with managing our own finances), and despite us duly paying month in advance PLUS the deposit, she still wasn’t happy.

Our wonderful neighbours who truly are wonderful, informed us that she had asked them if we were good neighbours.  They were livid since they said they thought we were, ‘alot better than her when she lived here, so it’s a bloody cheek she should ask us that!’. 

Allegedly, our landlord has a chequered past and luckily not alot of people like her.  Being in a new small community, this is good to know.

Our landlord had also bitchily said to them,

‘I don’t know what to do with them, they both don’t work.’ 

Was she the only person on the planet not aware that there is a recession on and people have been losing their jobs?!

When my husband luckily got a job 2 weeks later, our Local Housing Allowance went down according to income and we topped up the rest, in advance.

Despite us being timely with our payments, she still insisted that because the council pay Local Housing Allowance 4 weeks in arrears, that we owed her money.

We have since obtained a total of all payments from the council to her, plus all the payments we have paid her and it looks like she owes us  money.  We are almost 2 months in advance!

It is not our fault that she can’t manage her own finances.

Oh and we still have water leaking through the back door.  Yum.

My family is suffering the affects of living in bad housing and I wanted to bring my plight and that of 1.6 millions households in Britain to your attention.

Even though Britain is the fourth richest country in the world, there is still a huge gap in affordable rented housing and many of us are trapped in temporary or cramped, damp and unhealthy accommodation.

Although we are not living on the streets, our children are growing up without a permanent, safe place to live and we are constantly moved from pillar to post, never being allowed to settle down. 

‘We are decent ordinary people, we work, we take care of our children and yet we are made to feel that we are worthless on a daily basis because of where we are forced to live.

Our damp home makes us feel dirty even though we bleach everyday and paint every week.  We are frightened people think we are dirty because our house smells damp.’

We are not treated with dignity when we ask for help and our children cannot bring friends home because the property we are in is so bad.  We cannot afford any other option.

 Without the security of a decent home, our children could lose out on vital schooling, are far more likely to endure mental and physical ill-health and even though they are bright, could fall into a cycle of social exclusion and poverty.

Gordon Brown has said that the Government will build three million homes by 2020. He must now ensure that hundreds of thousands of these are social rented homes to help those families currently trapped in temporary accommodation.

I wondered if YOU could highlight many local families’ plight in your own local newspaper, by emailing them or writing them a letter.  Perhaps you could copy and paste this post and send it to them urging them to probe local councils and local government into telling us exactly what they are going to do about it.

Please even encourage the people you know to hold an event for the Cake Time appeal launched by TV presenter and comedienne Sue Perkins for Shelter.

This content is provided by Shelter:

1.6 million children in Britain live in housing that is overcrowded, temporary, or run-down. [1]
Some live in housing that’s making them ill. Many are missing out on a decent education. Others suffer chronic insecurity, shuffled from place to place in ‘temporary accommodation’.
 
And yet homeless children are an invisible group – all too often ignored by national policy, sidelined by local authorities, and a low priority for front-line services.
They deserve better than this.

How bad housing wrecks children’s lives

• 7.7 million homes in England fail to meet the Government’s Decent Home Standard. [2]
• Over 1 million children live in overcrowded housing.[3]
• More than 90,000 homeless children in England are living in temporary accommodation.[4]
• 4 million children in the United Kingdom live in poverty after their housing costs have been paid. [5]

READ THE SHOCKING REPORT PUBLISHED FOR FURTHER INSIGHT: 

http://england.shelter.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/66442/Lifechancereport.pdf

DOWNLOAD THE CAKETIME POSTER:

http://www.caketime.org.uk/downloads/2010/downloads_poster.pdf

CHALLENGE HOW YOU THINK ABOUT HOMELESSNESS.

Many thanks for your time
 

* Whilst banging one’s head against a brick wall.**

** The more heads banging then down the wall will come!