Phil Spencer - houses for the homeless TV prog

I also watched this programme, and felt that Phil Spencer did a good job of highlighting the problem of private housing.

As tenants we have little rights. There are laws in place to hopefully stop unscrupulous landlords, and they have to adhere to making homes live able.
Living in private renting you can only stay for how ever long the landlord allows, and as long as they give the correct notice, then you go be out within 2 months. The lack of long term security is frightening.

But, when you are on low income it is very difficult to find a landlord who will take you on without a huge upfront payment.
I can't stay in my house for much longer due to the high rents in this area and being on low income. To move to another area it is going to cost me upwards of £2000. This is for one months rent in advance, deposit, and whatever fees the agency decide on -- these vary vastly.
They also want 3 times my income to rent to me ---- something which is impossible to find. I feel like I am stuck between a rock and a hard place.
I can't go onto a housing list as we [ me and my son ] are considered suitably housed, and even if not you can be on the list for years before being considered for a council or HA house.

I never considered at being a year off 60 years old that I would find and find the future very frightening to consider.

What channel is this on please? Is it a series or was it a one off?

It was on channel 4 Wednesday 12 July. It's called "Phil Spencer : find me a home " It's a one off

CassieJ where do you live? The rules are different in Scotland for a start an Agent cant take fees off the renter,he can take a fee off the landlord .We have a number of rental properties and we only use an estate agent to find tenants IF we dont have someone lined up to take over the tenancy, we pay the agent one months rent as his fee,The tenants pays one months rent deposit which goes straight to safe deposit Scotland and we cant touch that money and we take one months rent in advance.A two bedroom flat here costs around £400 a month and we only let out a home once we have brought it up to a standard we would happily live in ourselves.Here you cant just evIct a tenant you need a good reason...you have to be ether selling the property or moving in to it yourself so tenances are protected .

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Cassie, you have my sympathy, I lived in a private let for nine years, it was hell , never knowing if you were going to be out in two months

no "illegal immigrants" are being given houses and they certainly DONT get benefits ,asylum seekers are different we are obliged to house them but some end up in hellholes of places and the get a very small sum for everyday expenses £5 a day .Refugees are the same and would be exppected to return to their homes when its safe to do so or in 5 years whichever is the earliest RosieLeah "our own people" are homeless for a variety of reasons and simply providing a house wouldn't solve their problems.For instance many ex forces personnel end up on the streets because they have never learned how to run a home and are institutionalised and others because of mental health problems .Blaming the homeless situation on immigrants/refugees/asylum seekers is divisive and untrue .

Rosie it's clear you're a new poster as most members of GN know that posting inflammatory and racist comments like yours very often elicits a fairly robust series of replies!
paddy was very restrained in her reply to you.

Simply providing a house may not solve everybody's problems, but for people like DS hanging on to a flat he can't really afford - but there is no alternative, an affordable and secure tenancy would be a life changer. At the moment the slightest crisis could see him and his family out on the street. There are thousands more in the same position.

Well well Rosie what a wonderful, enlightened post. Clearly a great intellect has joined GN and I look forward to some more of your charming posts. I don't have paddy's patience to respond in any meaningful way to you as it clearly would be a complete waste of my time.

Deedaa if there are problems keeping his tenancy maybe a visit to CAB would be helpful,they can budget for him and get any debts paid at a much lower rate leaving him enough to live on,if he is working at a very low wage he SHOULD be able to claim housing benefit to help with his rent .We have a lot of new housing association flats locally and more being built ,the rents are a bit more affordable I hear and of course its a secure tenancy,maybe there are some in your neck of the woods that he could put his mane on a list for