Help with housing, council seem to not have any sense of urgency

prevailinthedark

hello I’m new here

Basically trying to keep this short

Myself and my partner where private renting

We approached the council for help with accommodation due to my partner’s disabilities becoming worse and I had to stop working to care for her full time, they put us in temporary accommodation and have just accepted full housing duty she uses a wheelchair primarily to get around as well as aids when she’s having a good day she has many different health problems including a heart condition which causes her to be a falls risk she frequently blacks out and falls.

The council have currently put us on a 3rd floor with a lift however the lift is frequently out of order due to the fire alarm constantly being set off which deactivates the lift which in itself is a problem because if there was a fire or emergency there’s no way I’d be able to get her out in time we’re at our wits end at the moment we’re so stressed about the situation and the council just seem to not have any sense of urgency regarding this I’ve emailed and complained and also contacted the local mp I haven’t herd anything of substance back yet and I just don’t know what to do from here any advice would be much appreciated.

Adrian_Scope

Hello @prevailinthedark and welcome to the community.

Unfortunately, council housing is in very high demand, and in many areas the waiting lists can stretch over several years. Each local council has its own system for deciding priority or “banding”, so the first step would be to check what band you’ve been placed in or what priority level you have been given. If your partner’s health or mobility needs have worsened since you were assessed, it’s worth asking for a review or reassessment of your priority level.

Has your household been assessed by a housing occupational therapist? If they formally recommended a ground-floor or fully accessible accomodation it might help. However, it is worth noting that there is often an even longer wait for accessible housing, bungalows and ground floor apartments.

Shelter might also be able to help. They are the legal experts when it comes to housing and I believe they can help with understanding your rights, and what next steps you should take. ext steps, letters, or how to challenge unsuitable housing.

Have you written a follow up email to your MP?

Please keep us updated on how you get on.

Passerby

Since Adrian has covered all the relevant and related points, there's nothing left at least for me to add.

However, I would encourage you to focus on making use of the housing priority that you've been given, as people who are put in temporary accommodation are typically placed in a high priority band, often Band A or Band B, depending, of course, on the housing situation of the area. For instance, in London, it still can take an eternity to get an accommodation even with a priority Band B.

Gone are the days when councils used to directly allocate permanent accommodation to people with housing needs, excepted when an applicant has not been successful within a bidding period, but this comes with its own drawbacks. Before offering a direct housing allocation to an applicant, the council would review the bidding activity of the applicant, to make sure that the applicant was making a significant effort in bidding and making use of the housing priority that had been given to them. In addition, if the applicant refuses the direct housing offer that's made to them, which is a "one-offer" policy and not three as it used to be many moons ago, they're taken off the housing allocation system/scheme of the council.

Kimi87

These things vary so much from place to place, in my area those classed as homeless are not allowed to refuse a offer, whether that is a direct offer or successful bid, anyone else is allowed to say no up to 3 times, after which a discussion will take place between applicant & housing offer.

Passerby

https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/1078314#Comment_1078314

True, things vary from council to council, depending on the local council's specific rules. Sadly, when it comes to direct housing offers, most of councils, particularly those in bigger cities, have lately been adopting one offer policy due to the curent man made housing crisis in which housing associations, which have lately been drifting far away from their philanthropic roots to the extent that nowadays it's quite hard to distinguish them from private property developers, are the prime culprits, investing the money generated by their social housing into their private housing while neglecting their social housing, which have generated the money they're investing in their private sector.

A number of housing associations' CEOs are receiving a half a million in wages, even though housing associations are legally structured as trusts or non-profit organisations.

By the way, Non-profit organisations, or Not-for-profit organisations, doesn't mean such organisations are not making or generating profits. In fact, they're making more profits than private profit making companies.