Anecdotes of Increasingly Desperate Housing Situations / Acts

[Saving For a Space Ship]

Saw something I've never seen before, neither has my friend, who has resided in this area for many years..

 

Last week, in a depressed working class area of northern Britain, at the dead end of a tatty terraced brick house road. 

Some East Europeans have moved a caravan and  a portacabin into the end of the street. They have then partitioned it off with 

metal grid Heras fence panels and proceeded to live there.

 

Anyone else seeing changes ? 

[Price doubt]

SE England where sheds with beds are common-place for two years come rain, shine or snow a tent was the main dwelling for someone in the back garden neighbouring ours.

[Si1]

I know an old lady who is desperately lonely in her large house and fills all the spare rooms with tat. She's very sad that she has no grandchildren yet and considers it a travesty that her adult children won't just work harder and buy houses to have kids in. She attends demonstrations against new local housing and feels sad inside that she is working hard to save the local area for grandchildren she may never get. She blames the younger generations.

[satsuma]

Plenty of caravans and campers in front gardens in the Greater London area

[Orb]

I drive for a living and in the last 12 months or so I've noticed a huge increase in vans which look as if they're being lived in - a lot of them seem to be moving around at night. Also seen a couple of tent cities spring up again in woodland. 

[Freki]

It is not a new problem though. I once got lost in North London near a TFL / Arriva bus depot and you had people living with kids in camper vans. 

You have all the people living in boats, and this is not just in London. 

Stories of homeless people living in tents in forests. 

[rantnrave]

8 hours ago, Si1 said:

I know an old lady who is desperately lonely in her large house and fills all the spare rooms with tat. She's very sad that she has no grandchildren yet and considers it a travesty that her adult children won't just work harder and buy houses to have kids in. She attends demonstrations against new local housing and feels sad inside that she is working hard to save the local area for grandchildren she may never get. She blames the younger generations.

Superb

[Staffsknot]

Just to follow-up on Si1 story - my uncle was banging on yesterday about he might have to move out of his home. My cousin is moving 14 miles away, up from 3, and he is fretting won't see grandkid.

His other grandkid is in Cyprus and fell out with that cousin when moved away over not visiting enough / when moved to London first.

Irony is that uncle opposed building when he sat on his parish council and used his church group to protest it. Now there's nowhere for his daughter to live they can afford and this ends commute.

He now wants to move but its so expensive. His biggest worry - grandkid can't attend the church they all have for over 30 yrs. Honestly was biting my tongue.

Edit - background is a village that has spent 10 years fighting any developments as would destroy character of village has found anyone under 50 or not already in a house can't afford to live there, which has destroyed the character of the village...

Edited January 25 by Staffsknot

[NobodyInParticular]

Is Alan Bennett on here? He'll have some stories to tell. Maybe someone will turn them into a film at some point. 

[Locke]

35 minutes ago, Staffsknot said:

Edit - background is a village that has spent 10 years fighting any developments as would destroy character of village

We need to abolish planning permission.

People worry that without planning cartels, developers would just build what they want, but what has actually happened is that planning prevents people who would retain the village character from building, while enabling developers to continue building their character destroying shitboxes.

[Si1]

1 hour ago, Staffsknot said:

.

He now wants to move but its so expensive. His biggest worry - grandkid can't attend the church they all have for over 30 yrs. Honestly was biting my tongue.

 

Religion's just an excuse not to self analyse.

[hotblack42]

2 hours ago, Staffsknot said:

His biggest worry - grandkid can't attend the church they all have for over 30 yrs.

He's confusing what he wants with what the kid would like.  A mistake some wives repeatedly make. Cough.

[TheCountOfNowhere]

It's getting so bad, so people on here have bought a massively over priced house !!!

[iamnumerate]

5 hours ago, Staffsknot said:

Just to follow-up on Si1 story - my uncle was banging on yesterday about he might have to move out of his home. My cousin is moving 14 miles away, up from 3, and he is fretting won't see grandkid.

His other grandkid is in Cyprus and fell out with that cousin when moved away over not visiting enough / when moved to London first.

Irony is that uncle opposed building when he sat on his parish council and used his church group to protest it. Now there's nowhere for his daughter to live they can afford and this ends commute.

He now wants to move but its so expensive. His biggest worry - grandkid can't attend the church they all have for over 30 yrs. Honestly was biting my tongue.

Edit - background is a village that has spent 10 years fighting any developments as would destroy character of village has found anyone under 50 or not already in a house can't afford to live there, which has destroyed the character of the village...

Very sad, I wouldn't have bit my tongue and would have told him.

 

15 hours ago, Si1 said:

I know an old lady who is desperately lonely in her large house and fills all the spare rooms with tat. She's very sad that she has no grandchildren yet and considers it a travesty that her adult children won't just work harder and buy houses to have kids in. She attends demonstrations against new local housing and feels sad inside that she is working hard to save the local area for grandchildren she may never get. She blames the younger generations.

Please tell me that is not true.

[Insane]

I grew up in a 3 bed semi. Mum , Dad and 4 children. Next door 3 children , over the road 3 houses opposite all had 2 children. 

So those five houses gave shelter to 23 people. Ten years ago when all the off spring had left home it was down to 10.

Today four of those houses have one 80+ year old living in them as all the partners died. The fifth house is empty as both people in there died and has been empty for about 18 months (not sure why it has not been sold by who ever it was who inherited it). 

I think this is quite common in Suburbia over the years when visiting my Dad he often talks about seeing Mr X or Mrs Y people who had families in the location when I was growing up who now live alone in the family house.  

[steve99]

 

23 hours ago, Si1 said:

I know an old lady who is desperately lonely in her large house and fills all the spare rooms with tat. She's very sad that she has no grandchildren yet and considers it a travesty that her adult children won't just work harder and buy houses to have kids in. She attends demonstrations against new local housing and feels sad inside that she is working hard to save the local area for grandchildren she may never get. She blames the younger generations.

Its not uncommon to find people with two or more completely conflicting narratives going on in their heads and never join the two together and see the irony of it.  Daily mail and other right wing press readers are notorious for this. I only need to hear my mother in law (a daily mail devotee) going on and on with similar conflicting concepts. for eg, she came from a poor family and her mother worked in domestic servitude for most of her life,  if not for council housing, free education, NHS and getting a job as a low level civil servant thanks to the socialism after the war, then she too would have been nothing more than a domestic servant. Now of course she is against all and every social service, the NHS should be privatised because they are all lazy, unemployed people are only so because they are lazy (when her husband got made redundant at the age of 55 and never got a job again no matter how hard he tried, and that her son has not worked for the last two years, but then he is lazy and she cant see that either,  council estates should be bulldozed  (not realising that would necessitate these people she doesn't like camping in the field behind her)  and so on.

[A17]

25 minutes ago, iamnumerate said:

Please tell me that is not true.

It's the people who boast about how much their house has gone up in value, but can't link that to why they have their 23 and 26 year old children still living there that crack me up.

Or the people in Cornwall who moan about outsiders buying houses that local people can't afford, ignoring the fact that it is "local people" who are selling them!

[A17]

19 minutes ago, Insane said:

I grew up in a 3 bed semi. Mum , Dad and 4 children. Next door 3 children , over the road 3 houses opposite all had 2 children. 

So those five houses gave shelter to 23 people. Ten years ago when all the off spring had left home it was down to 10.

Today four of those houses have one 80+ year old living in them as all the partners died. The fifth house is empty as both people in there died and has been empty for about 18 months (not sure why it has not been sold by who ever it was who inherited it). 

I think this is quite common in Suburbia over the years when visiting my Dad he often talks about seeing Mr X or Mrs Y people who had families in the location when I was growing up who now live alone in the family house.  

My experience was quite similar. Growing up in a semi in suburbia (1990s), there was a mix of families with young children, families with older children (teenagers) and long term residents whose children had left home. About 5-10 years ago there were no children. My parents used to comment how they bought sweets for Halloween but never had anybody knock on the door. Having said that, there have recently been some families with younger children move in, so perhaps things are changing!

[The Spaniard]

Lots of motorhomes and campervans parked long term around Bristol, in particular on the lovely tree-lined roads through 'The Downs',  Clifton, the largest green space in Bristol.

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/residents-van-dwellers-clifton-down-4715645

The occupants have reportedly banded together to ask Bristol City Council to build a toilet/shower block for them!

A good number of the motorhomes are large, modern, luxurious and expensive - I would guess a money saving life style choice for people who could afford otherwise. Zero council tax, very low energy costs.

Others are very dilapidated and likely represent a last ditch attempt at housing by poor, perhaps otherwise homeless people.

[Locke]

16 minutes ago, steve99 said:

Its not uncommon to find people with two or more completely conflicting narratives going on in their heads and never join the two together and see the irony of it. 

Ahahaha

Matthew 7:3

[Insane]

7 minutes ago, A17 said:

My experience was quite similar. Growing up in a semi in suburbia (1990s), there was a mix of families with young children, families with older children (teenagers) and long term residents whose children had left home. About 5-10 years ago there were no children. My parents used to comment how they bought sweets for Halloween but never had anybody knock on the door. Having said that, there have recently been some families with younger children move in, so perhaps things are changing!

Well they will always change in time as the older people will die. However what I see from my time growing up in that location and today is the under occupation of so much housing. I would bet most of the people who live around where my Dad is have got Index Linked Final Salary Pensions , even if they had mediocre jobs when working. As these people paid under £10,000 for their houses ( Dad paid £3,750 in 1962) they are quite comfortable in the scheme of things so there is no need to sell and trade down.  

[Locke]

4 minutes ago, The Spaniard said:

Lots of motorhomes and campervans parked long term around Bristol, in particular on the lovely tree-lined roads through 'The Downs',  Clifton, the largest green space in Bristol.

Piss poor.

Just install parking meters where you have to put your registration in. Then all the parking wardens have to do is stroll along the road and check the plates against the database.

Charges:

50p for 1 hour

£1.20 for 2 hours

£3 for 4 hours

£15 for 24 hours

£50 for 3 days

£120 for 1 week

Only one 24 hour ticket may be purchased per week per reg.

 

Then the residents won't have to "Snatch" the pikies

[iamnumerate]

27 minutes ago, steve99 said:

 

Its not uncommon to find people with two or more completely conflicting narratives going on in their heads and never join the two together and see the irony of it.  Daily mail and other right wing press readers are notorious for this. I only need to hear my mother in law (a daily mail devotee) going on and on with similar conflicting concepts. for eg, she came from a poor family and her mother worked in domestic servitude for most of her life,  if not for council housing, free education, NHS and getting a job as a low level civil servant thanks to the socialism after the war, then she too would have been nothing more than a domestic servant. Now of course she is against all and every social service, the NHS should be privatised because they are all lazy, unemployed people are only so because they are lazy (when her husband got made redundant at the age of 55 and never got a job again no matter how hard he tried, and that her son has not worked for the last two years, but then he is lazy and she cant see that either,  council estates should be bulldozed  (not realising that would necessitate these people she doesn't like camping in the field behind her)  and so on.

I know left wingers who are the same.

[Insane]

6 hours ago, Locke said:

We need to abolish planning permission.

People worry that without planning cartels, developers would just build what they want, but what has actually happened is that planning prevents people who would retain the village character from building, while enabling developers to continue building their character destroying shitboxes.

Agreed

Plus the developers would have to compete to build what people will buy , standards will rise. At present if you do not want box built type A house from one developer if you go to another developer he will only offer you the same. 

[Freki]

8 minutes ago, Insane said:

Agreed

Plus the developers would have to compete to build what people will buy , standards will rise. At present if you do not want box built type A house from one developer if you go to another developer he will only offer you the same. 

Would the UK be able to shift to a new model? In France it is common to buy a plot of land and get the house you want / can afford built on it. In some parts like the South, you won't have 2 identical houses. I have seen a similar business model in other parts. 

I guess you still need different type of competence when build to order and build to scale