Sunday 10 July 2016

Affordable Housing? Or Not?

What makes 'Affordable Housing' affordable?  I asked myself this question a couple of weeks ago so I'll start at the beginning....


As you probably know by now, we live in a park home on a site where OH is voluntary warden.  This means that we have to stay on site here during the month of closure when maintenance is carried out and to help keep the site secure.  OH is giving up this voluntary post at the end of July as his arthritis is getting worse and his spondelitis makes his back very stiff and painful and hedge cutting and sewer rodding (yes, really!) is very hard on the back.  This means that we will have to leave our home for a month each Winter.  It's not at problem at the moment as we will tootle off in our lovely warm and cosy caravan but in years to come it might be, as there is no way I will tow the 'van if OH cannot :(
Anyway, our local authority is building some lovely apartments for over 55's a few miles away, invitingly described as 'Affordable Housing' to rent  so we went to see them.  The show apartment is lovely, reasonably spacious with a wet room and 24 hour security.  At the time, the rent had not been decided so we put our names on the list and waited.  Well now it has been decided....and it's £228 per week.  This includes heating but not Council Tax, telephone, broadband etc putting it beyond our reach as we would be dipping into our savings on a monthly basis to make ends meet, so they certainly wouldn't last very long.

borrowed from Google
 

This made me wonder if perhaps only the people receiving benefits can afford one as Housing Benefit might 'mop up' the extra?  As benefits come out of Council funds anyway, why not lower the rent as it will make no difference to the people who are receiving them and might allow someone in our situation to apply IYSWIM ?  Sorry if this sounds like gobbledegook, I'm not explaining myself very well but, to us, £228 per week is not affordable.  Am I being a tad simplistic? What do you think?

 It looks like it's back to the drawing board for us anyway and we have a few years yet to decide where our 'forever home' will be.

Enjoy your day, everyone, do be kind to each other x

10 comments:

  1. I'm with you, that's more than a mortgage would cost, how stupid.

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  2. That is a silly amount, that is not affordable at all, I hope all gets sorted for you both without too many problems xx

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  3. That does seem an awful lot of money especially with your living costs on top. X

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  4. the farce that is affordable housing . they will have calculated that housing benefit will pay the actual housing part of the rent , you will be expected to pay the heating that is included plus the service and maintenance fees ,even extra for a car parking space etc etc . This how they get round planning permission , really they are aimed at those with a large private pension . But the council can boast how they have built umpteen affordable housing units .

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    1. That all makes sense, Kate, it is indeed a farce. You have explained it far better than I did!

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  5. Oh my goodness, reading that made me cringe, how on earth are people expected to afford that amount weekly? Our mortgage wasn't that much a month, ours finished a few years ago but we had to pay a short fall of £9000 due to the problems with endowment mortgages. We were angry about it because it was a good chunk of the money he had inherited from his Mum. I'm sorry but that amount is totally off beam who could afford that each week I know we couldn't. I do hope something reasonable comes up for you soon and it's affordable. Hugs Peg x

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  6. Thanks, Peg, the figure was certainly a shock and how frustrating for you to have to pay so much out on your final mortgage payment. I know there was a problem with shortfall in endowments but £9000 is awful. Hugs back to you <<>> xx

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  Angie 💓 xx