Dear [Allocations],
Thank you for your email. I am available to view the property whenever you want. I am sincerely grateful you have found somewhere that doesn't negatively affect my son's education, is in close proximity to his friends, because I know I have to accept this offer.
You know how I feel regarding temporary accommodation, and I do accept, at this late stage, that there is no alternative.
I will try not to be afraid of the future but do try and understand, without judging me, that everywhere my son has lived, the property owner has not wanted him to remain. A council flat represented in my eyes, security for my child and affordabilty for me. You and I both know that the coalition is abolishing this for everyone.
Who 'owns' the property?
Is the landlord different as has been the case here?
Could you tell me how long the lease is for?
Could you tell me what the rent is on the property?
When I've moved I have to start thinking very seriously about getting a job.
Thankyou, from the bottom of my heart, for not placing us in a hostel.
One last request: after I have viewed the property, could I be given a couple of weeks to pack and make calls to alert energy companies, water companies, telephone companies that type of thing before we move in? I haven't been able to do anything, gripped as I have been with fear of the unknown. To be honest, I still can't get my head around your email this morning so viewing the property will help me a great deal.
Thanks again. I will give my son the good news when I pick him up from school.
Kind regards,
Sue de Nim
(I feel sick stiggers, a curious response ey?)
Wednesday, 3 November 2010
Tuesday, 2 November 2010
Dreams of victory and defeat
There is victory in defeat. You've heard that saying before yeah?
I had a wierd dream last night where I was standing outside the Courts of Justice saying:
"There is defeat in victory."
I was smiling.
Like I say, wierd...
Just thought I'd share that with you!
I had a wierd dream last night where I was standing outside the Courts of Justice saying:
"There is defeat in victory."
I was smiling.
Like I say, wierd...
Just thought I'd share that with you!
Location TV programmes
Location Location Location - how many properties do these people view in one hour long programme? I don't watch it... six or seven?
I was thinking, if Channel 4 did 'Location Location Location - The Dark Side' and took people in my situation, a person would view nothing in an hour long programme. Infact, you could follow them for an entire 'season' and they would still view nothing.
Different lives ey....
I was thinking, if Channel 4 did 'Location Location Location - The Dark Side' and took people in my situation, a person would view nothing in an hour long programme. Infact, you could follow them for an entire 'season' and they would still view nothing.
Different lives ey....
Britain's street kids
A harrowing but excellent Dispatches documentary about Britain's street children last night on Channel 4.
Children who run away from home, or forced to leave, or in the case of one put into care and then running away from that.
The difficulty they face accessing secure accommodation (one so happy when she got two weeks in a B &B).
We were told that upwards of 100,000 children become homeless every year and following the spending review, is likely to increase.
There was one, a Scottish girl called Robyn, a heroin addict. She said at the age of 12 she was so desensitized by the violence she experienced at home that the street could only be a better place for her. She's met them all; rapists, peodophiles, the mentally ill who in a moment of rage would threaten to kill her.
Later in the documentary you see her selling the Big Issue, talking about how she envies girls her age who don't realise how lucky they are. With her wisdom, she could become a teacher. I went to bed so wishing someone watched that documentary who can add to the opportunities she's trying to create for herself.
Another 16 year old who was featured was a girl called Chelsey. It's very hard for some teenagers to ask for help as there's so much mistrust of authority. By the end of the programme though, she has been offered a long stay hostel and is training to be a plasterer.
Seventeen year old Sophie squats with her 34 year old drug dealer boyfriend having been abandoned by her mother years and years before. The relationship ends, we see her sofa surfing here and there and finally reunited with her mother. This doesn't work out. What will happen to her as she turns 18?
There was only one boy, Haydon, evicted by his mother after several 'last chances'. An agency finds him emergency accommodation but he realises he's 'too young' to live on his own and returns to his mum, which is lucky for him.
I want the coalition to reduce the deficit by skimming from those who tax avoid and tax evade, not by taking from those who have so little in the first place.
It was an important documentary this, coming at a very good time. Things can get worse but it doesn't have to, and it shouldn't have to.
http://www.railwaychildren.org.uk/
Children who run away from home, or forced to leave, or in the case of one put into care and then running away from that.
The difficulty they face accessing secure accommodation (one so happy when she got two weeks in a B &B).
We were told that upwards of 100,000 children become homeless every year and following the spending review, is likely to increase.
There was one, a Scottish girl called Robyn, a heroin addict. She said at the age of 12 she was so desensitized by the violence she experienced at home that the street could only be a better place for her. She's met them all; rapists, peodophiles, the mentally ill who in a moment of rage would threaten to kill her.
Later in the documentary you see her selling the Big Issue, talking about how she envies girls her age who don't realise how lucky they are. With her wisdom, she could become a teacher. I went to bed so wishing someone watched that documentary who can add to the opportunities she's trying to create for herself.
Another 16 year old who was featured was a girl called Chelsey. It's very hard for some teenagers to ask for help as there's so much mistrust of authority. By the end of the programme though, she has been offered a long stay hostel and is training to be a plasterer.
Seventeen year old Sophie squats with her 34 year old drug dealer boyfriend having been abandoned by her mother years and years before. The relationship ends, we see her sofa surfing here and there and finally reunited with her mother. This doesn't work out. What will happen to her as she turns 18?
There was only one boy, Haydon, evicted by his mother after several 'last chances'. An agency finds him emergency accommodation but he realises he's 'too young' to live on his own and returns to his mum, which is lucky for him.
I want the coalition to reduce the deficit by skimming from those who tax avoid and tax evade, not by taking from those who have so little in the first place.
It was an important documentary this, coming at a very good time. Things can get worse but it doesn't have to, and it shouldn't have to.
http://www.railwaychildren.org.uk/
Monday, 1 November 2010
New neighbours?
A man is shouting. I can't catch what he's saying other than "fuck" something ,and "fucking" something else. His voice is really strained. There's another voice screeching, soprano to his alto but it's him I'm hearing most of all.
A couple of times as I've been posting this morning my walls have shaken. Banging is coming from the next door studio. My old neighbour moved out over half term, left me a note (oh why not your number too lovely girl?) The voices sound further away than that though.
On Saturday some people moved in to a two bed a few floors down. Is it them? Or is it coming from next door?
If this is how it's going to be I'm glad I'm moving. As I sit here redundant though, not knowing quite what to do so opting for the safe option of doing fuck all, I mustn't let my mind run away with me. My future hasn't happened yet, it's best I don't think about it.
A couple of times as I've been posting this morning my walls have shaken. Banging is coming from the next door studio. My old neighbour moved out over half term, left me a note (oh why not your number too lovely girl?) The voices sound further away than that though.
On Saturday some people moved in to a two bed a few floors down. Is it them? Or is it coming from next door?
If this is how it's going to be I'm glad I'm moving. As I sit here redundant though, not knowing quite what to do so opting for the safe option of doing fuck all, I mustn't let my mind run away with me. My future hasn't happened yet, it's best I don't think about it.
I can't believe I'm laughing
A parent and a member of staff at my son's school asked me independently this morning how things were going in relation to my move. I told them I'd been told I wouldn't get the bailiff's order but nor was I going to be told anything. I laughed, they didn't.
Staff member was horrified and in the end suggested I get a private flat. "If they're going to treat you like that, get them to pay for it," she said.
"I could," I smiled, "but that wasn't much of an option before and now, with the cuts to housing benefit, it isn't one at all." Ha ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha!
"It's disgraceful," she said. She still wasn't laughing.
Back at the Tower one of the pensioner sisters tells me a lease holder is selling his flat on one of the floors, she told me to phone the council and see if they are buying it back and whether I could move into it.
"It's a studio that one isn't it?" I asked when she told me which one it was.
"Yes but anything's better than where you are going,"
Where am I going? I have only time to think that when she says:
"And anyway, they've got plans to knock down this block, knock down everything from here to [there]. I've seen the plans. It's disgusting what they plan to do, be worse than New Delhi."
I start laughing again. Hundreds upon hundreds of adults and children are going to be made homeless. Take the problem out of my locality, thousands upon thousands of adults and children are going to be made homeless.
Meanwhile I can't help wondering what rent Cameron has set on his Notting Hill home while he and his family reside in Downing Street.
The cap doesn't fit, does it Dave?
You laughing too?
Staff member was horrified and in the end suggested I get a private flat. "If they're going to treat you like that, get them to pay for it," she said.
"I could," I smiled, "but that wasn't much of an option before and now, with the cuts to housing benefit, it isn't one at all." Ha ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha!
"It's disgraceful," she said. She still wasn't laughing.
Back at the Tower one of the pensioner sisters tells me a lease holder is selling his flat on one of the floors, she told me to phone the council and see if they are buying it back and whether I could move into it.
"It's a studio that one isn't it?" I asked when she told me which one it was.
"Yes but anything's better than where you are going,"
Where am I going? I have only time to think that when she says:
"And anyway, they've got plans to knock down this block, knock down everything from here to [there]. I've seen the plans. It's disgusting what they plan to do, be worse than New Delhi."
I start laughing again. Hundreds upon hundreds of adults and children are going to be made homeless. Take the problem out of my locality, thousands upon thousands of adults and children are going to be made homeless.
Meanwhile I can't help wondering what rent Cameron has set on his Notting Hill home while he and his family reside in Downing Street.
The cap doesn't fit, does it Dave?
You laughing too?
Being "ready"
I have a sneaky suspicion that when I get the call telling me that I must now move and that I have only a few days to do so, I'll be thinking: "I'm not ready!"
Funny isn't it, for more than two years I've known I'm going to have to move. Since last september with the repossession notice definitely, last Christmas with the possession notice undeniably, last month with the housing association's eviction notice, without doubt. How can I possibly be "not ready"?
Well I'm not. Nothing is packed. Nothing has been put in bags for a charity shop. Everything is how it has been for the last six years.
How can I describe this total blockage?
A mum of three I know successfully bid on a three bedroom flat in August. She was told they have to do some work on it to bring in up to a decent standard but she should start packing.
She was so excited to finally be leaving her flat that she got boxes straight away. Two months on she's like me, not knowing when she is going. Some boxes have been unpacked again to put a little soul back into her flat for it's hard to sit there surrounded by boxes for weeks upon end not knowing when the weeks will end.
I get her, I really do.
So yeah, I'm just warning you. Whenever whenever is, I am likely to post that my son and I have been found a flat and I'm "not ready" to move, I need a little bit more time.
I guess I'm saying if you're going to judge me, judge me now, don't judge me then.
In the meantime I do have to get my head around what I have to do.
I could ask the audience, but you don't have much of one do you stiggers?
So I'll phone a friend.
My friend Annie moved into a shared flat only a few months ago. She'll remember where she went to acquire boxes.
It's a start, isn't it?
Funny isn't it, for more than two years I've known I'm going to have to move. Since last september with the repossession notice definitely, last Christmas with the possession notice undeniably, last month with the housing association's eviction notice, without doubt. How can I possibly be "not ready"?
Well I'm not. Nothing is packed. Nothing has been put in bags for a charity shop. Everything is how it has been for the last six years.
How can I describe this total blockage?
A mum of three I know successfully bid on a three bedroom flat in August. She was told they have to do some work on it to bring in up to a decent standard but she should start packing.
She was so excited to finally be leaving her flat that she got boxes straight away. Two months on she's like me, not knowing when she is going. Some boxes have been unpacked again to put a little soul back into her flat for it's hard to sit there surrounded by boxes for weeks upon end not knowing when the weeks will end.
I get her, I really do.
So yeah, I'm just warning you. Whenever whenever is, I am likely to post that my son and I have been found a flat and I'm "not ready" to move, I need a little bit more time.
I guess I'm saying if you're going to judge me, judge me now, don't judge me then.
In the meantime I do have to get my head around what I have to do.
I could ask the audience, but you don't have much of one do you stiggers?
So I'll phone a friend.
My friend Annie moved into a shared flat only a few months ago. She'll remember where she went to acquire boxes.
It's a start, isn't it?
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