The aim of this post is to show you what it’s like when a person tries to get help from a council when that person is threatened with homelessness.

As you’ll know, there’s been a lot of discussion about the realities of these council systems after Grenfell.

I want to give you an idea of the shambolic and often startlingly unhelpful council bureaucracies that people must use when they need help to find a place to live. I want to show you the system as people who must use it see it. We live in an era of massively oversubscribed and under-resourced council homelessness offices (god knows I wouldn’t want to work as a frontline council homelessness officer these days). We also live in an era where big councils are very keen push poorer people out to live in cheaper areas, because housing benefit doesn’t cover private rents in expensive areas. These things show.

To the story, then. This is one person talking about the systems she’s experienced:

In the past few weeks, I’ve been talking with a 32-year-old Newham woman called Chantelle Dean. For much of this year, Chantelle has been threatened with eviction and homelessness. She tells a story that will be very familiar to anyone on this circuit.

Chantelle lives in a small, rickety, two-bedroom rented flat in Newham. Rodents and cockroaches are a problem, as they often are in houses in cramped, older rows. There are gaps in walls which rodents use as entry-points: “the [exterminator] guy said no matter how much foam they put in, the mice are going to be coming through. It’s so old and there are so many holes,” Chantelle said. I’ve posted photos of the anti-mouse plastic foam the exterminator sprayed into wall-holes below.

Chantelle has a three-year-old son. She was placed in her flat about three years ago by Newham council after working her way through family problems and contact with social services. Chantelle receives Income Support. She plans to find work when her son starts nursery in September. She said she’s applied for jobs. Her mother lives nearby and can provide free childcare. That’s the plan.

Unfortunately, the plan is threatened by Chantelle’s precarious housing situation.

Chantelle is about to be evicted from her flat. As of Friday last week when we met at her flat, she still had nowhere to go when eviction day comes. She’d been trying to sort the problem out for months. (Chantelle managed to get another meeting with the council this week, so I’ll update this post if there’s progress to report).

The trouble began at the start of this year when Chantelle’s landlord gave her a notice to tell her that she had to leave the property (a section 21 notice, I think. I don’t mind saying the paperwork that comes with these things confuses me as well). She had to leave the flat by March.

She was very upset about this, as well she might be.

Chantelle went to the Newham Council Housing Needs office in East Ham in January to tell the council about the notice and to ask for help find another flat in the area. This is where things began to get messy, as they do.

Chantelle said the council told her that the council couldn’t help until the day that she was actually evicted from the flat – when the bailiffs turned up at her door, as she understood it. She said she was advised to stay in the flat and to wait to receive a possession order – which, I gather, is the next stage in the so-called system (the possession order is mentioned in the officer email below). This was, needless to say, of concern. Chantelle wanted help as soon as possible. She wasn’t keen to wait until bailiffs hammered at the door. She was also worried that she’d end up with court fines and costs if things went as far as possession orders and bailiffs (this is exactly what happened, as you’ll see).

She said that getting anyone to listen was extremely difficult. Noting this frustration is important. People constantly report this sort of frustration with frontline services:

“All they [the council] repeat is that, “we’re not going to help you until you get the bailiff’s warrant.” Once you get that, you come back up here [to the East Ham housing office] and give it to her, my caseworker, and then she will give me an appointment at [Newham Council’s] Bridge House on the day when the letter says that the bailiffs will come. Anything from that – they don’t want to talk to you. They don’t want to see you. Anything.”

Outside of that, Chantelle said the main advice she received was to search by herself outside of Newham for a flat that she could afford at local housing benefit rates and a landlord who would accept housing benefit. She was given a list of local housing allowance (housing benefit) limits. Chantelle did not want to leave Newham, because she felt she was more likely to find work in London. As importantly – in Newham, her mother could look after her son for free when Chantelle worked. That free childcare with a trusted family member is an all-important part of the equation.

This is the text from an email Chantelle received from the council in January when she emailed to raise her concerns. The email advises Chantelle to search for places out of London. I’ve removed staff names and a few pars which referred to personal circumstances and the council chain of command, but you get the picture:

“Dear Ms Chantelle Dean,

…I am sorry to hear about your previous housing difficulties and that your landlord has asked you to leave.

I have looked into your housing records and I note that you approached the Housing Needs Team on 19th January 2017 for housing assistance.

You were advised to use this time to search for alternative accommodation especially outside Newham due to the scarcity of accommodation and also the affordability. Also the Local Housing Allowance rates in those areas are lower than Newham’s and consequently the cost of Private Rented Sector accommodation is most likely to be lower than Newham. There is also a higher tendency to find landlords who accept housing benefit payments in those areas.

Please note that this is the standard advice given to all persons that approach the Council regarding homelessness.

As you have advised that you have a medical condition, please bring proof of your condition along to the Housing Triage Centre in Eastham when you re-approach with the Possession Order so that this can be considered when emergency accommodation is offered to you.

You are advised to make arrangements for your personal belongings to be stored in a safe place prior to the eviction date…

I understand that this is not the response you were hoping for and I am sorry for any disappointment caused. If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact me on…”

“Disappointment” probably doesn’t cover it. There is no reassurance or answers in this. That’s the point.

Chantelle took the council’s advice and looked for a flat herself. Like so many people in these situations, she rang landlords and letting agents to see if she could find a flat with a rent in reach of Newham LHA rates and a landlord who would accept housing benefit. That went about as well as it usually does:

“The receptionist [an officer Chantelle spoke with at Newham] said, “you could look for private rented…” She said you can go on stuff like Zoopla, Rightmove…. I’ve done that, like, every day. I’ve called, like, 50. Not one of them takes DSS. Not one.” That problem had not been surmounted by the time I met Chantelle at her flat last Friday.

There are other parts to this.

As I said earlier, Chantelle was very concerned that she’d be fined or face extra costs in court if she stayed in the flat until the possession order arrived. She was right to be worried. She must pay claimant costs. Chantelle recently received an order which told her to report to court in June and to pay claimant costs of £355. Thing was – she actually emailed the council earlier in the year to ask for reassurance that she wouldn’t face costs like this if she stayed in the flat as instructed:

Sent: 14 March 2017
To:
Subject: Re: Member enquiries – request response

My tenancy ended yesterday so the 13th March 2017 and my landlord was contacting me regarding picking up the keys

I told [the landlord] what ive been told by the council that i have to remain in this property into a court possession order and also into a warrant for possession by balieffs.

[The landlord] then [said] that i will be liable for all costs regarding court fees? Is this correct? Am i liable for the court fees that will inquire regarding me leaving this property?”

To which the council answered:

Sent: 21 March 2017 
Subject: FW: Member enquiries – request response

A landlord can ask the court for costs to be awarded however you can ask the judge for this to be waived if you are on a low income. You would need to complete the defence form that comes with the claim for possession form.

Please speak to your caseworker for further support once you receive the Possession Order…”

Chantelle attended court in June. The courts did not waive the fees. The courts ordered a repayment plan:

“I did ask for it [a waiver] and…this is what the [court] solicitor said… the law states that they don’t hold… the landlord responsible for paying for court fees, so you have to pay it. It can’t be waived… but it can be suspended in the sense that you pay £3.75 a week…”

Here’s the notice:

Bit hard to read, because the jpg is small. Basically, this part of the notice says:

The defendant pay the claimant’s costs of £355 on or before 7 June 2017

The date for possession and payment of costs and when that may be heard.

---

On it goes. On and on and on.

You see what I’m trying to get at here.

This is how people experience things. People who face homelessness and approach their local council feel that they are taking on a cold, confusing and dismissive bureaucracy. Some officers are polite and decent. Some aren’t. It doesn’t matter. We’re talking about service users and frontline officers having to operate in a system that isn’t up to the task. It doesn’t even matter why people are being evicted, in my view. Rent arrears, landlords wanting properties back – whatever. The problem is that people haven’t got the sort of money they need to cover housing problems. Any political implication that People In These Situations Deserve To Suffer achieves nothing. People still need somewhere to live.

Councils may follow the “right” processes – but that doesn’t matter to people who are on the receiving end of those processes. The problem is that people find themselves at the mercy of a homelessness bureaucracy which leaves them stressed, isolated, horribly confused and with money to pay. They can find no reassurance and get no real answers. I realise that the Homelessness Reduction Act is meant to improve things, but we’re not there yet and anyway, I find it hard to believe that the system will get better without a massive addition of staff and affordable local housing to place people in.

One other point. The political class likes to blame people for getting into *these* situations – for having children, for not working, for not having several grand to throw at a new landlord and so on. The truth is that none of that matters. What matters is that in austerity, the system we have offers no exits. Doesn’t matter how you got into your situation. The real problem is that you can’t get out. LHA shortfalls mean that people must look for homes away from the family members who can provide the free childcare that people need if they find training and work. They must move away to cheaper places where there is little work and no Mum down the road to help out. They can’t find landlords who accept DSS. There’s no easy way out of those equations when you think about it. Which the political class does not.

I suppose this is the sort of system Grenfell people will find themselves up against as time goes on.

I’d ask Newham council for comment on this, except that the council still won’t talk to me. Pity, really. I wouldn’t mind talking to officers there. On that goes as well.

Some photos:

Foam in holes in the bathroom

Foam behind washing machine

Peeling wall