06 April, 2006

Expensive bricks and mortar

Over the years we have seen house prices rocket at an astonishing rate. The price of an average home is now £175,000 and there's not a lot of people that can afford one and if you are homeless or in temporary accommodation then owning your own home is a just pipe dream. As this government concentrates on the house buying public they are missing out on a chance to tackle the problem of fairer rents and what really can be done to help people, not only the homeless but everyone who has a problem with paying ever rising rents. Which is another thing that I seem to be coming across quite often. The other thing is people on benefits are being charged what is being deemed as service charges.This usually is the short fall which is what council benefit does not pay. It's down to the tenant to pay the extra and in most cases this causes a great shortfall in actaul monies people on benefit can spend on things like food and clothing ect but it also affects most people in the renting sector. To me this is like a small back door tax but it's really another loophole that needs to be fixed. It's sneaky but perfectly legal. There are so many things that can be done to help the poorer sections of our society but just like previous governments and the government we have now things will remain the same because governments are so focused on people that can afford to buy their home that they seem to have forgotten there have always been a section of society that can not and never will be able to afford the luxuries of a comfortable life.

1 comment:

alyceclover said...

Have read several times in the past few days that drug dealers prey on the homeless. I think a lot of people became homeless due to a drug addiciton (and acoholism) (gambling) Rebecca is a homeless person, beat by her father, later raped by mom's new guy, at 13 someone offered her drugs, to forget, it helped, that became her lifestyle, running away from home, staying on the streets. A lot of young become homeless in just such a way. Don't think the drug dealers prey on them, so much as friends turn them on, and drug dealers know they need drugs.

I know it is my fault that I am homeless by dumb choice (to quit job to help family members with medical emergencies rather than look out for #1, me), but struggled for years on the verge, "affordable" housing, health & dental care, minimum wage type jobs. I don't like to be homeless, but no way back to normal (poor health, don't qualify, theysay, for benefits). Fix the problem by "retaining" me? Would make them kill me first. Does Rebecca deserve to be retained? Don't think so. The US system makes being homeless a crime. In itself, it should not be. Are victims of tsunami waves, hurricane floods bums? No. Many never recover, go back to normal after becoming homeless from natural disasters.

Persons pointing fingers, you homeless, you bad, should think a bit more.