Man delays life-saving surgery due to council housing delay (From The Argus)
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Man delays life-saving surgery due to council housing delay
11:20am Tuesday 9th October 2012 in News
A man waiting for life-saving surgery has been told he must wait until he is officially homeless before a council will find him a new home.
Alan Burton, 47, of Crescent Road, Brighton, first applied for new council accommodation in October last year when the owner of the private home he rented told him he would be selling it.
Now, with the property sold and the owners scheduled to move in four weeks time, Mr Burton is desperately looking for somewhere else to live.
During the wait, he has delayed a triple heart bypass three times due to fears about where he would be living when he will come out of hospital.
Brighton and Hove City Council has told him to remain in the house until the new owner is ready to move in as he will then become eligible for emergency temporary housing.
Households requiring “emergency” housing are waiting up to two years before a suitable property is found. The council has more than 14,000 people on its waiting list.
Mr Burton, who is in the council’s Band B priority for those with major medical needs, said: “I just don’t know where to turn. The council needs showing up on this.
“Some families in Band C – those with minor medical needs – have been waiting since 2005.
“All they keep on telling me is to wait in the home until the new owners are ready to move in. Then I’ll be classified as homeless so the council said it can put me in temporary accommodation.
“That was the last straw. I’ve been having sleepless nights and I just can’t take it any more. I’m not trying to jump the queue. How am I supposed to go in for lifesaving surgery and come back out to temporary accommodation?”
Information in the council’s latest Homemove magazine shows that people in Band A – the council’s ‘emergency’ category – waited on average two years before securing a one-bedroom flat.
The same publication shows in the last month there have been more than 450 people in the top band bidding for properties.
A council spokesman said: “We are sympathetic to residents with housing problems and assure them that we provide a fair and transparent allocation of our homes but the fact is that demand massively outstrips supply.
“We have around 12,000 homes and approximately 14,000 households on the housing register with only around 800 properties in the city becoming vacant and available for letting each year.
“People on the register choose which properties to bid on and so it is quite possible that people have been on the register since 2005 if they are waiting for a particular type of property or their assessed housing needs are very low.”
Comments(9)
SGK2000
says...
12:19pm Tue 9 Oct 12
Maybe it's the rules but it's a pretty cruel system.
sbiscorrupt
says...
12:35pm Tue 9 Oct 12
It seems to me that we aren't that civilised at all...
ourcoalition
says...
5:51pm Tue 9 Oct 12
sbiscorrupt wrote:I agree - but this is the Governments fault not the Council, as they require Council's to apply the rules in this way - without disgression. Quite mad!
The measure of a civilised society is how they deal with those in need...
It seems to me that we aren't that civilised at all...
On_the_Level
says...
7:29pm Tue 9 Oct 12
BB1975
says...
8:40pm Tue 9 Oct 12
On_the_Level wrote:Unfortunately, most councils will only house someone who has a 'local connection' to the area, ie that they either live or work there. Therefore, it's not that simple.
I would consider looking further afield in boroughs such as the mid sussex county council - they may have shorter waiting lists
BB1975
says...
8:59pm Tue 9 Oct 12
Rainies
says...
9:43pm Tue 9 Oct 12
Maxwell's Ghost
says...
10:37pm Tue 9 Oct 12
If you look at the lettings listings you can see that many properties in the city remain unlet.
Why does the council not take this stock and rent to tenants.
Also the council continues to allow developers to convert family homes into flats which are often bought by people from outside the city who want to move to B&H, totally ignoring the 10,000 local folk on the waiting list.
Permission to convert should be given, if the council can rent the property to council tenants.
I find it shocking that homes are empty and people homeless.
cancelaccount says...
12:00pm Tue 9 Oct 12
and if he knew of such impending change in his circumstances why hasn't he sought private accommodation to suit his needs? or again is he just expecting someone else to do it? and his 'right'to local authority housing.. there is NO right and if there was a more deserving cause would be for a family, persons positively contributing to the local community.
if his problems arethat bad, then a hiousing support officer would have been allocated to the case and located a suitable property for him to inhabit, so his medical need must be solely based on his need for cardiac surgery.. and that is just NOT enough to requisite housing priority
all these important factors are not reported in this news item, and as ever the Argus writes a thin piece with scant infomration, facts and little to no reporting (in the traditional sense).