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Posts Tagged ‘Housing’

The echoing crunch…

Posted in Inner city, Wolverhampton, tagged , , on 1 July, 2008| 2 Comments »

The other week we had the bailiffs round. Not calling for us – the Church of England isn’t in such a bad state yet. Sadly asking about our next door neighbour who disappeared at the end of February after telling us he was going on holiday.

The following morning the bailiffs were here again, breaking in next door and going to repossess two doors down too. That makes the fourth house in our development of forty or so houses that have been claimed back by lenders.

Wolverhampton has one of the highest rates of subprime mortgages in the country. It’s been so sad to see what’s happened to our friends, who have been trapped by plummeting property prices so they can’t even sell up and go back to renting.

This week the repossessed house next door got its ‘For Sale’ sign. It joins around five or so in the close that are up for sale. If you’re looking for a bargain priced property near to a good bible-teaching church and an excellent church primary school, this is the place to look. A two bedroomed terraced house on the road up from ours sold for £60,000. Just don’t get a sub-prime mortgage…

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It’s the neighbours

Posted in Inner city, tagged , on 21 May, 2008| Leave a Comment »

Mimi is a smiling mum I know from the school gate and is looking to move house. They want to buy somewhere for the first time. They’ve just had a second child so their two bedroomed house is too small. But mainly they want to move because of the neighbours.

‘Are they noisy then?’ I asked, thinking of ‘normal’ reasons for the neighbours to be difficult.

‘It’s the drugs.’ she replied. ‘And it’s so dirty, I won’t even go down the shared passageway between the houses.’ She scrunched up her face in disgust.

Private landlords mean that you can’t just call up the council to remove your neighbours. You have to move yourself in the end.

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How many bedrooms in your house?

Posted in Family, Inner city, tagged , , on 16 May, 2008| Leave a Comment »

At the toddler group yesterday I was having a nice chat with Mrs Discoman about her new house. She’s still in lots of chaos but so happy to have a spacious new home. Sitting with us was another mum, who has six kids, aged 2 to 16. She mentioned that she’d applied for one of the lovely new houses that Mrs D has moved into, but hadn’t been successful.

‘How big is your house now?’ I asked.

‘You don’t want to know.’ A period of silence.

‘Go on, tell me.’

‘You don’t want to know.’ I can see some internal seething, a biting of the tongue.

We chat a little more about local housing. Mumofsix has been on various waiting lists for housing for eight years. She thinks there is ‘discrimination’, although she doesn’t say what sort.

‘I’m in a two bedroomed house.’

‘Seven of you with two bedrooms?’ I have to check that this is really her situation. Surely people stopped living like that once Queen Victoria had died.

‘I sleep in the front room.’ she tells me.

I tell her that she’s amazing. Mrs Discoman and I begin talking about something else: we don’t want to rub any more salt in her wounds.

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Having some work done on your house?

Posted in Inner city, tagged , , on 15 May, 2008| Leave a Comment »

My parents are having some decorating done. My mum found the guy to do the work, who came with excellent references from some friends of hers. He comes in at her convenience and has done a room at a time. He calls if he’s going to be late or isn’t going to be there. She is in control and he wants to please her so that she gives him more work and recommends him to her friends.

In Wolverhampton there is a scheme going on called ‘Decent Homes’ and the council are refurbishing their houses. It’s great – folk are getting new central heating, new kitchens and bathrooms, new doors and rewiring. It’s making the houses loads better and the council tenants don’t have to pay.

However, the council obviously have to do this as economically as possible, so there are big teams of workers tackling multiple houses at the same time. This means that the plasterers, electricians and plumbers are kept busy all the time.

So if you are having the work done to your house, you have no control. The workmen come and go at their convenience, not yours. If they need to do something two doors down they go there instead. They don’t phone you to let you know if they’re not coming after all. You’ve not hired them and so can’t fire them if they are a bit unreliable.

And because you’ve not appointed the workmen yourself, you’re less likely to trust them in the house on their own. You may even want to be in the house all the time that they’re there. And since they’re not just decorating a single room but doing a lot of major work, this means that you could spend about six weeks in the house whilst the work gets done.

This is a snapshot of how people in the inner city can lack power over their own lives. It’s also one of the things that can make running a bible study for mums who are Wolverhampton council tenants a little unpredictable.

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It’s the area

Posted in Inner city, tagged , on 14 May, 2008| 1 Comment »

So what is it like where I live?

My friend Mrs Discoman has just moved to a brand new housing association property in our parish and I was telling our lollipop man, Mr Goldtooth, about it as we waited to cross the big road on the way to school this morning. He said that the housing association had approached him to see if he’d like one of next batch of houses they are building right next to the school.

‘So what did you say?’ I asked.

‘Oh, no way am I taking one.’ he grinned, his gold tooth glinting in the bright May sunshine.

‘Why not? Mrs Discoman’s house is really lovely.’

‘It’s the area.’

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