Homeless Services: a round-trip to despair?
Posted in Housing by Salford Youth Council - Sep 14, 2009
In Salford, like many areas of the country homes are now allocated via the controversial ” bidding cycle”. We believe this system is flawed and acts as a barrier for many at risk and vulnerable people in desperate need of rehousing.
Many people who are in fact homeless go straight to the bottom of the bidding list. You can of course “call in” to the Salford Property Shop, probably the only “shop” in Salford Precinct that has absolutely nothing to sell! From the outside this tense looking outpost looks like a letting agency, but there are no properties to rent! All you can do is get a copy of the latest list of properties available to bid for (which sometimes no properties you will qualify for even if you are homeless!). Although if you need to get yourself on the long waiting list going in to the property shop is your best and fastest way to do it as even if you apply over the phone or online you still need to send them your identification so calling in to the shop means you can do it all at once.
If you don’t take in your ID they’ll suspend your application very swiftly. Don’t forget lots of younger people especially those from poorer backgrounds don’t have the right identification such as a Passport or Driving license complicating things even further.
So just how long does it take to get a council house in the great city of Salford?
Even the council can’t tell you that, Waiting times are a mysterious and contentious subject. Any attempt to find out results in a blank face and the tiresome “can’t really say to be honest” and a shrug of the shoulders from fed up underpaid, poorly trained and demoralised ” advisors”. Even the name of the housing office “Property Shop” is misleading, it is not a shop! and it has no properties for sale or let! Anyone in need of rehousing is advised they’d be “better off” crashing on a friends floor, looking for a private landlord or making a four mile journey to leafy Swinton to make an appointment at the even more pointless and soul destroying home of Salford’s “Housing Advice and Support Services Team” known as Crompton House… – if its even open!
” Homeless Services” is based in Swinton for most people especially those living in the poorest areas of the city this is quite a trip. Along with the distance the opening times are quite tight and those who work or have children find it difficult to get an appointment or attend the drop in services. Once you do make contact the first appointment you have is an exercise at getting you back out of the door as quickly as possible. Council staff mislead people into providing information that means they are not technically classed as homeless (even though they have nowhere to live!).
There is only one person available at the counter with many people waiting a long time just to get the staff’s attention even if you ring the bell people are often left waiting. Appointments are frequently canceled due to staff sickness and shortages and cases sat on people’s desks are also frequently delayed for the same reason.
If you don’t go in and harass the front desk every day then sooner or later they forget about you, almost as if they assume your no longer in need of their services, where is their duty of care? This is not just limited to Salford, but things need to change, and FAST.
