The voice of a real person desperate for a house
I am taking the unusual step this week of sharing with you an e-mail I received this week. I was immensely moved by this e-mail as it came from a resident in an area where we are doing a consultation. We engaged with her through social media and is typical of the demographic we engage with during consultations where we use modern technology.
Dear Henry,
My name is Sam and I have read some of your articles on your website. It really hit the right note with me and my family. I am a primary school teacher (aged 36) and my partner, Jez, is a paramedic (aged 38) who works shifts. We have three girls, Polly (14), Danni (10) and my baby Lou (4).
We live in [a town with c.a. 10k residents] in rented accommodation. As a teacher, I earn £35k and my partner as a paramedic earns £38k. Neither of us come from rich families. My mum and dad split up when I was eight and we lived in a council flat in [commuter belt new town]. Mum worked part-time on the check-outs at Somerfield when I grew up. My partner is from [a town in South Wales] and his upbringing was tough with both parents being alcoholics.
When I got pregnant with Polly we decided that we want to be together for the long term and moved into a private rented flat above a shop in [town they still live in]. We joined the waiting list for a council flat but was told at the time the waiting list was about four years. By the time we had Danni we should have been at the top of that list, but we then discovered that the list hadn’t moved much and it would be at least another two or three years before we could get a council property.
We had to move to a house with the two kids. That was also more rent. We tried again to get on the housing list but because we moved, we had to basically start again and by then our points had gone down and they basically told us that we were not a priority for a council house as we both had jobs and in accommodation that we could afford.
We are in a three-bedroom house. Polly and Danni share a room, and Lou is in the box room. We pay £1,450 rent, the Council Tax is £172, the utilities come to about £250 every month, I have a phone, Jez has a phone and we had to get Polly a phone too that comes to about £60 every month. We have to have internet (£29.99 per month). We have one car that costs us (after insurance, road tax and petrol) £300 per month. By the time you have added all the expenses, we are in our overdrafts every month.
We would love to live in one of the new homes you show on the website but we have no deposit, nor can we ever save enough for one. Is there anything you can do to help us?
Yours sincerely,
Sam
PS. please don’t publish my name as a supporter. Our neighbours are all dead set against the development, and I don’t want them throwing bricks through my windows!