Spoke to a advisor for benefits and rights over here in Rotherham yesterday.

She been helping with a few things then turned to helping us with our homeless situation and asked about the housing system in Sheffield....well we did laugh....*sigh*

So we then went thru the normal procedures that she would follow for working in Rotherham and I dare say those for other areas in the UK. Aparently I am doing everything I can to be rehoused in Sheffield. I am bidding on properties, I have sent off applications to housing associations. I have called every relevant approved landlord on their out of date list and still nothing (about 5 weeks homeless now/ 4 weeks officially registered).
Now I have been contacted thru this site by another mum in a similar position to I and she has been waiting about 9 weeks with homesless priority and still....homeless

This bidding system for the housing stock in Sheffield is a JOKE. Whilst I am sure the excuses of Barnsley and Rotherham being smaller than Sheffield can be used, I have been rehoused in Barnsley a few years ago with homeless priority in about a week and was told yesterday that should I decide to stay in Rotherham the longest I would have to wait is two weeks. Is it me or is there something wrong with this picture? Nomad were supprised when I re-counted all this information BTW they also don't want anyone to rent privately - just the impression I got like. Seems a bit stupid if you are homeless and have kids you need a roof over your head, whilst I appreciate there are different laws and financial details - Just what choice do we have?

I have seen posts on the boards here aswell asking if anyone has successfully bid on a house thru this new scheme. I admit to knowing someone who succesfully bid on a house and is now miserably living there, but I have yet to meet or be contacted by anyone who actually 'needed' a home being succesful thru this system.

Having only lived in Sheffield a few years I have slowly learnt about the supidity of the local government...hole in road et al. Does it make sense then - to demolish quite a large proportion of the housing stock all at the same time and thus put homeless priority below the demolished one....which tho I have not had it verified by anyone who may know - may well be the case.

Just out of interest does anyone know how many council estates or part of ones are marked for being demolished?
So far I got the following:
Shirecliffe,
Parson Cross
Scowerdons, Weaklands and Newstead estates
Manor Boot houses.
Skye Edge View
Parkhill block

Okay so can anyone here tell me of anyone who was registered homesless who has been succesfully rehoused by SCC? Can anyone tell me of anyone who has been Happily re housed thru the new system?
Any thoughts on this at all? Join me I am enjoying whinging today

Moon Maiden
*thinks again about the SCC word filter - SF chatters inside joke ;)*

the situation you are in is a complete joke, when i read about your situation before i honestly thought it sounded like such a priority that you'd be housed straight away, but obviously that hasn't happened. I don't know about anyone being satisfied with the bidding system, but people i spoke to on the manor seemed quite satisfied with the new homes they had been re-located to since the regeneration there started and their old homes were demolished.

I left a previous partner through domestic violence, a while ago.

I was put in a high rise on Norfolk park, temporarily. (By applying through homeless dept)

I could not get my wheelchair in and out of the house properly; I could not turn the 'chair, from the front door, to get down the hallway. the hallway was just not wide enough to turn in.

To cap it all, the immediate neighbours were junkie drunkards (all you could smell, in the foyer of that landing was stale whisky and beer.)

they would physically fight, with her screaming blue-murder, as he would slam her, bodily against my front door... Inbetween hammering on my door, and boasting how they had burgled the property once, already.

The intercom-phone thing, whereby I could contact the concierge, was broken, it did not work. I could not summon help.

I was very shaken with the goings on. I was so shaken, I could not face staying there whilst the homeless dept assessed my claim, I felt forced to go back to my violent partner, just in the interim, (I felt it was the lesser of the two evils).

So what did the homeless dept do? They denied my claim of homelessness, saying I had a place to live, at my partner's home.

I had shot myself in the foot, by going back, however temporary that move was planned to be, but, how the heck could I stay in a property that was unsuitable for my disability needs, and with idiot mouth-breathers like that next-door?

You have my sympathy, Moon maiden. If you can get a property, you are a better man than I am , Gunga-Din!

(serioously, Good luck, I hope they come through for you.)

PT

You want to know how to a council property in shffield stay away from the property shop.

If you are homeless class you selve as homeless with the sheffield city council and if you have kids they have to give you a property. Argue with them on the phone tell them that you are sleeping on the floor in a bus shelter if you have to but make sure they take notice of you and I gurantee you, you will be put top of the list. You may have to lie to them so make sure if they call your mother or father for confirmation that you are homeless tell them what to say before you make the call.

I have worked for the council before and trust me if they don't give you a result then ask to speak to there supervisor and they don't ask to speak to there super visor and they will get ****** off so bad that they will give you

I agree with deadstar, a few years ago a friend of mine was being messed about by the council over rehousing, and one of the council officers rang her from home at night and told her roughly what deadstar has said. Go for it Moon Maiden, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain, if lying is what it takes so bloody what. The people who know how to work the system lie regularly to make sure it works for them...you do the same. Good Luck and don't let the B******s grind you down.

owdlad.