Private problems are troubles which negatively affect individuals and their immediate surroundings. When these troubles go beyond the personal environments of the individual and impact on the community, they become public issues (Bogue, 2009). One of the most common private problems which developed into a critical public issue appears to be the scarcity of social housing. According to The Scottish Government [TSG] (2013), from the 31st March 2013 there were 184,487 households on local authority housing waiting lists across Scotland. The lack of available social housing is mainly due to stock levels steadily diminishing each year since 1980, after tenants bought nearly half-a-million council houses under the ‘Right to Buy’ scheme. This coupled with the decline in house building; which is currently at its lowest level since 1946, has brought about a shameful lack of affordable public housing (Turffrey, 2010). The downturn in public housing alternatives and home ownership becoming increasingly unaffordable for many first-time buyers has created a vast reliance on the private sector. Inside Letting (2012) states private renting has more than doubled its share of the total housing stock in Scotland since 1999. It is now the most expensive form of housing, with the average annual private rent costing £8,244; compared to the annual Scottish Local Authority rent which averages in at just £3,064. (Easton, 2013: Urquhart, 2013). Low-income households who cannot afford this large mark-up on rent can apply for housing benefit to make up the shortfall. Housing Benefit paid towards inflated rent prices to private landlords takes almost 95% of total UK housing spending, with only 5% of funds invested in house building (UN... ... middle of paper ... ...t: How the lack of affordable housing impacts on all aspects of life [PDF] Available at Shelter website; england.shelter.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/268752/The_Human_Cost.pdf • UNISON (2013). Scotland - Housing Policy June 2013 [PDF] Available at UNISON Scotland website; www.unison-scotland.org.uk/housing/MakingHomesForAFairerScotland_June2013.pdf • Urquhart, F. (2013). Aberdeen rent average soars past £1,000 a month [webpage] Available at The Scotsman website; www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/homes-gardens/property-news/aberdeen-rent-average-soars-past-1-000-a-month-1-3144329 [accessed 14th January 2014] • West College Scotland [WCS] (2010). governmental influences, funding & the mixed economy of care [PDF] Available at West College Scotland, Education Care and Sciences, Health and Social Care Moodle Site; moodle2.reidkerr.ac.uk/mod/resource/view.php?id=9566
A decent home is fundamental to people’s well being and is not just a roof over someone’s head. Many people assume that homelessness is people without a home – someone who is ‘living rough’. Even though this is true, the reality is that many individuals and families who are homeless are living with family members or friends on a temporary basis. Others live in bed and breakfast hotels, hostels, night shelters and temporary accommodation provided from the government. For the majority, this results in a poor quality of life and can lead to many social problems. The UK is one of the most powerful and richest
The Open University (2010) K101 An introduction to health and social care, Unit 3, ‘Social Care In The Community’, Milton Keynes, The Open University.
Presently, one of the main causes of homelessness in American is the lack of affordable housing. New York researchers claim that affordable housing is the answer to homelessness. Researcher, Mary Beth Shinn, states, ?homelessness is first and foremost a housing problem not a psychological one? (qtd. in Franklin 15.) Nearly all the families in their study became stably housed regardless of substance abuse, mental illness, physical illness or incarceration. This study indicates that homelessness is not a permanent condition. People do get themselves out of the problem when an intervention occurs to provide them with access to the housing market (NYU 2.) Without permanent housing, people are unable to keep jobs and are more likely to become ill. Permanent housing provides stability that enables them to find and retain employment with health benefits.
House prices have been affected by the number of people who buy houses to rent out and this has had an impact on younger people wanting to buy homes. Thus, the term ‘generation rent’ has come to the forefront in recent years. In A Century of Home-ownership and Renting (The Open University, 2016) census data presented supports the claim for the use of this term. In the video, they mention levels of home-ownership dropped for the first time since records began. From 69% to 64% in the space of 10 years and the percentage of households privately renting has been on the rise. 11% in 1981 compared to 18% in 2011. In addition, house prices have risen faster than previous years and banks have also restricted lending. These factors have all lead to more people not being able to afford a home of their own, especially at a younger age. So, as house prices rise this benefits the home-owners and allows them to gain more wealth and capital. The distribution of wealth has been affected by changes in these markets. There is evidence to support this claim. Table 3.5 (Investigating the social world 1, chapter 3, p. 96) shows wealth distribution in Great Britain from 2000 and 2005. The table shows results for housing wealth distribution amongst other things. It’s important to look at the look at the lowest and highest percentiles to look at any
I am fortunate at the this time to not have to be concerned with government policies and politics that create barriers to affordable housing, especially rental housing. The most significant issue with rental housing, however, is the rising costs of rent (Schwartz, 2010). For many populations, the cost of renting a housing takes up a significant amount of their annual income, making saving and monetary flexibility near impossible. In some instances, this expense accounts for up to 30% of income (Downs, 2008). It is also significant that one of the populations that most generally ut...
Nevertheless, the previous researches were either focused on the role of affordable housing associating with residential stability or educational improvement for children and employment outcomes for the adults (Manturuk, 2012). Others also emphasized that affordable housing could contribute to community-wide economic development, both for troubled and vibrant communities (Lubell et al., 2007). In addition, even the past researches started to examine the impact difference from various categories ownerships versus; however, the subcate...
Furthermore the report suggests that overall supply of housing in London has been in decline since the 1960s, with no corresponding decrease in demand. For decades the council house building programme compensated for this; the fall in levels of construction of social housing has therefore hit the affordable end of the market hardest.
1.3 million tenants are currently living in subsidized housing while 2.7 million are living in public housing where the landlord receives incentives from the government (Husock). These millions of tenants are costing working taxpayers because the money running the government assisted programs comes out of tax dollars. Alternatives and remedies need to be thought out.
Rent control is a government regulated price ceiling that imposes restrictions on the amount landlords can charge tenants for rent, or by the amount the rent can be raised each year (Miller, R., Abbott, B., Fefferman, S., Kessler, R., & Sulyma, T. 2012). Rent control was introduced to prevent landlords from gouging tenants and to ensure that every individual has access to affordable housing. This raises concern of how effective rent control is at promoting equity within its society. In this paper the consequences of imposing rent control in Toronto, Ontario in contrast to Edmonton, Alberta, where rent control does not exist, will be explored.
...ncil only built 29 homes last year. Lots of houses tied up in NAMA that could be used. In my own constituency of Dun Laoghaire Rathdown there are currently - properties that could be used. What is required is a large scale social housing development last seen since 1932. A large quantity of social housing that was previously owned by Dublin corporation and Dublin City council were privatized Public housing private financing joint ventures may need to be pushed if the government cannot be coerced into building large scale social housing projects. Municipal housing associations . Mention gentrification maybe tie the 'no rent supplement' issue into this. Dun Laoghaire Rathdown county council favours this because more affluent tenants means more money for the council's budget, a larger volume of social housing would mean a larger amount of not paying property tax.
In many ways, this housing shortage has been a consequence of strict housing policies enacted in the 1960s that limited the heights of new buildings and allowed neighbours to block developments. Because of this, in recent history the Bay Area has only issued building permits for about 50% of the buildings for the growing population. This combination of high demand and low supply for local housing has allowed housing costs to skyrocket, to the point where the area is no longer affordable for many residents (Russel). This has created a large population of residents who experience homelessness and housing insecurity. Of the 7,500 residents of San Francisco that are currently unhoused, 71 percent were housed in the city before becoming homeless (Connery et al, see Figure 1). Further, 49 percent of residents experiencing homelessness who once had a permanent residence in the city had maintained it for at least ten years. This indicates that San Francisco residents cannot continuously afford to live in the housing currently available in the
Kennedy A. (2014) Castle Vale Housing Action Trust: Lessons in Regenerating Communities Lecture, University of Birmingham.
Redmond, D. (2001) Policy Review Social Housing in Ireland: Under New Management, Britain: Oxfordshire’, 1(2)
3.Spence, Lorna. A Profile of Londoners by Housing Tenure: Analysis of Annual Population Survey& Labour Force Survey Data. London: Greater London Authority, 2007. Print.
Social investment approaches also focus on benefits and services that help people to achieve lasting positive social outcomes throughout their lives and reducing the dependency on benefits. In 2012, on average 12 % of the EU-27 population was overburdened by housing