Money for nothing?

I understand from former colleagues of mine that some local authorities are paying landlords a bounty for each property they supply for for private letting to applicants. I've been told that these bountys can run into many hundreds of pounds. Of course though the authoritys are not inspecting these propertys and of course some of these propertys are in poor condition!

Who looks after the children?

Whilst the national papers have been have been full of the Peace Sandberg story http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7404090.stm I have experienced a a number of parents who when their relationships have broken down have used their children to give the homeless partner a priority need for accommodation. Trying to prove that the parental responsibility is contrived is nearly next to impossible to prove

Losing my grip on sanity

Help...........I think I'm ready to be carted off by those nice chaps who provide you with jackets that do up at the back. I was on duty today and had an applicant who wanted to refuse a offer of temporary accommodation as he said the living room wasn't big enough for his home cinema system!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Frustration with the Emperors New Clothes

As a homelessness officer I'm fed up up of hearing all the priority being put on prevention. I find some of the tactics used to make people move into privately rented property dubious to say the least, even illegal at times. Senior management and central government are only worried about figures and don't consider the service users at all. I know of clients that have attended our office requesting to make a homelessness application but they have been fobbed off for months and months whilst privately rented accommodation is sought for them, then the case is passed over once the clients legal representatives start acting for them

Well hello

As from my perusual of the blogs available regarding homelessness and noticing that most of them were from either the legal community or advocates for homelessness, I decided to write this to give you a view from the inside of a local authority.

I've been working in homeless persons unit for many a long year so I look forward to giving my views on various issues