18 September (Part 2) - Bexley’s housing crisis
Not entirely unrelated to
Chris Beazley’ TV appearance are two Press Releases
issued by Bexley council this week.
The first was the proposed tightening of the rules relating to
the allocation of what used to be known as council houses.
The rules used to be totally unrealistic and left some people on the list for
half a lifetime without any prospect of being housed. The 2013 changes were
probably well overdue, but such is the current crisis the new regulations have
already proved inadequate - if the aim is to keep the queue short that is.
So it is proposed that the residency requirement will be stretched from two to
five years and that even more homeless people will be
sent to Manchester.
Bexley council needs some opinions to ignore and has set up
a consultation page.
It comes as no surprise that Bexley council has ignored the views of local
residents and is going ahead with its plan to
use the redundant
Homeleigh Care Home to house the homeless.
With a government that fails to control our borders and allows rents to spiral
out of control every opportunity to take people off the streets must be taken.
Whether Bexley council can be relied upon to put
only ‘nice’ families into Homeleigh is another matter entirely.
Maybe Teresa Pearce and her team will find some answers.