Woman facing eviction told she would cope sleeping rough by local authority?

Hello, A bit of a half-baked story from the BBC (shock horror!) – see the video below – but you can contact them to make a comment, which I have done and I would urge you to do the same.

Since this original story was reported on a couple of weeks ago, this lady has now been evicted by bailiffs, along with her adult son. While her son currently lives with her daughter and family, she now sleeps in a nearby park, as her local council say she doesn’t meet the “priority need” criteria for homelessness and told her that even if she had to “sleep rough occasionally or in the longer term”, she would not be more vulnerable than anyone else in the same situation. Naturally, her health is suffering as a result.

Clearly, this is a very sad social story and no doubt being repeated across the country due to the lack of accommodation available through the social system. You would surely think that it would be a wake-up call for central Government when paid Local Government Officers are coming out with statements like this, but it now seems par for the course.

What I have taken up with the BBC, however, is the change in rhetoric in the reporting of the story in the most recent updates, apparently to fit their narrow narrative, with no mention of the landlord’s need to carry out fire safety improvements on the property in order to meet the latest regulations, the same old tropes of Section 21 being a “no fault” eviction and not bothering to examine why 1.3 million people are apparently on the waiting list for social housing in this country.

Instead, they trot out the same statistics of rises in Section 21 notices being served (although not in relation to the number of private tenancies there are) and how much rents have gone up in the last 12 months.

I await their reply with bated breath!

Thank you,

Arthur

This is the video: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cd18gy0yjl3o