Housing crisis is getting worse

8:00am Monday 2nd April 2007

Comments (9)   Have your say »

The shortage of council housing in Oxford is reaching crisis point, with even the most needy being told they face a five-year wait for a home.

Some 670 families - the most vulnerable on the register - are currently housed in temporary accommodation by Oxford City Council.

"If you aspire to live in a council house you have no chance whatsoever.”

City council community housing manager Graham Stratford

But a report on the scale of the homelessness problem in the city has revealed for the first time the wait people face to get a house.

Oxford's homelessness problem is recognised as the worst outside inner-city London, affecting about 17 in every 1,000 families.

For anyone housed in temporary accommodation the waiting time for a council house in Oxford is 2 years (1-bed); 2 years (2-bed); 4 years (3-bed); and 5 years (5-bed).

Housing allocations are made on a points system, with those with young families, deemed vulnerable or with severe disabilities top of the list.

But the waiting times below do not take into account the remaining 4,500 people on the council's general waiting list.

They stand "no chance whatsoever" of being housed, according to one senior council official.

City councillor Patrick Murray, executive member for improving housing, who was once homeless himself, said: "We are doing what we can but the problem is going to get worse before its gets better.

"You either need an awful lot of money to buy a house in Oxford or be at such a level of need to get social housing - and there is a great big gap in the middle.

"For as long as I can remember people have said housing in Oxford is in crisis and it certainly is.

"To be blunt it's going to take an awful long time (for people to be housed). We need more houses. It's as simple as that."

Homelessness costs taxpayers in Oxford £4.5m a year.

There are 8,000 council and 4,000 housing association properties in Oxford, but the authority has a waiting list of more than 5,000, with about 450 properties becoming available each year.

City council community housing manager Graham Stratford said: "If you aspire to live in a council house you have no chance whatsoever.

"Unless circumstances change you will never be housed by this authority.

"The problem would have been much less if we had not sold half our stock (through the former Conservative Government's 'right to buy' policy).

"We had about 17,000 in 1979 - we have now got 8,000.

"The problem was we were not allowed to spend the receipts on building more houses.

"I have worked in social housing in Oxford for 13 years and the problem hasn't changed. We need more affordable homes."

Housing managers are starting to work with private landlords in an effort to reduce the number of families in temporary accommodation to 475 by 2010.

Oxford East MP Andrew Smith said: "Oxford faces a real housing crisis, which is why I keep banging on about how vital it is to build more new affordable housing on the edge of Oxford.

"Those who want to block building in the Green Belt are condemning others to temporary and substandard housing."

One person who knows all about waiting for a council house is Amanda West.

Mother-of-four Ms West, 37, who lives with her children and partner in a three-bedroom housing association property in Acacia Avenue, Blackbird Leys, has been waiting to move to a bigger property for more than eight years.

One of her children has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and space is tight.

She claimed to be at the top of the list when Oxford City Council and Cherwell Housing Trust joined forces and merged their registers, but has since slipped down the pecking order.

She said: "I do have sympathy for the thousands of people who don't have a council house.

"There are many people who have got to the top of their list and 'bang' they have their hopes built up only to have them dashed.

"I have been on the transfer list for eight years and was top of the list when Cherwell Housing Trust merged with Oxford City Council and was told the next (four-bedroom house) would be mine - and it wasn't.

"I have done everything properly and waited my time and still have my hopes dashed."