Housing crisis deepens as cuts bite, Olympic legacy a farce

With housing benefit cuts starting to take affect we are seeing a sharp increase in the rate of homelessness across the country but felt no more so than in our capital city of London.

Repossessions 2010 = 36,300, Repossessions 2011 = 36,200 and the Forecast for 2012 = 'Worse' than the previous year’s still.
There has been a 44% increase in households who are homeless after repossession... ½ effectively.
In what is an Olympic year in London all the hype is around the games and how much of a benefit they will be to us and the capital city well is this true we wonder.
Looking closer at the so called Olympic legacy it is a disgrace that ordinary working people will not benefit from them at all and in affect is a profiteering exercise which we have thought all along.
Let’s take Barking and Dagenham, Hackney, Havering, Redbridge, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest will have 107 homes between them. Built in the next period. How is that even going to make a dent in the housing waiting list which currently stands at over 5 million across the country this is nowhere near enough.

Of the 2,818 homes left after the Olympics only 675 will be social housing. The idea of the market in housing is sickening to me when many people can’t get a home and a roof over their head while greedy landlords and market forces are making a killing out of people who pay huge amounts for small places and in often poor conditions too.
The fact that London renting charges are over double the national average it is London where this crisis on housing is felt most. Youth fight for jobs has launched a housing campaign for a programme of mass social housing building to be started. Looking to build a million homes affordable rents for the next 5 years. We hope this gains an echo at this time and is taken up by the trade unions that can campaign on this issue.
The fact that this will also create much needed jobs in building these houses could provide people with hope and a future. Constructions companies can then re employ workers and start helping workers out who are in need of jobs too at the moment.

Housing will continue to be a big issue and is something we as socialists are very keen to point out the failures of the market on. Yet another area the market has failed the majority of people and that should be planned for people’s needs over the profits of a few.

I myself am still having to live at home at the age of 23 as I simply cannot afford to move out being on such low wages also there is absolutely no council housing available in East Hertfordshire that I can get. I am on the waiting list but there are thousands of others on it. This is a growing issue and needs tackling before it explodes.