Another day, another crackpot definition of 'poverty'. This time it's 'lack of flooring'. Really? Yes indeed, Reader.
Ah. Just the BBC flirting there with getting checked by their own Verify service - of course they have flooring, it's floor covering they lack.
When Pia Honey had her house extended in 2021, the builders planned to put her old flooring into a skip - much to her surprise. After all, it was in perfectly good condition. Instead, Pia listed the carpet on Facebook. Three families each took a share. "All three were single parents living in social housing with no floor covering," Pia, 55, says. "Each one told me the council had removed the previous carpets before they moved in."
I think we can all understand why they might do that, can't we, Reader?
It was this that ultimately led to the creation of her community interest company No Floor No More, which provides second-hand carpets to social housing tenants who would otherwise have to make do with bare floors. Pia, who lives in St Albans, says it's "disgusting" that council and housing association properties are routinely left with partial floor coverings.
I think you'd find it even more 'disgusting' if the council didn't rip it out. And surely it's better to put up with no carpet for a while than be out on the street, isn't it?
The quality of social housing - including the provision of flooring - can have a huge impact on tenants' lives, says Aileen Edmunds, chief executive of Longleigh Foundation, which supports social housing tenants. "We hear some really shocking stories," she says. "For example, people are more likely to return to the perpetrators of domestic abuse if where they've been rehoused doesn't feel like a home. We've heard of children being embarrassed to bring their friends round to play."
God save us all from a world where children are embarrassed by the housing they live in...
First world problems.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely!
Delete50 years ago I was told of the circumstances of families owing our service money by people who had to visit to seek payment. In the worst cases there were bare floorboards covered in dog mess and empty baked bean cans (and children).
ReplyDeleteI guess nothing much has changed for the most inadequate, despite all the government endeavours.
And it probably never will. It's not the poor that will always be with us, it's the inadequate.
DeleteWhen I was a kid I lived in a house that had a concrete floor in the kitchen for many years, that had wallpaper peeling off the walls, rotten windows and no central heating at all. My parents couldn't afford improvements because they were paying off the death duties that they'd incurred when my grandfather died. It was only after a decade of repayments that they then had enough spare income to spend on house repairs.
ReplyDeleteDid I mention I hate the State with a passion?
A sensible outlook.
Delete