Social Housing

1. Social Housing

'The obvious target of good Social Housing should be to make best use of all available resources to house every human in our country. It should be a 'Human Right' to have a safe place to live.'

Such a vital and important part of a peaceful and meaningful existence is to have a high level of stability. People move from place to place looking for a better existence and when they find their homes they become a better and more stable member of society. Those who have trouble finding the place to call home are outside of society. For society to function correctly every one should be a part in the creation of their society and in the creation of their preferred cultural habitat. The people who sit outside of society do not do so of their own intent, rather they have been placed outside society by consequence and often due to societies failure to help and protect them.

Entitlement: There are conflicting views on what everyone should be entitled to because the current system has you believe in entitlement as a dirty word. A word that should not be used by 'Hard Working People' and never encouraged. If you asked any of our ancestors, from now to our distant past, should we be entitled to anything after their hard work and sacrifice? The result would be a resounding and ghostly accord. We must not link entitlement with what you can earn in the future but instead what the past struggles have taught us. We live in communities and irrelevant of race and creed we all should help each other to have a pleasant existence or the consequences are always dire. Why did any of our families work so hard in the past if not to make the future better? A just society is an inherited desire. The want for an equal and fair society doesn't only exist now, it has always existed. In fact many people who contribute to free thinking ideas do so because of the inspiration from past idealogical views. The previous generations notions of freedom and liberty still exists in our conciousness now. Every work of art has elements of these ideals scattered throughout it. We have been handed entitlement from the previous generations mistakes, trials and tribulations. We are entitled to know we should have better and that with the modernisation of the planet, we can have better. As a start we should all be entitled to a home.

Affordable Housing: This is a key term used by politicians world wide. From Uganda to Canada there are social housing projects under the 'affordable housing' banner trying and solve obvious overpopulation problems. But what can people actually afford? In the UK even the lowest priced homes are out of the reach of an increasingly poorer population. Some of these are the people who really need stability and a place to call home. The lowest earners will not be borrowed money by banks or other financial institutions. They often cannot prove they can maintain a constant wage and so have no way to afford a home. So these homes that are being built are far from affordable to all members of society. Our problems cannot be solved by building the same brick buildings that we have been building for over 100 years. Our technology has improved massively in that time yet our construction methods have barely changed. We fear prefabricated homes as our previous post war 'baby boomer' generation was placed in grotesque prefabricated houses that were poorly designed and made to be very temporary. Modern technology has already changed the quality of prefabricated homes. If we put our energy into making beautiful, modern communities with prefabricated, ecologically friendly, sustainable and well planned homes then we could evolve home ownership and make other viable options. Some people have a family house, 4 family members and it's paid for through housing benefits. This will cost the taxpayer 600-1000 pounds per month to support. If a long term mortgage can be agreed for a much cheaper property within a lovely community this bill could drop from 600-1000 pound to 50-100 pound. This could be used to lower the cost of social benefits without making people homeless, destitute or poorer. Instead you establish small, well planned communities of people who can now afford to really contribute to society.

We must start thinking of construction in a different manner. We have many technologies and resources to achieve this. Building truly affordable housing should not mean building eyesores. With unsightly architecture you lose support of communities and you will need the full support of communities to make real change.

If we look at the situation that most single people find themselves in, you will see that they also cannot afford to buy a home on a single wage. The answer is not to force everyone into marriage as the Conservatives believe. Instead it's building more, smaller, denser and to be innovative with designs. Everybody should have more reasonable options for comfortable living and no routes to poverty. If we live in squallier it's because we're oppressed, this can be seen anywhere on Earth where people are living in poverty, it's directly linked to an unfair society and to a Government that does not represent its own citizens.

Actual Housing: Our current social housing system started its descent many years ago, and people have suffered and died as a consequence. People living rough, in amongst a corrupt society driven by economic empowerment rather than social empowerment. We need to have more respect for society and we need to accept that everyone should have a home. The idea of affordable housing does not cover the people who can't afford anything. We need actual housing, we need to accept that investment is necessary but this will always be a challenge when the entire housing system is run to make large profits. When your society has failed you in gaining a decent education, not helped you function as an active member, not recognised the care you should have been given then you should not be left to dwell in poverty. Instead we need to take responsibility for the failings and help to improve that persons situation. We need to start helping vulnerable people who have a low chance of success without aid and that should start by housing them, it should be a fundamental right in the developed world. We need to act on this immediately.

Housing Monopoly: In the UK our house prices have been out of control since the 1980's. In that decade social housing was sold off in an attempt to make the poor of society disappear. Markets deregulated to allow an influx of private capital which left many of our citizens destitute and homeless. Rich people bought up property at a rate never seen before. The banks allowed everyone, no matter of their circumstance and existing property portfolio, to have mortgages that would be traded into thin air and lead us to a massive banking collapse. It was literally a massive game of Monopoly, with nobody questioning what happens when somebody wins and the game ends. In a four player game of Monopoly there can be only one winner and three losers. In a 60,000,000,00 player game of Monopoly there will eventually be only one winner and 59.999,999,99 losers.

The Future of Housing: First of all we need to make all plans for the building of future homes sustainable and realistic. Zero Energy houses, Smart homes and other architectural breakthroughs make free social housing a realistic possibility. We are entering into a technological age which should be beneficial to all and not just those who can afford it. When standards of living rise then crime and social unrest will fall. We need to mobilise all resources to prevent future poverty and have security for all.