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Jonathan and Leila Kilby with their 11-month-old baby Nathan |
So, how many points is my overcrowded house worth?
Living conditions described as ‘Dickensian’ as method of calculating need is questioned
FOR nearly 18,000 Camden families they have become an obsession.
Housing points – the system which calculates residents’ needs and allocates them properties accordingly – have been hoarded and fought over since their introduction in 1997.
Many families see them as the only way to improve their lot.
But with Camden’s housing crisis deepening and overcrowded households living in “Dickensian” conditions, the 17,497 names waiting for a council property are increasingly calling the Town Hall’s points system into question.
Even the council’s own housing chiefs admit the system “needs to be a bit more sophisticated”.
Jonathan and Leila Kilby and their 11-month-old baby Nathan are one of 2,997 families on the list hoping for a bigger property.
The young family all sleep in the living room of their Islip Street bedsit in Kentish Town, where Mr and Mrs Kilby have lived for seven years.
According to Camden housing regulations, they will not be considered overcrowded until the child is at least five years old.
In the meantime, the Town Hall’s Overcrowding Team have offered the family space-saving tips “to improve wellbeing” and Mr Kilby, a carpenter, has installed extra shelves, cupboards, drawers, a wardrobe and a folding bed to make life more bearable.
Mrs Kilby, 38, who works as a PA, said: “The council makes no distinction between a studio and a one-bedroom flat. Once we had a baby we couldn’t understand why we couldn’t get a bigger space. We have had to put a lot of our stuff into storage. When he [our child] is three, what are we going to do, go to bed at 7pm? It’s not good for the child’s development and it’s not acceptable. It’s Dickensian.”
She added: “The Overcrowding Team were helpful, but when you have as little space as we do you can only do so much.”
Housing points are allocated for homelessness, overcrowding or insanitary conditions, medical and disability needs, harassment, and to those who give or receive care.
To put the allocations in perspective, people suffering violence who need rehousing get 100 points, while the average winning bid for a one-bedroom flat is currently 382 points.
Because the Kilby family have medical complaints and both parents are employed, they do not have nearly enough housing points to even be shortlisted for a bigger space.
Mrs Kilby said: “We feel our points don’t accurately reflect our situation. We’re honest, but people say we have to play the system.”
Karen Swift, Camden’s acting assistant director for Housing and Adult Social Care, says points are not always the answer.
“People shouldn’t focus their lives on the register and getting points. We could change the overcrowding bedroom standard, but that would just bring more people into the overcrowding bracket – it wouldn’t release more homes,” she said.
In Woodsome Road, Tufnell Park, Mr Asari, a father of six lives with his family in a three-bedroom house.
His family has 962 points, including points for overcrowding and various medical complaints, yet they have been trying unsuccessfully to move since 1998.
Mr Asari, an Arabic teacher and translator, 58, described his situation as “desperate”, adding: “I think there is something wrong with the system. They told us in 2002 we would have to wait two years. Now it is even longer. My children’s education is affected.”
One of Mr Asari’s four adult children sleeps in the living room and the family eat their breakfast and dinner on the floor in the same room.
The Overcrowding Team removed a defunct boiler and replaced it with an extra toilet to ease the morning bathroom queue. It also replaced the bath and the other toilet and provided “space-saving” furniture.
“The toilet has improved the situation in the morning, and I appreciate Camden’s work, but the living condition is the same – it hasn’t solved my overcrowding,” said Mr Asari.
There are many cases of people living in similar situations to Mr Asari, said Ms Swift.
“We recognise there are complex cases that fall outside the allocation scheme – we have an Exceptions Panel to deal with that. No system could adequately quantify people’s suffering. The points system is a good way to start, but I accept we might need a system that is a bit more sophisticated,” she said.
Ms Swift added that “positive points” would soon be seen in Camden, where households were rewarded for “social contribution” as well as human suffering.
The council is also looking to relocate “under-occupiers” – people who are not using all of the bedrooms in their homes – to smaller properties.
Every council uses either a points or banding system.
Camden’s current system began in 1997, following the 1996 Housing Act. It was one of the first councils to adopt the Dutch-trialled Choice Based Lettings system in 2002 (CBL), which allowed residents to bid for properties they liked. Before then the council would allocate people accommodation without choice.
“CBL has opened it up to people who wouldn’t even have been in the running before. The system doesn’t make any losers. The use of points enables us to have a non-judgemental comparison of need,” said Ms Swift said.
The Overcrowding Team, formed in late 2006, is one of the first in the country.
Ms Swift added: “The real pressure is around daytime space. We measure overcrowding by a lack of bedrooms, but it should be measured by square footage.
“It is small steps, but it’s not just giving up and saying these people are never going to be helped. It might not be the exact thing they want, but we wouldn’t be doing these things for people if we didn’t think they were useful.”
Making a point...
Housing points are awarded for the following reasons:
Severe violence: 200 points
Life at risk due to housing: 300
Housing causes a serious risk to health: 150
Homelessness: up to 100 points
Uninhabitable property: 200
Downsizing to smaller house: 300
Individual leaving care: up to 200 points
Ex-offender leaving custody: 50
Giving or receiving care: 75
Have lived in Camden for two years: 100
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