HOUSING CRISIS BITES AS EVEN THOSE WITH JOBS STRUGGLE TO MAKE ENDS MEET
An employed physiology graduate has revealed that he been sleeping rough for 12 months as it is his only hope of ever being able to afford a deposit on a house, as rent in his area is so high he has nothing left over at the end of the month.
The story of Richard Roberts, a piano tuner from Oxford, is alarming – but may not surprise readers of Graduate Fog, who are likely to be facing a similar struggle to make ends meet. With low wages, insecure jobs and sky-rocketing rent, many are finding yourselves battling to stay afloat.
Richard’s story emerged shortly before the launch of the government’s NewBuy scheme, designed to help first-time buyers on to the property ladder. On certain new-build properties, lenders and the government will underwrite the mortgage, so that first-time buyers will not need quite such large deposits. While some have praised the scheme, others claim it is too little too late, as a whole generation has effectively already been priced out of the property market.
Richard, 29, works a 30-hour week, but says his tactic of sleeping rough is his best option as he is burdened with £16,000 of student debt which he realised he had hope of clearing on his salary unless he did something drastic. Echoing the thoughts of hundreds of thousands of young graduates, Richard told Metro:
“The price of housing needs to come down. It is impossible for young people to find somewhere affordable to live and so many of them are stuck in a rut. Most of my customers are amused by it and nobody has turned me away. Some of them even let me air my sleeping bags in their homes.”
But Graduate Fog is not amused at all. Is this really what it’s come to? Making our best and brightest young people choose between a life of debt and struggle – or sleeping on the streets to save up for a better future? If that’s not a sign that something has gone horribly wrong for this generation, we don’t know what is. David Cameron, are you listening?
*Are you struggling to keep a roof over your head?
Where are you living? With your parents – or kipping on a friend’s floor? Have you considered taking drastic measures to save money? Do you worry you’ll never clear your debts? Are you giving up hope of ever owning your own home?
While I fully support getting wages for interns and better job opportunities for young people, I don’t find Richard’s story sympathetic. This is all pretty sensationalist stuff and I don’t think it does Graduate Fog any favours to cover it.
He’s not being forced to sleep rough – he has the option of renting a room. He’s saying that he’s only sleeping rough to save up a deposit for a house – guess what, that’s what those of us renting are attempting to do with the small amount we have left after tax, too. By all means make the choice to live homeless to save up quicker, but don’t act like it’s forced on you and you have no choice in the matter.
As for paying off student debt – what? The money taken every month is proportionate to your salary, and the total amount you owe has no bearing on mortgages; they do not factor it into their calculations. So there is absolutely no rush to pay off the debt. You can’t link that to deciding to live homeless.
I had to move back in with my parents because I could no longer afford my rent (this was for a cold, damp property which the landlord couldn’t be bothered to maintain). Rents which have been allowed to spiral out of control are a huge part of this problem. If anyone’s interested in trying to stop this, there’s a petition on rent control you can sign:
http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/5700
It would be good if people could spread the word about the petition.
I do think it’s sad that Richard feels his best option to gather enough money for a house is to sleep rough. Rents can be unbelievably expensive – I’ve been priced out of my home once before and I now live in fear of it happening again. I feel like once I’ve signed a contract with a landlord, I can breathe a sigh of relief for a bit because I know the rent will stay the same – but as the end of the contract comes up, I live in constant fear of a letter arriving on my doormat telling me they want money that I haven’t got… My housemate has moved house eight times in the last five years because of rent increases. It’s just ridiculous.
I have no sympathy for his *choice*…
@all
I agree that renting is becoming hugely problematic for young people – myself included, and I didn’t even pay tuition fees! Every year we get told our rent is going up – seemingly automatically – by 5%. while that doesn’t sound like much, after 3 years that means we’re paying more than 15% more, which is almost a thousand quid a year!
While I don’t think sleeping rough was Richard’s only choice (I’m sure plenty of people earn less and don’t sleep rough), I can see his point that as a short-term plan it will save him a serious amount of cash which he would never otherwise have a hope of saving.
We wrote a while ago about young women looking to the sex industry to help them save up cash they would never otherwise be able to save:
https://graduatefog.co.uk/ideas/sex-industry-graduate-unemploymen/
…I wonder whether this could become the male equivalent?
If I didn’t have the option of living with my parents I could easily see myself becoming homeless. The cheapest rent I could hypothetically find would be about half my salary. That would be for a tiny little room.
Rents in the South are too high and the properties can be absolutely appalling quality. I’m definitely signing that e-petition.
I can’t imagine someone who had the option of renting even a terrible room, or living with friends or relatives would actually CHOOSE to sleep rough, if that means sleeping exposed to the elements in an urban environment with no means of storing possessions and with all the risks that opens you to, and the way passer-bys treat you.
Does “sleeping rough” mean squatting in this article? Or at the least camping in a tent in a secluded rural area (I remember one oddball did that in forests in Oxfordshire somewhere and commuted to London), and arranging regular access to hygiene? Otherwise I’m struggling to see how Richard could keep himself clean and presentable enough for any kind of work? And logistically: presumably his parents’ or some other address have been provided for his bank and employer?
On the £15,000 debts: unless his student debts are overdrafts/credit cards etc. (like the ones I’m most concerned about) and not Student Loan Co. debt, then for the moment – since I presume he’s in low-paid work and in such dire straights he’s sleeping rough – that de facto graduate tax is meaningless. And the repayments wouldn’t make much difference to your ability to save for a mortgage deposit: at least not compared to low pay and high rents.
@Tanya: It’s actually worse than 15% if your rent goes up 5% in each of the 3 years. It’s been multiplied by 1.15 three times, so it’s gone up by almost 15.8% (and gets higher as it is further compounded each year) 🙁
@Catherine: Yup – my rent for a room in a houseshare – like 40-50% of my wages temping full-time (though thank God that includes bills and council and my landlord is nice – at least by their dismal standards) – and that’s up here in Brum, I’d struggle in the South on near minimum-wage down there.
Hi guys, thanks for your comments. I don’t ask for sympathy, in fact I’m really enjoying my new lifestyle.
I just shared my experience because I thought there may be many people like me in the same boat – stuck between paying rent and getting on the property ladder – between a rock and a hard place. I want them to know that if they feel really desperate, there’s a way out.
I would say in the short term I do have a choice because I can afford to pay rent. I paid rent in London for six years after leaving university (I did not graduate, the newspapers have been playing Chinese whispers). However it doesn’t leave much left at the end of the month, so if I’m to take complete control of my life any time in the near future I have no choice but to resort to more drastic measures.
There were also other factors involved, like having more freedom to travel, and the search for a more eco-friendly lifestyle.
I’m still homeless, it’s much easier than I thought. It involves sleeping rough by default but I also get the odd night in with friends or family. Health, hygiene and keeping warm are quite straightforward, all is revealed on my blog at http://www.TouringPianoTuner.com.
Oh and that’s not me in the photo!
I do not even know how I ended up here, but I thought this post was good. I don’t know who you are but definitely you’re going to a famous blogger if you are not already Cheers!
I am not surprised. I was a bicycle courier in London in 1998 and a guy I worked with owned a studio apartment in Nottinghill, he had been working in the film industry but was out of work and trying as a bicycle courier, which is sort of freelance but he was not fast so not making much money. Anyway in order to make the monthly mortgage on his property he rented it out and slept rough (probably one of the reasons he was not such a good courier cause he was constantly tired and bad tempered). Having slept rough myself for a week here and there in different countries the problems are: you can never relax and be comfortable and so are always a bit tired; everything is a hassle like bathrooms, keeping your stuff etc; and it is difficult to keep clean.
I also lived in Canada for about 10 years and do not know how people in UK are not rioting. Seems that people are being shafted. The only benefit is the NHS, otherwise tertiary education is ridiculously expensive and also rents and property. I am now in East London and what annoys me are two inequities. Next to me is Canary Wharf full of ‘banksters’ who make a fortune working for near criminal banks, do not really contribute in anyway to society, and avoid taxes. And then within my borough, when I go to the council- To Pay My Council Tax, it is full of people who do not try to integrate into the UK (really religious men, and women completely covered, often who do not speak English and oppose UK lifestyle); who arrive and have large families and get free education, medical and housing. And still there are people who seem to have lived in UK for a number of years and have either contributed to the UK, or have suffered as a consequence of the negative parts of UK society, and are homeless. You need more than a new government you actually need a middle-way that works. Which would include forcing the Duke of Westminster to sell off all the property he owns, he also contributes nothing to society and only collects rents, and by owning so much property reduces the availability and drives up the price. And reducing immigration to genuine asylum seekers and restricting the welfare state. While putting more money into tertiary education grants, and help for homeless people who have problems (many have mental health issues and some are ex-military) and for them to get jobs.