QSA calls for ‘London Living Rent’
Quaker Social Action calls for affordable rents in London
Landlords are exploiting people on low incomes with rents way beyond affordable levels. That’s the view of Quaker Social Action (QSA), who have issued a call for a ‘London Living Rent’.
According to QSA, the average rent for a room in a shared house in east London is £135 per week. The most that a single tenant aged under 35 can claim in housing benefit is £92 per week. QSA insist that the situation is contributing to ‘invisible forms of homelessness like sofa surfing’.
It is not only those on benefits who are affected. QSA said that ninety percent of new housing benefit claims last year came from people who are in work.
Judith Moran, director of QSA, asked: ‘Are we pushing the poor to a point where they can no longer afford to live here [in London]?’
She said it was ‘absolutely right’ that there has been concern expressed in the media about affordable homes for families. However, she added that the issue of single people’s housing has received even less attention.
QSA’s ‘Homelink’ scheme matches single people in need of accommodation with homeowners who have a spare room. Their call for a London Living Rent of £92 per week has grown out of their experience of working with people struggling with the gap between income and rent.
‘How can somebody on low pay or out of work meet that massive shortfall?’ asked Homelink manager Marike van Harskamp. ‘And how are they to continue their education or find work if each day brings uncertainty about where they will stay at night?’
The call for a London Living Rent was described as ‘a great idea’ by John, a twenty-nine-year-old man living with his wife in a one-bedroom flat in Tooting. They are expecting their first baby and are worried about the cost of renting a two-bedroom flat once the child is older. In their area, it will cost over £300 per week. He told the Friend this would make it ‘almost unaffordable for one of us to spend time off with our baby’.
Judith Moran explained that QSA is not a campaigning organisation but that ‘one of our objectives is to advocate for the people we work with’. She said: ‘The reality is that the private rented sector is the only realistic option for many, many people’. As well as lower private rents, she would like to see more social housing, but regards this as a ‘longer-term strategy’.
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