Another immigration myth debunked

There is no evidence that new migrants are jumping the queue for council and housing association homes to the detriment of any other group, including white families, according to new research.

The study shows that out of the 10.1 million council and housing association tenants in Britain, 9 million are UK-born and just over 1 million were born outside the country. It adds that only 183,300 - less than 2% - of tenants arrived in Britain in the last five years and most of the 1 million are long-settled migrants who have been here for years and may have become British citizens.
The analysis of housing for new migrants to the UK who have arrived over the last five years, including those from Poland and other east European countries, shows 60% living in private rented accommodation, 18% owner-occupiers and only 11% allocated to social housing.

Most new migrants in the past five years, particularly those from the eight east European countries which joined the EU in 2004, are not eligible for social housing unless they have been resident in the UK and in work for at least 12 months. Any application they make must meet the same criteria of need as UK-born applicants. According to the latest figures for 170,263 lettings in the social housing sector in 2006-07 in England, where the nationality of the named tenant was collected, less than 5% went to foreign nationals and less than 1% went to new migrants from eastern Europe.

A poll of 66 housing managers across Britain, of whom 74% said they believed that migrants had "not very much" or "no" impact on increased demand for housing in the social rented sector, while 66% said they had increased pressure on private rented accommodation.

Homes Fit For Heroes

More than 25 percent of the homeless population in the United States are military veterans, although they represent only 11 percent of the civilian adult population .

On any given night last year, nearly 196,000 veterans slept on the street, in a shelter or in transitional housing, the study by the Homelessness Research Institute found. About 44,000 to 64,000 veterans are classified as "chronically homeless" -- homeless for long periods or repeatedly. Other veterans -- nearly 468,000 -- are experiencing "severe housing cost burden," or paying more than half their income for housing, thereby putting them at a high risk for homelessness.

Some veterans find themselves in a catch-22, not able to find a job because of the lack of an apartment, and not being able to get an apartment because of not having a job .

Fight and die for YOUR country , indeed .

Living in a box

Just how low can the capitalist class go ....and how far will the working class let them go before we say enough is enough .

An eight-foot aluminium box is being touted as the solution to the housing shortage. At £50,000 (fully installed and functioning), it could be a starter home for someone struggling with today's house prices .

The most obvious use , which was not even mentioned by the BBC reporter , would be that of temporary emergency accommodation in a disaster zone .