The long-running saga of housing is as yet an untold and therefore unrealised narrative strand in our recent history. It’s not the whole story, but it’s certainly a central focus for those who consider their own place in this country. If it’s somehow made hard to live here, it’s any wonder if pride in the red, white, and blue is anything more than a question.
There’s no eagerness to answer it in Hull, where a significant amount of antisocial behaviour took place among its estates. It’s already a hard up city with a legacy of war-torn local industry, and an unsettled local population, that lingers in the hideous mess created by a Thatcherite revolution. It’s not a nice feeling to also be harassed.
Neither is it on the agenda in many other cities in the North, still reeling from the trauma of hearing about another unfair attack against a home-dweller, or the latest cancellation of a tenancy without notice. The details come out, and yet again it’s another single mother, worker, or migrant that has been targeted unfairly in their own home.
Further afield
In a rare moment of parity, the South of the country also met its match in housing officers, or managers, as it were. It’s a sad state of affairs when hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people are being harassed, assailed, and hassled in their own homes. It’s a state of feeling strung out, belittled, and embattled by powerful people.
The main culprit, Southern Housing, crept up again and again in official records, rough witness statements, and diary entries written by tenants with little more to go on than what they knew and experienced themselves. Such was the spread and flood of activity, it seemed pointless to make a noise about it, as if it was clear what help meant.
In a few instances, the attacks against property and person were so fierce that neighbourhoods went “down” for weeks. There was silence in places unfamiliar with attacks of this nature. The police forces involved were unsure how to handle the fallout of such a brutish and sudden outburst of what appeared to be a self-righteous rage.
Making sense
The difficulty lay in working out who it was that guided such efforts. It was clear that all paths led back to a housing company’s HQ, but it wasn’t obvious why it looked overcome with criminals. The surprise was evident in the few that got near to the office building, to see faces and odd characters which shouldn’t be involved in it.
The notion the Army was backing such a manipulative power-grab on ordinary citizens was dismissed, but not entirely. It was found that some of the speed of activity was due to personnel working by their wits and intuition learned during their service. Yet others were there to offer brains and brawn toward the job in hand.
The network of office workers, satellite operatives, and casual officers involved in the affair was a shock. It extended here, there, and everywhere and took in those involved in other employment. The work to unpick it and start to consolidate it so that it ended was immense. It involved law enforcement and ordinary people giving spare time.
