An estimated 35,000 people across Britain face the prospect of losing their home between now and Christmas day, Shelter says today.

Something like 20 million people face the prospect of winning the lottery as well.

It doesn’t mean they all will.

Come on. Do we have to get these sort of dishonest press releases?

And with someone facing losing their home every two minutes, the reality is this is a fate that could happen to anyone of us.

Well obviously, no. No on so many levels. Obviously someone is really unlucky if they face the risk of losing their home every two minutes, but then we all face the risk of aliens landing right smack in the middle of the patio – and then we all would be homeless I guess. Unless there is some measure of the risk this is utterly fatuous. And as much as they would like to spread the fear to as many people as possible, actually very few of us ever face a risk of losing our homes. It could not happen to any one of us. It could only happen to a very small number of us.

Typical 1%er denial of housing issues.

SMFS

“It could not happen to any one of us. It could only happen to a very small number of us”

How so? Why would only a very small number of us face the risk of losing our home if we experienced a sharp drop in income (caused by redundancy or serious illness, say) and/or a sharp rise in housing costs (caused by rising interest rates or rent, say)?

If you’re trying to make the point that the risk to any one of us is relatively small because only a small proportion of us actually *will* lose our houses, then you’re right but missing the point. The point being made is that the sort of people who are at risk of losing their houses are not members of an alien species or an ‘underclass’, but ordinary people who can find their incomes falling and/or their housing costs rising for any number of reasons.

3. G.O.

How so? Why would only a very small number of us face the risk of losing our home if we experienced a sharp drop in income (caused by redundancy or serious illness, say) and/or a sharp rise in housing costs (caused by rising interest rates or rent, say)?

Sorry but it is not just a matter of losing your home, but of being homeless. A small number would because many of us own our own homes or have a Council House. Hard to lose those. Because most of us can make our mortgages. Because even if we couldn’t and the banks somehow managed to foreclose, we would have other options besides being homeless – friends, relatives and so on.

If you’re trying to make the point that the risk to any one of us is relatively small because only a small proportion of us actually *will* lose our houses, then you’re right but missing the point.

When it comes to the dishonesty of this press release I think I’m not.

The point being made is that the sort of people who are at risk of losing their houses are not members of an alien species or an ‘underclass’, but ordinary people who can find their incomes falling and/or their housing costs rising for any number of reasons.

Sure. But the point is that this group knows that to get any sympathy it has to be manipulative and dissemble. Which is why they are suggesting it can happen to any one of us. When it is unlikely to happen to any of us, and many of us it will never happen to.

(For the record, I do not and never have owned a house. So I guess that means it could be me.)

The important line of the piece;

“The warning comes as the charity launches its new advertising campaign”

Charity trying to raise money in headline grabbing article shocker.

> we would have other options besides being homeless – friends, relatives and so on

I.e., we would be forced to rely on the voluntary, withdrawable-at-any-time charity of friends or relatives.

People with nowhere to go but a mate’s sofa ARE homeless. A sofa that you can be kicked off at any time is not a home.

It’s unfortunate that potential and actual homelessness were conflated as this does damage credibility. But it’s funny that SMFS can immeditaly notice it here but not when the same kind of misrepresentation is performed in anti-benefit stories, which he believes wholeheartedly and automatically.

SMFS is a professional troll. Ignore it.

@3 – “the sort of people who are at risk of losing their houses are not members of an alien species”

I’ve yet to see proof that SMFS’s type are NOT aliens, to be fair. Not as in not being Human, but as in not belonging to the same world and country we are.

@4 – Sure, that’s what trust funds are for, after all.

On the basis that the population,at large has bailed out the financial industry and the fact that this doesnt just involve ‘people who can sleep on a mates sofa’ but most importantly families with children,those suffering this indignity should stay in their homes and publicly organise against attempts to move them. Maybe members of St Paul’s might like to get involved!