| Friend for a fee Is a rented friend a real friend? bbc.co.uk |
Linda Norgrove: aid worker 'killed by friendly fire' British aid worker may have been killed by a grenade thrown by US troops trying to rescue her from Taliban kidnappers in Afghanistan. telegraph.co.uk |
Real Lettings: a housing solution with a genuine difference A charity that leases from private landlords then sub-lets to the homeless is looking to expand amid fears more people could soon be living on the streetsWhen I ask him how long he has been living in his new home, Stephen Lacey, a former coach driver, responds gleefully: "Two weeks and two days."You get the impression that he could extend this information to hours and minutes too, he is so pleased with his one-bedroom flat in London. And no wonder: prior to this, he had been living on the streets for more than a year ("and it was cold last winter"), and then in a hostel for four months."The hostel wasn't bad, you had a toilet and shower in your room," he says. "But it wasn't a patch on this. It's lovely having your own place. It's fully carpeted and I've got a fridge and a cooker…"Lacey doesn't have a job and it's apparently pretty unusual for people who have been in hostels for such a short time to get a home of their own, but the organisation Real Lettings that has let him the flat will house people straight off the street if necessary: one client had been living rough for 10 years.Real Lettings leases properties from private landlords and then sub-lets them to homeless people. The 160 properties currently in the scheme all meet the Decent Homes Standards, and after maintenance work by the social and private housing developer United House, are handed back to the landlords at the end of a lease in tip-top condition.Howard Sinclair, chief executive of Broadway, the charity behind Real Lettings, says: "From the landlord's point of view it can be a great deal. They get to lease their property for three to five years, get a guaranteed rent, and get their property back in the same condition they let it."Most of the properties taken on by Real Lettings are studio or one-bedroom flats but it will rent bigger properties for families. It currently has properties in 13 London boroughs but Sinclair says he would be happy to be able to provide homes in all 32 boroughs.Cuts to housing benefits could make property less affordable: the government has announced cuts to housing benefit and a £500 cap for the total amount of benefits a household can receive each week. Sinclair says that in some cases this will make a difference of up to £40 a week: "We will speak to the landlord and the tenant and try and come up with a way of ameliorating the effect." But he remains reasonably confident that the full service provided to landlords, and the guarantee that they will get their rent, even if it is slightly lower than they expected, will tip the balance in Real Lettings' clients' favour.Indeed, the organisation's website quotes a landlord saying: "I can forget about the property for five years. I don't have to worry about getting the rent, or about the quality of the tenant. If there's a problem Real Lettings will deal with that. It's a weight off my shoulders."Clients are supported through the process of moving in, applying for benefits, setting up utilities and paying bills. Then someone from the charity visits the client once every three months to make sure he or she is coping.Broadway set up the specialist lettings agency in 2005 in response to the lack of suitable housing available for the 50,000 people who sleep in hostels each night and for those at risk of losing their homes. Real Lettings remains the only organisation that provides this valuable lettings service in London. Sinclair is now hoping to increase the numbers of both volunteers and landlords so the properties handled by Real Lettings can grow to 500.He says: "Ninety five per cent of our clients successfully maintain their tenancies, and 88% of the landlords renew their leases – so it is working for everyone."In addition to setting up a new website – www.reallettings.com – to provide information for landlords about the scheme, Real Lettings is also launching a volunteering scheme to provide extra support for tenants through a befriending service, helping them to keep their new properties in the longer term. The idea is for volunteers to provide one-to-one support via phone or email to Real Lettings' tenants on a weekly basis for a minimum of six months to reduce their social isolation and help them gain the confidence to become part of the local community.Regardless of all the support provided, surely it must be a bit nerve wracking for landlords to hand over their properties for the first time to someone who was formerly struggling with alcohol or drug abuse problems?Sinclair says: "We go through a 19-page assessment to make sure clients are ready to live independently. We don't mind what a person's past has been; it's where they are now in their life. We assess that very carefully and match them with a property. Often if you exceed people's expectations, they will live up to it."Lacey won't go into the details of how he lost his housing association home but he does say that when he left he had just two bags of possessions. He couldn't take anything else with him because he had nowhere to store it. The flat is unfurnished, and he has a £429 social fund loan to buy everything – from the airbed he has bought just that morning to bedding, pots, pans and cutlery. He is planning a trip to a charity shop in Wandsworth, which apparently sells "really good three-piece suites for £100".He is totally confident that he will be able to find work now he has a home. "You can't get work while you're living on the streets but I've been doing voluntary work in community transport. I take pensioners and disabled people out for the day," he says. Lacey has a licence to drive coaches, but adds: "I'm not fussy. I'll do anything me."PropertyHomelessnessHousing benefitJill Insleyguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Four hurt in fire engine accident Four fire service personnel are believed to have been hurt in a road accident in Aberdeenshire. bbc.co.uk |
Lara Stone and Georgia Jagger make gap teeth the new face of fashion Popularity of models has made unusual looks the new perfectionCall it the flight from perfection. The gap-toothed smile flashed by some of today's top models is leading to a Stateside boom in quirky dental treatment in place of the perfect, straight white smiles for which young Americans have historically endured years of treatment.The popularity of models such as Jess Hart, Lara Stone and Georgia Jagger has increased demand for cosmetic orthodontic procedures. Some models are having brackets inserted between their front teeth to widen the gap and improve their careers and American dentists report that veneers with slight staining, grooves and overlaps are growing in popularity.Last week the New York Times reported that demand is growing for customised imperfect veneers despite the cost of up to $2,500. Standard veneers cost around $700. "The white standard got too white," one Manhattan dentist told the paper. "The perfection standard got too perfect."The gap-toothed pout has been one of fashion's most sought-after accessories for the past two seasons, kicked off by Australian model Jessica Hart's appearance in the 2009 Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue and culminating with supermodel, and the current face of Calvin Klein, Lara Stone becoming the poster girl for the diastema.British consumers may soon be imitating their American counterparts. Mick Jagger's daughter Georgia – gap to the fore – is on the cover of the latest edition of British Vogue and appears in ad campaigns for Versace and Hudson jeans.Unusual beauty has become a major trend in the fashion industry, while recent catwalk shows and ad campaigns have also focused on unconventional looks. Redheads are enjoying a renaissance in fashion. Top British brand Mulberry's last show featured models all clad in copper wigs, inspired, says the company's creative director, Emma Hill, by Finnish model Julia Johansen.The high-street brand Jigsaw featured two flame-haired girls – Jessie Good and Poppy Delevigne – in its autumn ad campaign. Good is the daughter of Jigsaw's co-founder Belle Robinson and has just been signed to top model agency Storm. "She's the only redhead in our family – poor old Jessie hated being a redhead as a child," says Robinson."She didn't look like anyone else in her family and she didn't look like her friends. But she has the most incredible hair, and slowly but surely she began to love it herself. Redheads are being embraced in a major way because nine times out of 10 it's their natural hair colouring, so there's a purity to them."The fascination with natural looks has been evident in recent fashion shows. At the autumn/winter 2010 Prada show, girls wore unglamorous, librarian-style glasses. Strong, natural-looking eyebrows were seen on Chloe's catwalk. The models at Marc by Marc Jacobs all had morning-after make-up that looked rough and lived in, and messy hair was seen at Narciso Rodriguez's New York show. "There is something in the air now which is seeing people move away from the stylised looks we are used to seeing on the red carpet and towards the more natural," said hair stylist Guido Palau after Jacobs's show.Liz Hambleton, beauty director of Grazia, agreed: "I think we're maxed out on perfection and looking for something a little more real at the moment. A gappy tooth, tons of freckles, huge geek chic glasses all give someone so much more personality than a glossy blow-out and a fake tan. I'm more interested in looking at the Lara Stones and Karen Elsons of this world than Cheryl Cole.""I think that odd beauties really show off the current clothes well," said Harriet Quick, fashion features director at Vogue. "At the moment fashion is rethinking classics and is focused on making real clothes. These girls make you look twice and see fashion in a surprising new light.""It goes back to that Parisian beauty mantra of not looking done but actually being extremely done," said Hambleton. "It's about spending time and, yes, money cultivating great skin and hair in order to avoid having to style it and wear make-up. A great skincare regime makes the difference between wearing foundation or not."FashionBeautyAlice Fisherguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |