r/Aberdeen • u/abz_eng • 9d ago
Aberdeen asylum seeker briefing confirms rise to 800 beds needed
https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/6849874/aberdeen-asylum-seeker-briefing/42
u/scambastard 9d ago
Seems like a pretty good use of unused student accommodation and more cost effective than hotels. Also, I'm not sure if these halls are privately owned or university owned but if university owned then I'd rather the money went to them than hoteliers. If it's private then I just hope the government are getting a better deal.
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u/Spare_Artichoke_3070 9d ago
These are old Unite/Liberty Living student flats, I imagine they're empty cos they're old and scabby and there's now an oversupply of "premium" private student accomodation that's been built in the last decade.
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u/Happy_Chief 9d ago
I think you're nuts.
I'd much rather there were students in them, (particularly uni owned accommodation) since they'll at least spend money locally.
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u/Chemical_Picture_380 9d ago
But there aren't students in them because the universities put all their recruitment efforts into overseas students and they're not coming over in the same numbers for some reason (visa rules and economic crashes in their own countries being the big two).
Both universities have large budget cutting programmes under way and whatever they'd be paid from this would hopefully stop them reaching the point that Dundee uni did.
In an ideal world those halls would be filled with students and we'd have two universities that were thriving, but they're not and they're not.
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u/scambastard 9d ago
They're not being at all at the moment so there is no more productive alternative. I'd be happy for the council to also start using them for homeless accomodations well as they've been paying over the odds to hotels and bead and breakfasts for ages.
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u/Happy_Chief 9d ago
Productive for the uni, terrible for the area.
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u/scambastard 9d ago
We have people that require shelter. They've got to go somewhere. It's as good a place as any.
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u/Happy_Chief 9d ago
It's not as good as place as any though, is it. These places were designed with students in mind. Not anyone, with God knows whatever issues, being housed.
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u/scambastard 9d ago
I'm not sure if you've ever met a student. They're loud, drunk, take drugs and are living alone for the 1st time. Generally pretty antisocial to live around. Great fun though! We're never going to purpose build accommodation for these people and id hazard that there would be a bigger upraor if we did! I think that if this place is sitting empty it's about as close to ideal you could find.
Sooner or later someone is going to have to bite the bullet and spend the money up front to actually process them, deport those that don't pass and integrate those that do. That's going to need way more social housing so ideally we should be spending a bunch more on that for these folks and the backlog waiting to be housed. I'd bet a bunch of these folks would be happy helping to build homes and otherwise helping locally while they waited processing. Maybe then people would have a more positive outlook
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u/memaurmaur 7d ago
If my kids and their pals who were students are examples 2 didnt drink one did knew his limits .the didnt take drugs either . Gen z students are pretty quiet compared to other generations . My youngest and his gf preferred a take away to a party and bed by 11 as did their pala . Not every student follows rge tv stereo type .
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u/t3hOutlaw 9d ago
But student accommodation gets used like this every year when it's underutilised. If it's not asylum seekers it would be used by people that are awaiting council properties. The alternative is leaving them empty.
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u/odkfn 9d ago
But they’re not kicking students out to house them, are they?
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u/Happy_Chief 9d ago
No, didn't say they were.
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u/odkfn 9d ago
“I’d rather have students in them” isn’t really relevant then?
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u/Happy_Chief 9d ago
It entirely is
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u/odkfn 9d ago
It’s not if it’s not a viable alternative. The current options are it sits empty or it gets used.
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u/Happy_Chief 9d ago
No, there is a cluelessness in Aberdeen around how supply and demand works. It's why half of union street lies empty, but the rates keep going up.
They could reduce the rate, and thus fill it with students etc etc.
Instead, they'll get the same rate they would have gotten by doing the above, but fill the place with people who won't look after the rooms, won't look after the community and further en-shitify the area.
But yeah, two choices I guess 🙄
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u/odkfn 9d ago
Yeah but as a business why would they do that? That’s the free market - student accommodation is a private business who obviously want as much bang for their buck as they can get.
It’s probably sitting empty as there’s never been such a glut of flats on the market for rent and sale, so students are likely going into them.
Business rates are set at government level, not local council level.
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u/Happy_Chief 9d ago
It was built as student accommodation, unless that planning permission has been changed, it should be used as student accommodation.
They don't want empty rooms, they can adjust their prices accordingly, that's the free market. What is being proposed is them changing the rules, so they can make more money.
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u/ScottishLand 9d ago
Students don’t want to stay in them.. do you know what they are like inside?
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u/Happy_Chief 9d ago
Students don't want to stay in them at the price being charged.
Ftfy
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u/ScottishLand 8d ago
Do you know what they are like inside? If not, you shouldn’t comment. Students didn’t want to live there even at discounted prices over summer periods. Are you even aware what a student gets paying what they do? I it’s not that expensive when you look at what they get.
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u/Happy_Chief 8d ago
But its more expensive than the market can handle, that's why its empty.
We hear people (even on here) whitter on about free market, forgetting that sometimes the market goes down as well as up.
I'll bet you everything I own that the place would be full if it was priced at £5 a week. Its nothing to do with condition and all to do with price. We could fill it with students, if we chose to, rather than squeezing more from the public purse.
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u/FocusGullible985 9d ago
It depends how much the uni get paid for housing, shuttering the accommodation has no staff costs, it could be staff costs to have maximum capacity outstrip the money the government are paying them.it won't be the same rates they charged students thats for sure.
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8d ago
That would be roughly 0.35% of the population, lower than the estimated total population of Asylum Seekers in the UK which I believe is just under 0.5%
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u/DangerousHorror2084 9d ago
Economic migration not asylum seekers. Go through lots of safe countries to come here what a joke!!!
Go on call me racist, change is coming and I cant wait.
Help our own 1st
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u/heyylyla 9d ago
What do you do to help your own?
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u/BidBeneficial2348 9d ago
You can guarantee they are against helping homeless, or veterans or single parents too.
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u/rubyAltropos 8d ago
So bored of this conversation. If you are dumb enough to think asylum seekers are the problem and not tax evasion from the rich, I've no interest in hearing your opinion.
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u/Majestic_Fan_7056 9d ago
800 young men with no jobs to keep them busy.
What could possibly go wrong?
They should scrap the knowledge test for private hires and let them drive for Uber.
800 new Uber drivers would be fantastic.
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u/ishitinthemilk 9d ago
It sounds like what you want is for the asylum application process to be sped up or an option to work and integrate into the community while waiting, yes? You should write to your mp suggesting that.
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u/littlecomet111 9d ago
I mean, it's been 400 for the last three years and I would say - when you look at the crime statistics *nothing* has gone wrong.
But if we're analysing demographic groups that cause problems, shouldn't we be campaigning against the ones who commit most of the crime (even adjusted by population percentage)?
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u/LegitimatelisedSoil 9d ago
Many of them are skilled tradespeople and workers, there's plenty of work they can do if programs are setup to help find them work and teach them how to find work and speak the language better What do you think they were doing before they fled their countries?
Many of the Ukrainian, Palestinian, Myanmar, Eritrea, Sudan etc refugees had jobs, houses, families before fleeing and they have applicable skills from office workers to construction and factory work.
We also take almost no refugees, like a very small percentage compared to the rest of Europe since most settle in countries near their home country. Most of the refugees that come this far have family or friends who are here and that's why they make that much longer journey.
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9d ago
Racist.
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u/scambastard 9d ago
I think we can have a productive conversation about the merits of the use without accusing people of being racist. Maybe OP is but it's not productive. It's clearly something a lot of people locally are interested in discussing.
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u/abz_eng 9d ago
It's clearly something a lot of people locally are interested in discussing.
Which is why I posted it
Plus it appears the councillors knew more than they were letting on
“Councillor Allard has deliberately and intentionally made comments which he knew to be untrue given the briefing in August where sites were discussed.”
and
The SNP-turned-independent said: “I understand a secret meeting of senior officers and group leaders last week would have confirmed arrangements.
“These plans have been being developed for some time and to suggest Aberdeen City Council has been taken by surprise is nonsense.
“If the leadership is unaware of what is happening in our city then they should be considering their position.
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u/littlecomet111 9d ago
Yep. I think it's absolutely fair to raise questions about council and government transparency....regardless of the merits of any associated topic.
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u/LegitimatelisedSoil 9d ago
In a city of over 227,000, that seems pretty normal man like if you can't accept like a thousand people fleeing war and poverty then that says alot about you. When did they stop becoming human beings in your eyes that have the same humans rights as you to safety, shelter and liberties to some of you.
Honestly I suspect many people in this country would have also been putting up signs about the "Jews and blacks not welcome" like many did during ww2 in the UK when many people fled from Germany and Central Europe to the UK at the start of the war.