When Holly Dawson posted a tweet about a benefactor who left two homes to be let cheaply to hard-up people in her village, it went viral. But there were also many cynics who cast doubt on the story. She felt compelled to check it out.
Like all good stories, this one starts with a cup of tea in a friend’s garden. We’re talking, as we often talk, about houses – the impossibility, in this expensive corner of Sussex, of finding a home you can actually afford. Rents around here, even for the smallest two-bedroom house, average £1,000 a month or more. In my case, as a self-employed single parent with two small children, every penny, and many a sleepless night, are spent keeping a roof over our heads.
My friend mentions some houses that a man left for low-income families to rent for three years at £300 a month.
We remark on the good humans; how stories like this are something we need to hear more and more. Later, scrolling through the shouty soapbox noise of Twitter, I decide to share this nugget of niceness. I don’t expect anyone to respond – I don’t use hashtags or copy anyone in. My normal tweets about Virginia Woolf and geeky lit events get barely a scattering of likes. I write:
Just heard about a guy who died in my village + left 3 houses to the council, with the stipulation that they’re for young families to rent for a fixed period of 3yrs with rent of £300 pcm (in an area where rent is £1000+). Because we all need to talk more about the good humans.
Talking about the good humans is something I feel we definitely all need to do. Especially on Twitter. But I had no idea how much Twitter agreed.
I wake up the next morning to 5,000 likes. The rest of the day, my phone explodes, until I have to turn notifications off. I watch the number rise hypnotically, swiping down on my screen to see the tally go up, 100 more at each refresh. Night falls with 41K likes, 8,000 retweets and nearly 200 comments.
