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My name is Dylan Cummings. I am a wheelchair basketball commentator / journalist.
Before I was in student accommodation in central Edinburgh. It was a wheelchair accessible student studio flat. So the surfaces were lowered, table surfaces, and it was wheelchair accessible and level access.
Every single year when my contract ended, I tried to find private housing through various housing associations, I contacted the council.
It made me feel very anxious.
It made me feel like there was sort of no hope. Like, for a good couple of years, I used to sign up to a college course, just so I could ensure that I could stay in the student accommodation.
Six months before my contract ended in this July, I knew it was time. It was like “right, time to move on, time to find somewhere else a bit more permanent”.
I felt very anxious and I felt quite hopeless, to be honest. First and foremost, I wanted the property to be wheelchair accessible. I wanted it to have level access. And I wanted it, to manage in the property independently.
I looked at Housing Options Scotland online, applied for it and then they said they would contact me within five weeks with a housing broker.
And then I got contacted before five weeks and it was Moira who was my broker. And then right from the first moment I talked to Moira, you know, she was caring. It felt like I was an actual client of hers, that I wasn’t just a number.
I felt like I was gonna get forgotten about by the council. And Housing Options Scotland, they’d done a great job to reassure me.
I was chatting with the council and they said that there was an option for me to be put in temporary accommodation. It could be a B&B, a hotel or a hostel type thing. And that made me very worried ‘cause I didn’t want to be in a hotel ‘cause obviously you can’t cook for yourself in a hotel and you have to pay for meals and stuff.
And in a hostel, you just don’t know what environment you’re gonna be put into, so that made me very worried.
And I remember having a conversation with Moira and she reassured me that, you know, that if Housing Options Scotland found that a hostel wasn’t gonna be suitable for me, that they would fight my corner and they’d make sure that I get placed in a suitable environment for me.
The council managed to find a ground floor flat that they said they thought would be wheelchair accessible. From what the council said to me, they made it out that I sort of had to accept this and that if I didn’t accept this, then there wouldn’t be another option.
So I remember speaking to Moira about that and she says, “Oh no, don’t worry about it. We’ll send somebody to go with you.” And she sent Tessa.
And Tessa was a lovely woman and that, and very reassuring.
I’m really glad to be in this new property. It’s really affordable for me. There’s a lot more space. My pal can stay with me sometimes or my family.
It’s a nice neighbourhood. It’s fairly quiet.
I’m so, so glad that everything’s worked out and I wouldn’t be here without Housing Options Scotland, and you’ve all been so helpful and it’s been great.
Dylan was supported by Housing Options Scotland in 2022 to find a wheelchair accessible home in Edinburgh. After his positive experience with us, he volunteered to join our board of trustees in 2023 and he continues to be a valuable member of the board.
I was living in student accommodation for a long time as it was the only accessible accommodation available to me. I was constantly anxious about the future. I knew I couldn’t stay there forever and eventually I had to declare myself homeless. Hostels and hotels were not an option for me, as they were not a long-term solution. I needed a level access flat to live independently in the community and, just when I thought there was nowhere else to get help, I found the team at Housing Options Scotland.
From the get-go, I was offered the very best advice and support that was right for me. I felt like my situation mattered to every staff member I spoke to. This gave me hope in the process. For a long while now, I’ve been a self-employed sports journalist, covering wheelchair basketball at all levels. This has led to me meeting great people and seeing the world. I’m also currently looking at branching out into other Parasports. I live with confidence every day in the knowledge that I have a home that meets my access requirements.
Housing Options Scotland made a process that I thought was going to be an uphill battle into a supportive journey. And because it’s important to me to give back, I’ve been proud to be a trustee on their board for a number of years.