The first month of the new financial year has been busy, with our brokers working through requests for help from March, assessing the needs of a wide range of clients with varying circumstances. Here are three stories that show the diversity of the cases we work on and the successful outcomes we work in partnership to achieve.
Michael’s story
Michael is a 55-year-old man who lives alone in Glasgow. He was referred to us by his Health and Social Care Partnership worker. Michael has COPD and stage 3 emphysema. His property is a deck access block with 64 stairs to reach ground level.
He told our broker that he never left home unless to go to hospital appointments and he had no visitors apart from the grocery delivery man.
Despite his isolation he was fearful about moving but his broker was able to reassure him that we could find him something much more suitable than his current property. She checked our vacancy list (we update a list of available vacancies with registered social landlords / housing associations) and with the help of our contact at a social housing provider for older people, identified a possible property. On reflection Michael felt this wasn’t quite right for him but our contact came back a few days later with an offer of another property which he readily accepted.
From completing our Get Help form to accepting an offer the whole process took less than six weeks. Our thanks go to our contact at the housing association in this case for making this happen and to Michael for overcoming his fears to make the move.
James’s story
James was referred to us from a medical rehabilitation centre in Glasgow. He was recovering from a brain injury. He was keen to get out of hospital to get back to work but couldn’t leave as he’d given up his tenancy in a 3rd floor flat as he needed accessible accommodation with no stairs.
Our broker visited James at the rehabilitation centre to talk through his options with him in person. She worked with James to submit his homeless application and to submit applications for a wheelchair accessible home with several housing associations in the area of Glasgow close to his work.
Just over a month after James’ face-to-face meeting with our broker, he viewed a wheelchair accessible bungalow in an area of Glasgow perfectly located for his job. Two days later he accepted a tenancy, has signed a contract and is in the process of moving in.
By meeting James face-to-face, he was able to clearly understand the help that was available to him and communicate his needs. From there, we could work quickly to support him into a new home.
Jenny’s story
Tracy contacted Housing Options Scotland as she was struggling to cover the costs of a large, hard to heat and increasingly inaccessible home, with stairs she couldn’t manage due to ongoing health conditions.
She had applied to a number of housing associations, to her own local council and to the local council where most of her family and friends were located. With no success, the stress of the situation was affecting her mental health.
Our broker reached out to support Tracy and recommended that she widen her search to apply to providers of Age Exclusive housing outside of her preferred local council’s Common Housing Register. In some cases where applicants are slightly below the minimum age threshold for age exclusive properties, they may consider them a good match depending on their priority points.
When a flat became available in a housing development for older people, our broker worked quickly to ask the housing association if they would accept Tracy at her age and with two small dogs, and they agreed that they would.
Following a viewing of an accessible studio flat ideally situated close to friends and family, Tracy accepted the property and is now in the process of moving in.
Without the help of Housing Options Scotland, Tracy wouldn’t have considered herself eligible for older people’s housing, and wouldn’t have found a flat as quickly that suited her needs and her budget.