Council housing

[cromwell]

My in laws are getting on a bit now, they are 87 and 88. The stairs in their terrace house are a bit like the north face of the Eiger - steep they certainly are.

So, me and MrsC have been looking into getting a council bungalow for them. It's been a bit of a surprise!

I grew up in a pit village (my inlaws live there too). Over our back fence were the "old people's bungalows". Small, one bedroom bungalows with a little garden. Ideal for an elderly couple who are struggling with the stairs. Which is after all, the reason why they were built in the first place.

But they can't get one. The criteria now is not old people. These are the new rules "Expressions of interest are welcome from people aged 25 or over. Preference will be given to people with an assessed medical need, then people aged 60 or over or under occupying WDH tenants, then those aged 50 or over and then people aged 40 or over".

So in extremis, a 25 year old can have a bungalow, and 88 year old might if they are lucky.

So that's the one bedroomed ones gone. They can't get a two bedroom bungalow either. They tried but as they don't have a medical need, someone else did. These poor suffering sick people have three dogs and a mini cooper. My in laws would get pulled over trying to walk a Yorkshire terrier and they couldn't get near getting into the back seat of a mini cooper. To add insult to injury they have lost out to people who have come from Castleford, from miles away from the village.

Something has gone very wrong somewhere when the very people council bungalows were designed for don't get a sniff of getting one.

[pederito1]

It is a wrench leaving one`s home in old age , Have you not thought of a stair lift?

[Workingman]

Something has gone very wrong somewhere when the very people council bungalows were designed for don't get a sniff of getting one.

Quite!

I was still married when my then FIL had a "turn" and needed rehousing. Medical assessments were done and social services started the ball rolling to find him a bungalow. In the area we and most of his family still live are three of these schemes plus some one bedroom flats in units of four dotted about the place, so we were hopeful somewhere could be found locally.

Where did they put him? They put him in a flat on the first floor of a housing association complex about five miles away. The complex is in a small area of mixed housing at the top of a steep hill all hemmed in by a beck, the A58 dual carriageway and Wetherby road. There are no shops, no doctors, no buses and precious little community.

When I say he got a flat I am being artistic with the description, it was more like a hutch. It consisted of a combined bathroom and toilet, a small kitchen and a combined bedroom and living room - his bed was a single bunk hidden behind a curtain. No amount of logical argument could get him moved even though he was upstairs when his medical needs said that he needed a ground floor accommodation.

He is now in one of those purpose built ground floor units a few minutes from one of his daughters, but it took a nasty fall one winter's evening down the concrete steps of the complex he was in and threats of legal challenges by members of his family before the council gave in. However, there are a number of younger women in the flats and quite a few tasty vehicles in the parking spaces. A bit of digging by my ex revealed that the women are classed a "vulnerable" in some way.

[Kaz]

It is just so wrong!!!!!

I am sorry Cromwell, and I sincerely hope you can help your inlaws sort this out xxxxxxxxxxxx

[Suff]

Time to remind your local MP that it's election time. Tell the MP that if S/He doesn't get the council motivated then there will be a story floating about the local papers as to how your Un-friendly MP can't be bothered with the old....

Should scare the crap out of them. Councils, NHS, all need a good boot nowadays to get them moving on things they should be seeing immediately.

Nobody wants the social services around so probably not worth going there. Well not at first.

I've been heartily sick of the way Councils treat the old for some time now. Sadly, like Rotherham, they think they are untouchable once the election is over.

[cromwell]

Thanks all.

Ped, very true about leaving your home late in life. We have thought about a stairlift but the stairs are very narrow with a 90 degree turn and two steps at the bottom, so fitting a stairlift would be difficult.

[Kaz]

Do they own their current property Cromwell? If so would it be at all possible to put a bedroom with small ensuite on the ground floor, perhaps converting an existing room? Maybe use some equity release if needs be to finance it?

My MIL owns a chalet bungalow with two upstairs bedrooms, but for the past few years has used a room downstairs for her bedroom - luckily the bathroom was on the ground floor already xx