Extract from 'Inside Housing Today '
Older people's charity
Help The Aged is urging ministers to address Sheltered
Housing residents' concerns about the demise of
accommodation-based support services . Joe 'Oldman' ,
Housing Policy Officer for the charity said he was acting
on behalf of residents who felt Floating Support was being
used as an excuse for providing 'second rate' service in
Sheltered Housing, 'The idea of Floating Support is that
you provide support to a wide range of people, regardless
of tenue, but the reality is whether there's sufficient
funding to make that happen, residents are saying "we moved
into Sheltered Housing because we thought there would be a
resident's Warden and it's not fair that that's withdrawn".
I do think there's a legitimate issue in saying that if
we're going to provide Floating Support and it's going to
replace residential Wardens, then we've got to do it
properly and I do think that they (residents) have a
legitimate basis of complaint"
One resident concerned about the issue is Alan Hindley,
resident of Plumpton Lodge, a Hackney-based Sheltered
Housing Scheme. He said"The greatest fear for tenants is to
lose a resident Sheltered Housing Officer". Mr Oldman said:
" The charity planned to commission research to get a
better understanding of how the issue was affecting service
users. Help the aged is hoping to meet a communities and
local Government minister in the next few weeks to discuss
the concerns. The department is due to publish its old
people's housing strategy"
