OAPs paid £1500 to move out of homes

Published on Monday 23 February 2009 08:49

PENSIONERS who have lived in an Edinburgh sheltered housing complex for decades are being told to move out – and offered £1500 compensation.

Housing association Castle Rock Edinvar wants to clear its St Stephen's Court facility in Sighthill, because it believes it is not up to modern standards.

But residents are angry that they are being forced to move from a facility some have stayed in for decades.

The housing association will have to pay each tenant the set fee of 1500 for forcing them to move to alternative housing. And it will also provide removal costs for each flat, which is expected to cost up to 600 each.

Tenants, who are mostly aged 60 or over, will have to either move to other Castle Rock Edinvar accommodation or join the EdIndex social housing list, where they will be given "silver" or "gold" priority status, meaning that they have the same priority for accommodation as someone who is classified as homeless.

But there is already a shortage of social housing, and the EdIndex system is receiving an average of 413 "bids" for each social house that becomes available.

Resident Yvonne Louden, 59, added: "I'm one of the younger ones in the block and I'm afraid that I won't get another sheltered housing space, and that they'll just dump me in social housing."

Neighbour Gladys Smith, 63, said: "I only moved in here 10 months ago, and I can't face moving again."

Sandy Welsh, head of housing services at Castle Rock Edinvar, insisted the facility would not be closed until all residents have found alternative accommodation. He said: "We have been looking for some time at what their long-term future is.

"We think it is better to phase the closure, and relocate tenants to our other housing developments or work with other parties to house them in other sheltered housing or council accommodation.

"We have found that, when vacancies arise on EdIndex, there are no bids, or few bids, for them. They are not an area or style of property that is still popular with people."

The future of the flats after they close is not yet decided. It is likely that the housing association will either demolish them and rebuild a new facility or sell to another company for development.

It is also thought that they could provide council homeless accommodation – although the council currently has no such plans.

A spokeswoman for the city council said: "Castle Rock Edinvar has a responsibility to co-ordinate alternative and suitable accommodation for the current tenants. A range of housing options will be made available to them, one of which is to use the council-managed EdIndex housing allocation system.

"We are approached regularly to consider using empty properties for housing purposes. Once this accommodation is vacated completely, we would consider fully any proposals put to us by Castle Rock Edinvar."

'The strain of it is making us ill'

ST Stephen's Court's oldest resident, Phyllis Denyer, has lived in her sheltered housing property for 13 years and now considers it her home.

The 93-year-old walks with a frame and is partially deaf. She fears for the future when the facility eventually closes by March next year.

Her daughter Coral Adsett, 71, also lives in St Stephen's Court and helps care for her, but now the pair fear they may be separated by plans to close the facility.

Coral said: "Castle Rock has promised to try to keep us together, but it has not said where we're going to go, so we don't know how true that is. The strain of it is making us both ill."

Castle Rock recently put up the rent on the single-person bed-sits to 330, which residents thought was excessive at the time, but many would now pay even more to stay put.

Phyllis said: "I don't want to go. I've always been happy here, and I don't know if I'll be as happy in another place.

"There's no point worrying about the inevitable, but it's keeping me awake. As long as I get to keep my daughter with me, I hope I'll be OK."