A CHRISTMAS STORY

No room

BARRAS HOUSE..built in 1992 by Carlilse City Council

`in the

inn`

The  front page Christmas headline has an echo of Bethlehem and the Nativity. The headline says:“Old Folks Forced Out of Homes”

The homes are in Riverside Housing Associaton`s Barras House sheltered housing  complex at Dalston, near Carlisle. Twelve elderly people live there but now, like Mary and Joseph, there is no room for them in the inn.

The twelve are being forced out and are angry about this upheaval to their lives and the break-up of their sheltered  home community says the newspaper, the News and Star, Carlisle.

In the case of one of the twelve- a man of 85- this is the third Riverside sheltered home he has  been forced to quit in the last five years. Others of the twelve have  twice previously been  asked by Riverside to quit homes.

A  woman living near Barras House is quoted  in the article as saying there is a real sense of community in and around the home and the planned closure is an absolute disgrace.

Riverside says it plans to upgrade Barras House in 2016, converting it from 19  flats to14 larger flats. Before then, the properties have to be vacated.

The  row about Barras House is not the first sheltered housing row Riverside has had since it took over the city council houses eleven years ago.

There have been several similar rows, largely because Riverside promised the city council at the takeover to keep all the city`s sheltered housing.

This was then located at  Morton. Harraby, Longtown, Botcherby, Brampton and Dalston.

Has Riverside kept that promise to the council?

In those eleven years , wardens were withdrawn from the homes. Then some homes were demolished, and  rebuilt with  a smaller number of larger more expensive flats or houses. One home remaining demolished is Lady Seat at Longtown.

In Brampton, after Riverside closed its sheltered housing complex, West Hill House,   another housing association has stepped in  to fill the breach and cater for the town`s continuing need for sheltered housing.

Impact Housing Association is  going ahead with plans for 38 extra care flats in the town.

In Brampton and other places with sheltered housing there  was the evictions, the upheavals  and destructions of the community inside each home. It was the same sort of  evictions, upheavals and community destruction now causing an outcry at Barras House.

This repeated  upheaval and community destruction since Riverside took over the Carlisle council houses is of  great concern to Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation and to other critics of Riverside.

The concerns are about that promise to the city council, about the apparent  abolition of sheltered housing in the Carlisle area, and whether the people of Carlisle have been properly consulted and involved in all that has gone on in those eleven years.

And  what about Riverside`s present status as a  profit-making property developer? 

Has property developer Riverside-unelected and unaccountable- the democratic mandate to take on the job of properly responding to the crying local  need for sheltered housing?

(Incidentally, the need for sheltered housing is also a national problem says the Daily Mail today. It reports a survey by Saga saying that that thousands of older people are stuck in large family homes  because of a chronic shortage of retirement housing.)

Back to the local problem and another question:Has Riverside the skllls and know- how needed to cater for the needs  for retirement housing in the Carlisle area? Is Riverside up to the job?

And what about Riverside`s duty of care?

The best people to answer this question and the other questions are the sixty unfortunate frozen - out Riverside tenants in Longtown.

Once again,they are now struggling in deep mid-winter, unable to afford to heat their homes properly.

It is their third deep-midwinter of struggle. 

Community Voice, Carlisle is the blog of Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation. Information about the Federation is available from 01228 532803 or 01228 522277.