Published on Wednesday 12th of September 2018
Elderly Accommodation Counsel and Housing Options Scotland are celebrating after making a successful bid for funding from Nationwide Building Society for its work to support housing in the area.
Nationwide, the UK’s biggest building society, has been looking to support charities dealing with the many issues around housing in the Scotland.
Now the names of those charities that have secured the grants they applied for have been announced – and EAC’s Housing Options for Older People (HOOP) Scotland project has been confirmed as one of those that has been successful.
Elderly Accommodation Counsel is partnering with Housing Options Scotland to help older people in Scotland live independently for longer.
Nationwide invited applications for grants of up to £50,000 for housing projects that have the potential to strengthen communities and help make a difference in local areas, ranging from preventing people from being homeless, helping people into a home and supporting people to remain in their homes. Applications for the grants were accepted from across Scotland.
John Galvin, Elderly Accommodation Counsel: “We are delighted that Nationwide’s members voted for our partnership project with Housing Option Scotland. EAC have a long history of working with Nationwide and we are looking forward to continuing this relationship by delivering an exciting new project through HOOP Scotland.”
Garry Samson, Nationwide’s Regional Director, said: “One in five people in Scotland have been homeless or have experienced family or close friends without a home of their own, so it’s imperative that we do something about this.
“Helping people into homes of their own is at the heart of what we do as a building society, which is why we’re making funding available for local housing projects. In fact, we’re making £22 million available over five years across the UK to do just this and ensure everyone has a place fit to call home.”
A Community Board of Nationwide members, employees and local housing experts was appointed to have a say on which local community projects were supported, with almost 20,000 members then voting on the awards shortlisted across four regions, including Scotland.
Elderly Accommodation Counsel provides expert housing advice to help older people in Scotland live independently for longer. Many older people in Scotland live in homes that are no longer suitable, leading to reduced independence and placing demands on health and social care services.
The plan is to partner with Housing Options Scotland to set up a Housing Options for Older People (HOOP) service that older people and their families can easily access. The project will combine a specialist housing options service for older people with a localised version of Elderly Accommodation Counsel’s self-help tool.
You can read more about the project on our FirstStop website.