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Residents John Williams, Peter Green, Joe and Vera Dorgan, Lawrence Bothwell and Francine Williams |
WAR VETERANS FACE EVICTION
Elderly residents slam ‘immoral’ plan to demolish their home
A SECOND World War veteran is among a defiant group of pensioners facing eviction from a sheltered accommodation block in Pimlico who have told landlords: “You’re never going to get us out.”
Elderly residents of Wolfson House accuse housing association Sanctuary Hereward of “disgusting” and “immoral” treatment and are summoning up the spirit of Dunkirk by threatening to chain themselves to their beds to save their homes.
Joe Dorgan, 84, who served as a corporal in the Royal Irish Fusiliers in Egypt said the ordeal was “killing him”. He called on the landlords to let him stay in the block, where he has lived with his 82-year-old sister for 24 years.
Sanctuary, a subsidary of Sanctuary Housing Association, which owns and manages the 36-flat block in St Georges Drive, wrote a letter in February, telling residents the property no longer met legal requirements for people with disabilities.
It’s a point the tenants dispute, but Sanctuary said failure to meet this legal requirement would mean funding from Westminster Council being cut.
The row has led to residents reminding their landlords of the “homes for life” promise in their tenancy agreement.
The agreement includes the line: “If the tenancy is conducted in accordance with your tenancy agreement it is your home as long as you want to live there.”
To speed up the decanting process, Sanctuary are offering £4,000 compensation to every resident who leaves but the move has been described as “blackmail” by the embattled pensioners – some of whom have called Wolfson House home since it opened in 1984.
So far only four have taken up the offer, with the remaining 33 vowing a “fight until the death”.
Sanctuary – which runs hundreds of sheltered housing schemes across the country – is moving residents to nearby Dean Abbott House before redeveloping the property, with a view to possibly building affordable homes.
But the charity has warned there is not enough room for everyone, with dozens facing the prospect of having to leave the borough against their will.
Peter Green, 76, another of the tenants who has lived in the block for 16 years and is spearheading the fight, likened the situation to the sword of Damocles hanging above their heads.
“It is a damning indictment on Sanctuary and the council and the way they treat the elderly,” he said. “What they are doing is walking into an Englishman’s home and telling them it’s not good enough for them. Do that in any other home and you’d get a punch in the mouth. It’s so patronising. There’s nothing wrong with it, its only 25 years old. They are insidiously breaking up a community and walking all over old people because they think they can get away with it,” he said.
He added: “The trauma is killing people. I have people coming to me and crying almost every day. It’s breaking their spirit and people are getting sick. These are elderly, vulnerable people and they deserve to be treated with decency. It’s not a lot to ask.”
Pauline Vernon from Age Concern’s dispute resolution service AIMS has taken up the residents’ cause.
In a letter to Sanctuary’s manager she said there was no legal grounds for the move.
She wrote: “My understanding is that the Disability Discrimination Acts of 1995 and 2005 do not require landlords to make adjustments to the physical features of buildings in order to meet the needs of disabled people.
“I am unsure why Sanctuary is using these arguments to defend the decision to decommission the scheme.”
Since Wolfson House was opened by the Duke of Edinburgh in 1984, residents have forged a strong community, building and maintaining the gardens, forming a whist club and holding regular music nights in the lively common room.
A Sanctuary spokesman said: “The staircases and main entrance do not provide level access into the scheme for wheelchair users and lifts, corridors and landings can be difficult to navigate for residents with limited mobility or visual impairments.
“In deciding how best to improve Wolfson House we will continue to take fully into account the view of those residents who have made it clear that they wish to remain there.” |
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