Plea for community to rally to aid of elderly couple homeless after house fire

Guest blog from Cllr Alison Hopkins

Some may have seen reported in the local paper that a house in Review Road in my Dollis Hill ward was recently very badly damaged by fire. The occupants are an elderly couple and their son. The house is uninhabitable, so they're all homeless. And, they were uninsured, for reasons I won’t go into, so there's no help from that quarter. The son is finding himself accommodation and is employed part time, so will at least not be on the streets.

 

The parents, however, have far more serious problems. Their daughter lives in Ireland with her own family, and came straight to London as soon as she heard what had happened. She’s spent the past ten days trying to get help, initially from Brent Council, and then contacted both Sarah Teather and me.  She called me Friday, distraught, as she’s had really minimal help from Brent. Initially, they refused any help at all, as the parents “had an asset”, in the shape of a burnt out house! She persuaded them to accommodate both parents and son in a hostel till the 10th November, then spent all day Friday trying to persuade Brent Housing to extend this. Asking for ID and proof of the fire when everything has been lost was not the best reply she could have got.  Brent eventually agreed to extend the hostel until the 16th November, but this obviously isn't any kind of solution: the house will have to be sold, as is, as there’s no money to refurbish it. It’s uninhabitable, and the couple have nowhere to go.  A hostel is also not the best place for an elderly couple in poor health.

 

I’ve rounded up some help from our community: Ashford Place will be meeting the daughter tomorrow, I’ve asked if the local parish can help, contacted a local business to see if anything can be done, and Daniels have offered to give advice on the house sale issue. The father is ex RAF, so I’ve also suggested the RAF Benevolent Association and the British Legion as possible help, plus the Red Cross. There’s a lot of debris to clear, and I may have someone helping with that.

 

I did manage to get hold of Brent’s Regeneration Director late Friday night: his remit includes housing, and he’s promised to look into this urgently.  I will, as you may imagine, not let up on that.

 

In the meantime, though, HELP! The house needs a tarpaulin to stop more rain damage. It needs clearing and rubbish removed – as I say, I may have someone who can help on removal, but anything on that would be hugely appreciated. . The couple need somewhere to live for the time being, which I realise is a big ask, but can anyone help with that? Are there builders, or handymen willing to do any kind of patch up? Or more! I know we’ve got a very strong community here, and I think that we can work to help this couple.  In the longer term, they’ll need furniture and household goods, too.

 

Please contact me on cllr.alison.hopkins@brent.gov.uk if you can help and/or have sources, or other ideas for resources we can call on.

 

Concern over Brent Meals on Wheels transferring to community providers

Brent Council is proposing to end Council provision of the Meals on Wheels service for the elderly and vulnerable and hand the responsibility over to community organisations. They will end the contract with the present provider Apetito which will also lose the contract for meals provision at day centres.

The Council projects that it will save more than half the costs of the present service in 2014-15 although the budget may be overspent this year because of set up costs.

One issue of concern is that the proposals are based on a pilot with Harlesden Methodist Church which eventually involved evaluations by only six users. The total number of residents receiving meals on wheels currently is 187 and 1345 have meals at day centres.

The need for meals on wheels on a geographical basis is

South (Kilburn; Queens Park; Kensal Green; Brondesbury) 27
Central East (Dollis Hill; Mapesbury; Dudden Hill) 16
Central West (Stonebridge; Harlesden; Willesden;Cricklewood) 49
North East (Alperton; Wembley; Preston; Tokyngton; Sudbury; Northwick Park) 59
North West (Barnhill; Fryent; Queensbury; Kenton; Kingsbury) 36

The day care meal requirements break down as:

 Kingsbury Resource Centre 384
John Billam 430
Elders Voice 118
Hibiscus Club 24
Aspects Unit 38
Asian Disability Alliance 5
Wise Project 250
Rendezvous Club 96

The Council suggest the following provision:

Cricklewood Homeless Concern – can cover the whole of Brent, and provide Western European/Caribbean/Indian meals
- Early Bird Catering – can cover the Wembley/Sudbury/Kingsbury/Tokyngton area and provide Western
European/Caribbean meals
- Harlesden Methodist Church – can cover Harlesden, Stonebridge and Kensal Rise and provide Western European/Caribbean/Indian meals
- Catalyst Catering – can cover Harlesden, Stonebridge and Willesden and provide Western European/Caribbean meals
- Sudbury Neighbourhood Centre – can provide for day centres only and provide Western European/Caribbean meals
- Jalaram Foods – who can cover the whole borough and provide Asian Vegetarian meals

Residents will contribute £3.50 per meal as at present but payments will be via pre-paid cards with help for those who find the system hard to manage. The Council also currently contribute £3.50.

The current meal charge to the Council via Apetito is £8.52 and they project that this will be cut to £3.50 for door to door provision and £2 for day centre provision.

The Council will put aside a contingency in case of failures by any of the new providers. Apetito staff are unlikely to qualify for TUPE so will become redundant. No redundancy costs will fall on the Council.

A risk assessment is provided by the Council.

I hope councillors give this very serious consideration. I know from personal experience with my mother that both the meal itself and the person delivering it are vitally important to the housebound. The meal and visit are often the day's major event. The quality and suitability of the meal are important to maintain physical health and the friendships that develop with the deliverer, however fleeting, are socially important. Maintaining quality of meal and quality of service across many providers is going to be a major challenge.