Please support the Glenmoy Terrace Starter Packs appeal

Our Partners at Hillcrest Housing Association have told us their application to the Tesco Bags of Help Grant Scheme has been successful and the Glenmoy Terrace Homeless Starter Packs project will be put forward to a customer vote in Tesco stores during November and December 2017.

The project along with two other successful projects in the region will go forward to a vote in Tesco stores where their customers will decide the outcome by voting for their favourite project each time they shop.

Voting will take place

from

Wednesday 1st November 2017 to Monday 1st January 2018

We will find out by the end of January 2018 the amount of funding the project will receive. The project with the highest number of votes across our region will receive up to £4,000, the second placed project up to £2,000 and the third placed project £1,000.

Starter packs help adults and families transition from homelessness to a home. Packs include small kitchen utensils and basic provisions to support them in their own tenancy.

Glenmoy Terrace provides short-term accommodation for adults and families in Forfar who are homeless. It has 7 self-contained properties including a family unit for up to 6 family members. People stay with the project from 3 months to 9 months. Their most recent care inspectorate report received a 5(very good) rating for the services they provide.

However they want to provide more, by supporting temporary tenants to source longer term permanent tenancies. When a property becomes available they may only have a few days to support a tenant moving into their own home with no funding to support this. They want to provide starter packs so that people can move into their new home and it feels like a home.

To encourage activity, healthy eating, provide a therapeutic benefit and also provide a feeling of transition and hope that they will take it with them to their new home, the project wants to provide a kitchen/herb garden to be included in the starter pack. The garden would consist of small planters or pots depending on space available and would include herbs, tomatoes, chillis and radishes. This would encourage discussion among tenants, shared positive experiences and also encourage future community engagement.

The cost of a starter pack is roughly £100 for an individual however this does increase for a family, and the project would be looking to support approximately 40 families and individuals with packs.

 

Your vote is important so please support the project when you are shopping in Tesco in November and December.

https://www.tesco.com/carrier-bags/

Private Tenancy Reform

 

SAL’s Private Residential Tenancy video

 

As we mentioned in our previous post, any private tenancy created on or after 1 December 2017 will be a private residential tenancy. The new tenancy will replace the assured and short assured tenancy regime (although existing ones will remain in place until they are ended.) To find out more about private tenancy reform see Scottish Association of Landlords’ Private Residential Tenancy video.

The Scottish Government recently published new documents about the new Private Residential Tenancy:

• Scottish Government Model Private Residential Tenancy Agreement

• Easy Read Notes For The Scottish Government Model Private Residential Tenancy Agreement

• Private Residential Tenancy Statutory Terms Supporting Notes

 

Try the Housing Options Wizard, it’s magic!

 

Looking for advice on finding suitable housing? The Housing Options Service can help you by talking to you about your housing options. You also can get information and guidance on what type of housing you may need and what options are available in Angus by completing the online housing options wizard.

The housing options wizard has recently been updated with more detailed information about housing options in Angus. You can now see information about available private lets in your preferred areas if this is a suitable housing option for you.

Beautiful Angus Garden Competition 2017 winners

This year’s gold and silver awards went to green-fingered tenants from

Arbroath, Brechin, Forfar, Kirriemuir, Monifieth and Montrose:

GOLD AWARDS

Mrs Rose Thomson ,Arbroath     

Mr Ian Guthrie, Forfar                    

Mr John Whyte, Hillside, Montrose   

Mr J Stephen, Kirriemuir                

Mr Paul Cameron, Monifieth               

Mr Bert Black, Montrose

 

SILVER AWARDS                  

Brander Ha Sheltered Housing Complex           

Mr & Mrs Torrie ,Forfar                                  

Mr & Mrs Paul, Kirriemuir                              

Adam Cargill Court Sheltered Housing Complex

 

BRONZE AWARDS

 Mr Michael Stewart ,Arbroath           

Mr David Henderson , Brechin           

Mr Alan Watt, Forfar   

Springfield Sheltered Housing Complex

Mr George Middleton, Kirriemuir

Mrs Andrews, Kirriemuir

Ms M Scott-Ferguson ,Kirriemuir

 STEWART EDWARD CUP and £20 voucher – Mr Ian Guthrie,Forfar  

 Other Categories and winners

• Individuals-Mr Alan Watt
• Village- Arbirlot
• Flower / Food – Colourful Carnoustie
• Environment   – Keptie friends

OVERALL PRIDE AND PLACE Elected Members and Officers Group (MOG) WINNER – Keptie Friends

More photos from award ceremony

 

 

 

Congratulations to all the winners and well done to all who helped make Angus more beautiful!

Angus Empty Homes Initiative website

Our Empty Homes Initiative brings unoccupied properties back into residential use.

If you are interested in selling, privately renting or renovating an empty property in Angus, see the Empty homes website or Contact the empty homes officer .

Housing Options Customer Satisfaction Survey

We’re always keen to get our customers feedback about our Housing Options services. So if you have met with one of our Housing Options officers to talk about your housing situation, please complete our SURVEY to let us know what you thought of our service.

The SURVEY will be carried out in October, November and December.

 

Customer opinion is very important to us

and can help us to improve our services.

Scottish Housing Day in Angus

Our Communities Officer, Liz Begg supported local tenants from Arbroath to promote Scottish Housing Day in Angus on 21 September 2017 and she said:

“On the day, we discussed the proposed regeneration plans for Timmergreens, along with general housing-related conversations. We’d like to thank the representatives from Angus Housing Association, local Housing Officers from our Housing team and Councillor Lois Speed who also came along to support the tenants’ efforts.”

Pictured are tenant representatives from our Tenant Steering Group, Angus Housing Association, our Housing Team and Councillor Speed.

Calling All Willing Volunteers!

Voluntary Action Angus needs volunteers to help run events with our sheltered housing tenants in Angus .

Dedicated volunteers run a range of events such as quizzes, seated exercise classes, seated bowls, fish teas, lunch clubs, bingo, games afternoons, bus trips and these have been such befrienders for tenants who may be housebound and feel lonely and isolated.

You would receive full training, and support, if necessary, to undertake whatever activity you were volunteering to do and if you had a particular activity in mind, Voluntary Action Angus would be keen to hear it and try and make that possible.

If you have a bit of spare time to give, then please call April Glennie on 01307 466113 to have a chat and find out more.

Our Performance – at a Glance!

Each year we (and all other social landlords in Scotland) provide a wide range of information about our Housing performance to the Scottish Housing Regulator for the Scottish Social Housing Charter. The purpose of the Charter is to:

• state clearly what tenants and other customers can expect from social landlords, and help them to hold landlords to account
• focus the efforts of social landlords on achieving outcomes that matter to their customers
• provide the basis for the Scottish Housing Regulator to assess and report on how well landlords are performing. This assessment enables the Regulator, social landlords, tenants and other customers to identify areas of strong performance and areas needing improvement

An essential requirement of the Charter, is for landlords to publish a Report Card to show what performance customers think is most important. We have prepared our latest Charter Report Card working in partnership with our Tenants Steering Group, and the information is grouped into the areas which are contained in the Charter.

The Charter Report Card contains performance information on selected areas over the last 3 years, and compares to the Scottish average (where this is available). It also shows whether our performance is improving or declining in each area.

If you have any questions about the Report Card or the data, please leave us a comment.