Elderly Residents Threaten Legal Action

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Plan to remove sheltered housing warden is challenged

Elderly residents of a local sheltered housing scheme are threatening to take legal action against the Council and H&F Homes over the proposed removal of their resident warden.

The residents of Underwood House, off Goldhawk Road,

say they were not consulted over any changes to the current arrangement and say any alternatives, such as a live-out warden, would not be able to provide the same level of help many of them require.

Underwood House resident Abdul-Fady Othman said news of their warden's likely departure had come as a shock: “We understand from the Council that the warden will not be living here any more. He will be living out and we are not happy with that as we won't have a regular warden,” he said.

Several residents have taken a petition to Downing Street, calling for their warden to remain. Othman said the current warden had been at Underwood House for almost nine years and provided a vital service to residents: “Some people are disabled and the warden is very, very useful. People trust him and know him. He keeps the tenants safe. Sometimes there are strangers wandering into the garden and it makes people nervous. He also provides a lot of out-of-hours services: he helps if people lock themselves out, reads prescriptions for them, helps them with letters from Government departments. People here are from various nationalities and some need help with their English. Some people here don't go out. Their only contact is with the caretaker – they don't chat to anybody else.”

He said residents felt they had been kept in the dark about the changes: “The Council have never even talked to us about the warden leaving. We didn't know talks had been going on with the wardens – we came to hear of it. The Council have never held a meeting here. It's all been discussed at a higher level. They should have come to talk to us,” he said.

Solicitor Yvonne Hossack, who has taken on the residents' case, says many of those living at Underwood House are quite elderly and have been tenants there for many years. In a letter to the Council and H&F Homes (the Council's housing management organisation) she said there was a “contractual duty to provide a warden service” at the scheme. “Our clients entered into Underwood House in the knowledge or belief that the services provided included those of a residential warden. None recall being consulted about any change to that service,” she wrote.

In an initial written response, Council solicitors said that neither the Council nor H&F Homes accepted that they had acted unlawfully and that Hossack's letter contained “serious misconceptions in relation to the nature of the services provided” at Underwood House. A full response is expected from them later this week.

In the meantime, Hammersmith and Fulham TUC president, Bert Schouwenburg said his union was backing the residents' action: “The attack on sheltered housing is just the latest example of the class war being waged by Hammersmith and Fulham Council against the most vulnerable sections of the community. They are wasting large amounts of Council-tax payers’ money on a brutal campaign that only serves to demonstrate their contempt for the elderly,” he said.

Responding to the charges, an H&F Homes spokesman said: "There are currently 1,400 tenants living in sheltered housing, many of whom do not require support from their scheme managers. At the same time, we have 17,500 older people living in the borough and many of those that might benefit from some support are not currently getting it. That is not as fair as it should be.

"H&F Council is considering extending the type of housing-related support that sheltered housing scheme managers provide so that it is available to vulnerable older people across the borough, including those living in their own homes. It will consult with residents once we have firm plans, and then work with local housing associations and H&F Homes to help them in their efforts to continue to provide good on-site support for tenants.

"Any proposals will be the subject of further consultation with residents once we have firm plans. While the unions have a clear self-interest in opposing change, we would urge them to put the interests of the borough's vulnerable residents first."

Yasmine Estaphanos

8 June 2009