National Housing Day Celebrates Residents
It’s time for celebration as today is National Housing Day!
The aim is to share resident stories and to celebrate the positive impact which social housing has on thousands of people across the UK.
With house prices rising in rural areas, local people are being forced out of the villages in which they’ve been brought up. Warwickshire Rural Housing Association provides local homes for local people, offering a lifeline to those who need it most and helping to keep our rural communities alive.
Louise Cusack was born and bred in Alcester and wanted to stay in the village. She had been living with her parents and helping to care for her disabled mum, but after her mother passed away, Louise decided the time was right to find a place of her own.
She says: “I very much wanted to find somewhere in Alcester. I have quite a few friends in the town and, as well as my dad, my brother and his family and many of my other relatives live here.
“I thought I might have to wait a long time for a suitable property to come up so I was really pleased when I was offered a property within a few weeks.
She was thrilled to be offered a one-bedroom property in Beacon Close, close to family and friends in the town where she grew up. But the 38-year-old non driver was worried there would be nowhere to keep her bike.
After we heard about Louise’s dilemma, we granted her permission to slab an area especially for her bicycle and to fit a bracket to an outside wall.
Louise says: “I don’t drive so I use my bike every day to go to work and to visit my dad, who lives about five minutes away.
“The property is perfect for me, but there really isn’t room for a bike indoors. It’s ideal that I can lock up my bike right outside my house and know it’ll be safe and secure there.
“It’s a lovely house in a quiet area with a little bit of garden at the front, which is ideal as I have an 18-month-old cocker spaniel so there is somewhere for him to run around on his lead.
“I’ve lived in Alcester all my life so I’m really pleased to have found a place of my own here.”
Follow us on twitter @WarksRural and join in the national debate to mark National Housing Day.
