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COVID-19 will focus minds on the crisis in older people’s housing as well as what specialist providers can offer

Graeme Foster says the coronavirus crisis has shown the benefits of co-operating with others in the sector and the strengths of being a specialist housing provider

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Picture: Getty
Picture: Getty
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COVID shows that more specialist older people's housing associations are needed, says @foster_graeme of @living_alpha

"We believe that we will see a growth of more specialist housing associations like Alpha Living who concentrate and specialise solely on the supported housing market," says @foster_graeme of @living_alpha

Now the frenzied first weeks of lockdown are behind us and we begin to plan how we reorder our world post COVID-19, we must take time to reflect on our roles – both as a sector and as individual organisations.

Risks will need to be assessed. Lessons need to be learned. Boards and leadership teams will need to revaluate strategies, services and portfolios.

“At the start of the crisis we worked with Wirral Council and two local providers of sheltered housing to ensure that if colleagues were ill, we would step in to support each other and ensure developments were fully staffed”

The past few months will have shown each of us where we are at our strongest and where we are not.


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If the sector is to become greater than the sum of its parts, then playing to our individual strengths and increasing partnership working across all partners and with other landlords should be on our agendas.

If there is silver lining to the lockdown period, the firmer commitment to more meaningful collaboration could be it.

The current crisis has brought a focus to the need to be ‘present’ in all that we do.

We are at our best when we have a good understanding of our geographies, expertise in dealing with client groups, the capacity to listen to tenants, and an ability to be agile in our actions. As in Charles Darwin’s works, it is the fast thinkers and the agile that survive.

At the start of the crisis we worked with Wirral Council and two local providers of sheltered housing to ensure that if colleagues were ill, we would step in to support each other and ensure developments were fully staffed.

As a specialist provider of supported housing, having a physical presence in our developments five days a week is the key to providing excellent customer service and support.

Through our day-to-day contact with residents we can quickly solve any issues, give assurance when and where needed, and redesign services to better meet their needs.

“We believe that we will see a growth of more specialist housing associations like Alpha Living which concentrate and specialise solely on the supported housing market”

On an organisational level pre-coronavirus, we provided traditional lunch clubs where around 20 people a day would come together to eat. Continuing that would be impossible. Our residents, especially those who are shielding, told us a meal service would be invaluable. So we centralised our service and now provide hot meals to 100 people, delivered by our repairs team.

Our on-site development managers know which residents are without close family or friends and need more support. They also help us know quickly how effective any changes we make are.

This has allowed us to tailor our services, be it delivering meals on wheels, providing shopping and prescription collection, supporting laundry needs or, and just as important, providing companionship by regular phone calls and socially distanced visits.

All this has been made possible through our staff’s presence on our sites, our strong values of kindness, honesty and agility, and our ability to quickly assess what does and does not work.

Our actions have been widely welcomed and residents and their loved ones have been highly reassured by our approach.

This crisis and our need to act quickly, flexibly and decisively are accelerating our thinking on the future shape of housing for older people.

We believe that we will see a growth of more specialist housing associations like Alpha Living which concentrate and specialise solely on the supported housing market – and thus are able to focus resources in different ways.

As the future becomes clearer, conversations between housing leaders will be crucial. This will be especially true in areas such as supported housing.

Working together, we can speak with one voice.

Graeme Foster, chief executive, Alpha Living

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