Merry Christmas from The Almshouse Association

Dear all,

The Almshouse Association would like to take this opportunity to thank all our members, trustees, clerks, wardens, volunteers, supporters and donors for all that you have done this year to support the almshouse movement. especially when so many of you have had your own challenges and commitments to take care of.

It is no exaggeration to say that it has been a dreadful year and maybe many people will not be celebrating Christmas. Covid has been such a pain, not just impacting our daily routine, but it seems to have seeped into our very psyche! It has made people ill directly and those it has not touched directly, it has made them scared and miserable. But! We are, however, surprisingly optimistic about the year ahead. It is so often said that you only appreciate “it” when “it” has gone. Friendship and community means everything in the almshouse world and this past year, we have desperately missed the company of others, meeting friends, sharing a chat, tea together, the relaxed atmosphere of a busy friendly pub, parties and celebrations, warm hugs and kisses – the thought of getting that all back is making us so excited. We feel that there really is now a light at the end of the tunnel and it is getting so much brighter and closer. We can actually dare to imagine life getting back to normal. It will be different for a while, we have all been knocked off our feet this year, one way or another, but we know we will really appreciate time spent with others that maybe we were too busy to appreciate before.

And, here at the Association in 2021 we will be celebrating 75 years of supporting and representing almshouses charities, we intend to celebrate the great work of almshouses, all the hard work of the trustees, clerks, wardens, volunteers, sponsors and donors, for keeping the spirit and function of almshouses going and keeping our almshouse residents warm and safe and loved.

We all wish you, your families and residents a peaceful, safe and warm Christmas and a bright, positive New Year!

Posted 16 December 2020

Gardens & People Almshouse Association Awards

Each year the Association invites members to showcase their almshouse projects and achievements by applying for one of our awards. With the outbreak of coronavirus at the beginning of 2020,  the Association had to put the Patron’s Award and Award for Excellence and Inspiration on hold but we are delighted to be able announce the winners of the 2019 Gardens and People Award.

The winners all highlighted the sense of community their gardening projects created and the beneficial impact on their residents’ physical and mental wellbeing.  These projects and spaces have no doubt brought great comfort to residents during this year’s lockdown.

Lady Lumley’s Almshouses, Thornton-le-dale, North Yorkshire – set up a tea and chatter group, which now has 20 regular attendees. For the past three years they have also held an open day and in 2019 the residents won a local award for their outstanding garden display.

Partis College, Bath, Somerset –  established a new vegetable garden in a neglected part of the grounds. They put in 10 raised beds to ensure it was accessible to all residents. A handyman provides some physical support but otherwise it has been the hard work of the residents that had yielded delicious, home grown vegetables.

The residents at Yardley Great Trust, Birmingham initiated a project to improve small areas of the scheme by planting flower beds. The project grew and more residents got involved, spending more time outdoors and enjoying BBQs together. The project has fostered a greater sense of community, as well as improving the residents’ physical and mental health.

St Joseph’s Homestead, Stratford-upon-Avon converted the resident’s private gardens into a communal garden, creating a community feeling and providing a relaxing place for residents to sit. Residents are able to tend to part of the garden and there has been a focus on wildlife with the introduction of a hedgehog highway, bird feeders and bee-friendly plants.

Guild Cottages at the Municipal Charities of Stratford-Upon-Avon has a communal garden but gives its residents the opportunity to tend to the areas close to their homes. For those residents whose gardening skills aren’t quite as developed, a professional gardener is available to give a helping hand.

Residents at The Day Foundation, Coddenham, Suffolk took part in a local open garden scheme to help raise money for the local church and The Stone Foundation. They ran a stall selling second hand gardening equipment, sunflower seedlings and plants. They also took part in the scarecrow competition! These activities brought residents together and new friendships were formed.

To view more Gardens and People Awards photos, please click here

House of Lords: Almshouses take centre stage

The Almshouse Association was very pleased to see almshouses widely discussed in The House of Lords today (22 Oct 20).

The discussion was led by a question from Lord Kennedy of Southwark with a number of substantive questions following on a series of topics including: the exclusion of almshouses from Section 106 levies and the reduction of VAT on repairs to charitable buildings, such as almshouses.

What we are most proud of is the cross party support for almshouses and the almshouse movement. Lords from across the House and from Government acknowledge the vital work our members undertake and the vital service they provide to their communities.

We would like to extend our thanks to the Lords who raised questions and who have been in contact with The Almshouse Association in recent weeks.

Click here to watch the full discussion

Posted 22nd October 20

Association meets with David Rutley MP

Today (14 Oct 20), The Almshouse Association held a productive meeting with David Rutley MP for Macclesfield.

Discussions with Mr Rutley, who is also a Government Whip, included an overview of the four almshouses in his constituency, Section 106 Agreements and Selective Licensing.

We were pleased to hear some very positive comments on almshouses and what they provide to their communities.  Discussions such as these are vital as we continue to raise issues which affect our members.

The Almshouse Association would like to thank Mr Rutley for his time and for his warm support of almshouses.

Posted 14 Oct 20

Association CEO in Labour Housing newletter

A letter from Nick Phillips CEO of The Almhouse Association has been featured in the Labour Housing Group September 20 newsletter.

Nick Phillips CEO writes:

Almshouses are part of history but also very much part of a future housing solution.

Although almshouses will never be the complete answer to the housing crisis, trustees are ready to build and they represent a great opportunity to expand, based on a model of independent living and resident well-being that is genuinely affordable.

Over the last 1,000 years, almshouses have offered truly affordable homes to those in need. If ever there was a time for more it’s now.

To read the article in full on Page 7 of the newsletter, please click here

Posted 8 October 2020

Local Rector talks about almshouses and the test of time on the C of E website

Mark Bennet, Team Rector at Thatcham in Berkshire talks about his preconceptions of almshouses before he found himself as one of the trustees of Loundye’s and John Hunt’s Almshouses.

He begins:

Before I became a trustee of the Thatcham Parochial Almshouse Charity, the most I had known about almshouses was from Trollope’s “The Warden” as seen on TV and a vague sense that almshouses were an antiquated form of do-goodery providing congenial accommodation for distressed gentlefolk and retired clergy. I was to discover that such a view of Almshouses is a profound mistake.

When I became Rector of my parish, I found myself one of nine trustees of Loundye’s and John Hunt’s Almshouses and the quaintly named “Nine Shilling House”. I read the history of the Almshouses – the charity had once owned a field on which grazed a cow, whose milk was provided free to the Almshouse residents. It seemed that my prejudices were being confirmed.

And then I met the residents of our fourteen flats ……

This is a truly wonderful account from Mark and no doubt sums up exactly what many of us thought about almshouses before we ‘got involved’.

His visions for the future mirror those of the almshouse movement – we know that the almshouse model can play a much greater role in meeting the need for sustainable affordable housing in our generation and beyond; and as more and more almshouses are being built, it certainly looks like the vision is becoming a reality.

A downloadable version of the article can be found here or visit the Church of England website here

Posted 7 October 2020

Almshouses officially recognised as unique housing model

The official definition of an almshouse has been recognised by the Charity Commission which has just released its new, approved guidance on almshouses.   

After months of hard work, this is a major milestone for The Almshouse Association – the membership charity representing over 1,600 independent almshouse charities – which has long persevered for credible recognition of almshouses as an affordable housing provider.

For the last 1,000 years, almshouses have existed as an affordable social housing model but there has been no clear definition of an almshouse by a government department. 

Today, as the Almshouse Association prepares to celebrate its 75th anniversary of supporting the almshouse movement, this community-led housing model now has the seal of official approval.

Says Nick Phillips, CEO of The Almshouse Association,

We are growing at the fastest rate since the Victorian era, with a thousand new homes having been created in the last ten years and some 36,000 residents enjoying affordable living in 30,000 properties around the UK.  Another 700 are being built or are in the pipeline. 

We are delighted with this timely affirmation by the Charity Commission of our individual and long-established form of housing which is every bit as relevant today.”

Click here for official definition of an almshouse

Posted 6 Oct 20

Association article makes it into LGA Magazine

The Local Government Association’s first magazine has published an article written by the Almshouse Association promoting almshouses and their benefits to local authorities.

The article forms the basis of the Association’s engagement strategy with a number of different stakeholders across the housing sector, including local councils, who may wish to explore the option of supporting new and old almshouses in their area.

The full article can be found here

Posted 7 September 2020

Patrick Vernon OBE, community activist & campaigner for voluntary sector, to be Ambassador for the Association

The Almshouse Association is delighted to welcome the British community activist Patrick Vernon OBE as an Ambassador for The Almshouse Association.

As an influential social commentator, campaigner and cultural historian of Jamaican heritage, The Almshouse Association believes that Patrick can play a prominent role in increasing diversity in local communities and help the organisation to grow and adjust to changes that will better reflect today’s local housing needs.

“We are delighted to welcome Patrick to the almshouse movement. With Patrick’s 20 years of working across mental and public health, heritage and race equality, and because of his influence across the voluntary and local government sectors”, says Nick Phillips, CEO of The Almshouse Association, “we feel he will be the ideal person to help us raise the profile of almshouses and their importance to local communities; give us a voice in the current housing agenda, and take us forward as a significant and very relevant solution to the housing needs of today. Patrick will bring new thinking at an important time for us – as our membership is expanding and we are seeing increased interest in our model of community housing.”

In response to his appointment, Patrick Vernon says:

“I am extremely pleased to have been asked to lend my experience and support to The Almshouse Association. I am well aware of the existence of almshouses and believe that they can be great assets. I am greatly encouraged by the progress being made to reflect the changing demographics in local communities, and excited to see The Almshouse Association’s new building programme that is being so well designed in every way to fit the housing needs of the twenty first century and beyond.”

Posted September 2020

Patrick Vernon OBE. Biographical details
Patrick was born in the constituency where Enoch Powell was an MP. His family still lives in Wolverhampton and he is proud of his roots and the contribution of migrant communities from the Windrush Generation have made to Britain which forms a larger of his values and principles – Windrush Day Matters.

Patrick is a Clore and Winston Churchill Fellow, Fellow at Imperial War Museum, fellow of Royal Historical Society and former Associate fellow for the department of history of medicine at Warwick University. He has over twenty years’ senior experience working across mental health, public health, heritage and race equality and is well known in health, local government and the voluntary sector.

Patrick is currently Associate Director for Connected Communities at the Centre for Ageing Better, Equality and Diversity Adviser to Lambeth Council, Chair of Citizens Partnership for Healthcare Investigation Branch (HSIB) and Senior Associate at OLMEC. He was the first director of Black Thrive a mental-health multi-agency tackling mental health in Lambeth, former non-executive director of Camden and Islington Mental Health Foundation Trust, Health Partnership Coordinator for National Housing Federation, former director of Afiya Trust, committee member of Healthwatch England, NHS England Equality Diversity Council, director of Brent Health Action Zone and regional director for MIND. Patrick was former Independent Chair of Westminster Partnership for Race Equality where he played a key role with the Met Police and the Muslim community with the aftermath of 7/7 bombings in Westminster in 2005.

He is a former member of the Labour and the Coalition Government Ministerial Advisory for Mental Health. Patrick was a former councillor in Hackney between 2006- 2014 and was appointed by Jeremy Corbyn as Race Equalities Adviser to the Shadow Equalities Ministerial Team between 2015 to 2017.Patrick is also founder of Every Generation Media and 100 Great Black Britons, which develops education programmes, publications and films on cultural heritage and family history. Patrick was made Pioneer of the Nation for Cultural History by the Queen in 2003. He is a leading expert on African and Caribbean genealogy in the UK. In 2017 was appointed editor for Black History Month magazine (2017 and 2018 magazines) and in 2018 for Windrush Commemorative magazine.

Since 2010 Patrick has been leading the campaign for Windrush Day and in 2018 kick started the campaign for an amnesty for the Windrush Generation as part of the Windrush Scandal which led to a government U-turn in immigration policy and resignation of Amber Rudd as Home Secretary. Patrick was awarded an OBE in 2012 for his work in tackling health inequalities for ethnic minority communities in Britain. In 2018 Patrick was an honorary PhD by Wolverhampton University for his work on migration history and equalities.
Patrick is a Patron of ACCI a long established black mental health charity in Wolverhampton and Patron of Santé a social enterprise in Camden which supports and befriends refugees and asylum seekers across London. Patrick is Vice Chair of the Bernie Grant Trust and a board member of 38 Degrees.
And as news item is posted , Patrick has just featured in the in Vogue September 20 edition named in the top 20 remarkable activists.

Almshouse communities: a solution to loneliness?

Over the next few weeks the Homes at the Heart campaign, run by the National Housing Federation and supported by The Almshouse Association, is focusing on different issues affecting the housing market. This week the focus is on living well.

Loneliness is a growing problem for many in our society. During the coronavirus pandemic many of us have become more comfortable with using our computers and phones to communicate with one and other via FaceTime, WhatsApp and Zoom. These apps have provided us with an effective stopgap enabling grandparents and grandchildren to continue to see each other, whilst allowing many to work from home. These are benefits that we cannot underestimate, but these apps are still missing the key human elements which can only be achieved by in-person communication. Those same grandparents still want real life hugs and kisses.

It would be wrong, however, to assume that this problem has only arisen with the pandemic and its associated lockdowns and as such, will ease once life returns to some kind of normality. Loneliness, particularly within the older members of our society, has recently received much needed attention from media and the Government. Similarly, research, such as a recent piece conducted by UCL, highlight that loneliness is linked to a higher risk of developing dementia. Moves such as the appointment of Baroness Diana Barran as the Minister for Loneliness are steps in the right direction, but are not solutions in themselves.

At The Almshouse Association, we turn to our thousand year history for lessons in how to deal with and manage loneliness through the homes that people live in. By design, the almshouse model helps to tackle the issue through the creation of micro-communities which promote engagement and interaction between residents. Many of our members oversee almshouses with beautiful communal gardens which allow residents to mix and socialise (although recently this has had to be social distanced). They also host events which connect residents with their wider community. Although the majority of almshouse residents tend to be older, our members are starting to see younger residents living in their homes. This allows for greater inter-generational interaction as young and old mingle and contribute to each other’s’ lives. Continued interaction both within and outside the almshouse means that we can tackle loneliness and contribute to improve mental and physical wellbeing.  

If you would like to learn more about almshouses, please take a look around our website. We would be more than happy to discuss how you can start your almshouse journey. 

#HomesAtTheHeart

Further Reading: Homes at the Heart – affordability and supply

Posted 24 Aug 2020