Our Housing

We work in partnership with many organisations to enable disabled people and their families to live as independently as possible in affordable housing in Scotland. We build and manage mixed-community developments designed to offer choice and satisfy individual needs.

Housing across Scotland

The Association has 76 small, integrated schemes across Scotland with a mix of family houses to suit wheelchair users, people with mobility difficulties, older people and non-disabled people. There are also individual houses in smaller towns and villages. Designed to barrier-free standards, our houses can be adapted to meet the individual needs of tenants. To access a map of all our schemes, click on Map Of Our Schemes. Each of the location dots is a hotspot. Click on each for details of the scheme concerned. Alternatively, a table of links to schemes, arranged by town, can be accessed by clicking on Housing By Town.

Housing with staff support

Six of our developments can provide intensive, flexible 24-hour staff support where tenants can draw up individually tailored care plans in partnership with "keyworker" staff members.

A further seven schemes have Sheltered Housing Officers on-site who can provide advice, support and emergency assistance.

Many vulnerable people view housing with appropriate staff support as a bridge between residential school or care, hospital or the parental home and full independent living.

For further details, please click on this Personal Support Services link.

Partnership Working

We also own properties which we operate in partnership with other support providers including Carr Gomm (Scotland), Cornerstone, Leonard Cheshire Foundation and the Thistle Foundation. We built these properties to meet identified local needs, sometimes in connection with hospital reprovisioning programmes. These properties can be found in Edinburgh, Fife, Bishopbriggs, Coatbridge and Larbert.

Applications for these properties should be made direct to the care manager at the Local authority concerned.

Managing our tenancies

For anyone applying for one of our houses, the main point of contact will be through one of our Housing Officers. They will help you through the application process and will match your needs with the most suitable property. When you are offered a tenancy, the Housing Officer will go through the Tenancy Agreement with you so that you fully understand what our responsibilities are and what you will be responsible for. Once you become a tenant, the Housing Officer will keep in regular contact to make sure that everything is running smoothly and that you are happy with your home.

Participating as a tenant

In 2005 we developed a comprehensive Tenant Participation Strategy which is geared to getting tenants actively involved in the affairs of the Association. We already have eight local Tenant Associations, over eleven informal tenants groups and thirteen focus groups with more starting up all the time. Tenants can contribute so much to the way we work by suggesting how our house designs can be improved and by telling us how our services can be improved. Some of our tenants are also already involved in interviewing and appointing support staff.

For the nominal sum of £1, tenants can become full members of the Association with the right to attend the Annual General Meeting. Tenants who join the Association as members can be nominated for election to the Board of Management and take on a very active role in our direction and affairs.

There's no compulsion, no pressure to get involved - people lead very busy lives these days - but we do hope that our tenants will want to contribute to the success of the Association at whatever level they feel comfortable.