Residents and tenants’ representatives at Thursday night’s Hornsey Area Housing Forum expressed outrage at the lack of scheme managers at a number of sheltered housing schemes across Haringey.

Five full-time scheme managers moved to become part of the ALMO team in January and over eight weeks later the sheltered housing residents in those schemes have not had appropriate full-time cover.

Cllr Gail Engert (Lib Dem, Muswell Hill) has already been in correspondence with Haringey Council to ask why the scheme managers have not been replaced and received assurances that the service to residents was not being affected. However, the meeting at Hornsey Town Hall backs up previous conversations Cllr Engert has had with residents of sheltered housing schemes which contradict this.

Cllr Engert comments:

“These residents are deeply concerned about the ongoing lack of scheme managers to look after them. Full-time scheme managers have been replaced with just a short morning visit by an area relief manager and emergency cords in the properties, which is clearly not the same level of cover to the residents.

“It is essential that full cover is resumed as soon as possible for all these residents, many of whom are elderly and vulnerable. The Council must also explain why the previous scheme managers moved into their new ALMO roles in January, without plans having been made to ensure unbroken cover for the sheltered housing residents. It seems to be very poor planning and residents are rightly angry about the situation.”