TD is an eighty-two-year-old Chinese lady. When she arrived to the U.K in 2005 to visit her brother in Poplar, after that she applied for asylum under the humanitarian protection because she was at risk of serious harm on return to her country of origin.
Until 2015, she allowed to settle down in the U.K (known as “indefinite leave to remain). A year later she had got a British passport and her pension credit.
During these years, she lives in her brother. He is 95-year-old and a widower. He is renting a three-bedroom flat from the housing association, but her name is not on the tenancy agreement. Recently Mrs TD did not get along with her brother, he wanted her to leave his accommodation, he has not given the date for her to leave yet but every day he keeps a same message to tell her to move out as soon as possible.
Mrs TD is living under pressure, her life is stressful, she cannot speak English, she is always worried because she is threatened with homeless soon. She came to see us to ask for help to find accommodation. We told her that she has three options to get a place to live by herself:
We will take her to Housing Options Service in Roman road E2 to apply for emergency accommodation, but it is not guarantee she is able to stay in Tower Hamlets, they may offer her a temporary place in different areas.
We believe that Mrs TD is eligible to get sheltered accommodation because her age and needs. We can either by phone to shelter housing or by filling form on the Tower Hamlets – Home seekers website, but she has to wait for a while to get her own place. It means she needs to talk to her brother to allow her to stay in his flat a bit longer.
Finally, there is sheltered housing for Vietnamese and Chinese people in Cambridge. The scheme manager always calls us to ask if we know any Vietnamese or Chinese people who are homeless and over 55-year-old, they can apply for a place to live straightway. Vietnamese and Chinese support staff will provide all the helps for residents. We are able to take Mrs TD to Cambridge to settle down if she wants to leave London in the next days.
After Mrs TD listened to three options, she decided to choose option number 2. She wants to live in Tower Hamlets because she has many friends around her. We completed an online application for her. Now she is waiting for a call or letter from the Tower Hamlet Housing Option. It is more important that her brother let her to continue to live in his flat until she gets an offer for sheltered accommodation.
Recently , Mrs TD decided to go to An Lac house in Cambridge. The Vietnamese staff is drawing up a care plan for her and how she is settling in to the An Lac care home.
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