8

To get in touch :

Call us on 0151 920 7300

Visit us at www.crosbyhousing.org.uk

Follow us @crosbyhousing

Call in at 10 Church Road Waterloo

Hi everyone, I’m Lou Colton from CHA and im taking part in the Scouse 5K on 18th September 2016 as part of Team Acko to raise funds for the proposed new Clatterbridge Treatment Centre in Liverpool. My best friend was diagnosed with Breast Cancer on 30 June 2016 and will also be running the race with friends and family, which is what inspired my Wonder Woman themed haircut for the Charity. In 6 days the Just Giving Page has raised over £3000 for the appeal.

Check out the page there is much more fund raising planned -

Justgiving.com/TeamAcko

S M T W T F S

1 2 3 4 5 6

7 8 9 10 11 12 13

14 15 16 17 18 19 20

21 22 23 24 25 26 27

28 29 30 31

Early Notice

Crosby Housing Association will be closed for Bank Holiday on Monday 29th August

and will re open Tuesday 30th August at 9am.

For emergency repairs please contact 0845 057 7096.

Astraline have decided to discontinue the out of hours service. We are now working to

source a new provider. We understand that this is an important service and we will give

you the details of the new provider ASAP.

August 2016

Inside this

Issue Page

Paying Your

Rent 2

Court Action 3

CAB

CAP 4

CHART 5

Waterloo

Festival

Christmas at

Waterloo

6

Charity Shop

Planned

Programme

7

Team Acko

Early Notice

Opening

Hours

8

Crosby Housing Association newsletter for tenants

Annual Tenant ‘Un’conference

In July, Tenants enjoyed a lovely day out at the tenant ‘Un’ conference.

This is an annual event and is held every year at the Village Hotel in

Warrington, it gives tenants a chance to hear about current legislation

and ongoing affairs. Every tenant is welcome to this - if you would like to

get involved please contact Hannah or Dave at the office on

0151 920 7300.

2

Paying your rent is VERY important. It is the primary source of income that the

Association receives and it covers the costs of managing, maintaining and

improving your home. It helps us to contribute to partnerships and to support

broader strategic and neighbourhood matters and to grow the organisation to

provide more homes

Paying your rent keeps you a part of Crosby Housing and we work hard to help

you gain access to any wider support that you or your family may need.

We offer a wide range of methods for you to pay rent:

by Direct Debit

online using your bank debit or credit card - visit www.allpayments.net

using the allpay payment app - visit www.allpayments.net

sending a text message - visit www.allpayments.net

over the phone using your bank debit or credit card - call 0844 557

8321

by cash at local shops displaying the PayPoint logo

by cash, cheque or debit card up to £450 at the Post Office

Download the How to Make a Payment leaflet from our website

www.crosbyhousing.org.uk or get in touch with our office to send you a copy.

Paying your rent

Ways to pay your rent

7

Crosby Housing Association Charity Shop

WE ARE LOOKING FOR VOLUNTEER SALES ASSISTANTS FOR OUR

CHARITY SHOP, 1C LORNE ROAD, WATERLOO, L22 0NH

VOLUNTEERING CAN HELP YOU TO DEVELOP YOUR RETAIL AND

CUSTOMER SERVICE SKILLS AND ENHANCE EMPLOYABILITY

PROSPECTS. YOU WILL ALSO GET TO MEET NEW PEOPLE.

IF YOU THINK THIS IS FOR YOU, THEN COME IN AND HAVE A CHAT

WITH OUR STORE MANAGER KERRIE SMART AND GET TO KNOW

OUR STAFF

HOURS ARE AVAILABLE BETWEEN MONDAY TO SATURDAY

10.00AM — 4.30PM

For more information please contact

Kerrie Smart

on 0151 928 6120

Planned Investment Update Following the meeting that was held with tenants last year. All Planned Investment

works have been completed, we have now been able to deliver more works due to

budget savings.

The first cyclical painting programme is nearly complete and the second is to

start shortly.

All windows, doors and boiler installations are now complete.

We will be holding a meeting later in the year to discuss the next stage of our

Planned Investment Programme.

Save the date - Wednesday 9th November 2016 - 5.30pm

SING Plus, Cambridge Road, Seaforth, L21 1EX

6

Waterloo Community Festival

The weekend of 17th and 18th June saw the

first Waterloo Community Festival take place.

The festival attracted thousands of visitors in

the Coastal Park at the bottom of South Road

and due to its success, it will take place again

next year. Chairman Nick, Board Member Liz,

Mandy and Hannah spent the day in the

community tent selling goods from CHA’s

charity shop and promoting the work that the

Waterloo Town Team does for the community.

Members of the community were asked to

write their wishes of Waterloo on bunting, lots

of positive comments were given to the Town

Team and all of the words where put together

to make a fabulous word cloud.

Christmas at Waterloo

Save the Date! Forgive us as it is supposedly our summer

edition, but it is that time of year that the

plans for the annual Christmas event (on the

bus interchange on South Road) get

underway! The event will be held on

Thursday 1st December and will include

an all day Christmas Market, a live radio

broadcast throughout the day from our

friends at Sandgrounder Radio (former Dune

FM) and a range of performances.

3

Rent or Money Problems? We support our tenants in many different ways, but particularly if your falling into any form of arrears with your rent.

If you find yourself having any problems with your rent payments or even your benefit entitlement, please do not ignore it – come and speak to us. The worst thing you can do is ignore the situation – you MUST contact us as quickly as possible, there are so many things we can do to help….

In the last year we have helped many of you overcome problems, resolve benefit enquiries and gain valuable extra benefits just by providing advice and putting you in touch with the right people. However some of you choose not to accept our offer of help and ignore our letters. Some of you allow your rent arrears to escalate out of control. Paying your rent is an essential part of your contract with us and failure to pay is likely to lead to you losing your home.

As soon as your rent account reaches 8 weeks in arrears, we will serve you with a Notice of Intention to Seek Possession – which is a legal notification which means if you don’t resolve your rent problems within 28 days of receiving the notice, we can and will submit your details to the County Court for the next legal stage. We have served court action on 7 tenants in the last 6 months.

A County Court Judge will hear your case and in extreme cases issue an immediate order for your tenancy to end. However the Judge is more likely to issue a Suspended Possession Order (SPO) on your account.

An SPO will normally have terms requiring you to pay your weekly rent plus an agreed amount, until your arrears are cleared – should you fail to maintain this agreement or stop paying before the total amount is cleared, then we will apply for a warrant possession of your home. This will set a date and time for when your tenancy will end.

Keeping in touch pays!

4

Crosby Housing Association have recently developed an ‘On Line’

referral system with Citizens Advice Sefton where we can instantly refer any of our tenants

who need urgent advice on their rent arrears, benefits, general debts or even if you need

help with money management.

You can still access free and confidential advice by dropping into the local CAB office at

Goddard Hall, 297 Knowsley Road, Bootle, L20 5DF.

You wont have to wait hours on end - there’s a short wait for an assessment (it takes about

20 minutes) and you will then be given a date and time for an appointment with the right

adviser.

Citizens Advice Sefton

Wednesday 9.30am - 1.00pm

Thursday 9.30am -1.00pm

Friday 9.30am - 1.00pm

Opening Hours (Drop-in)

Your Local CAP drop in is at

Kingsway Christian Centre - Fridays - 10am - 12pm (Term Time only)

We also have developed a strong relationship with Christians Against Poverty (CAP),

who can also provide support if you need it, let us know or contact them direct on the

telephone number below.

5

An Update from CHART It’s been a busy few months at CHART.

From May to July, we received 73 new referrals to the team.

17 of these cases were people who were in hospital at the time of referral, either homeless on the ward, or not wanting to return to their previous address upon discharge. CHART visited all these people on the ward and worked with them to ensure their discharge from hospital was not delayed.

Some people are not able to manage a tenancy on their own and

are assessed as needing supported accommodation. 12 of the

referrals were people who needed to move but required a higher

level of support. CHART worked alongside these service users, their

families and their carers to find suitable supported accommodation.

16 of the referrals were living in unsatisfactory, private rented

accommodation. CHART worked with them to liaise with their

landlords over repairs, contacted Sefton Housing Standards on

their behalf and helped them towards securing a higher standard of

accommodation.

The remainder of the referrals were people living in the

community that needed to move for some reason that was

negatively affecting their mental health.

Where possible CHART carry out a home based

assessment on all the cases that are referred to the team.

For further information about the work of the CHART team go to:

http://www.crosbyhousing.org.uk/aaChart.htm