Well there is a homelessness crisis- largely called by increasing numbers of families on the breadline due to the economic situation benefit cuts and the bedroom tax imposed by this ConDem government.
Overall I can see it being a Council priority as they retain responsibility for rehousing vulnerable families and the supply isnt there. Its also particularly hard to break into the private rented sector these days without immaculate credit references and its increasingly diffcult to stay above water on that front.

But there is also an educational supply crisis for the forseeable future and Im disappointed at the Councils unwillingness to engage re views and solutions other than bulge classes here there and everywhere. There are potential cross borough initiatives that can be explored.,

I started my career working for Lewisham Homeless Families then Private Sector Leasing initiatives in the 80s. Its sad that we are now back to placing vulnerable families and individuals in hostels. Homeless people are a very mxed bag- most are average run of the mill folk. Others have more issues. It can be an explosive mix to manage.

It looks like the application has been withdrawn:
http://planning.lewisham.gov.uk/online-a...CAPR_72775

There will be another application:

The item at the beginning of January may have been an administrative error by housing or planning departments as no documents were included.

Michael, this application was put in by the previous owners (of the nursing home) in January 2014, not 2015. This is obviously where the council got the idea (they couldn't imagine this on their own, I'm sure of that).

I wanted to share with you an update that I received about this issue as a follow up to my recent council question. The update was too long to put up on the site due to word count limit, however you will be able to read it using the link below.

http://www.labour4foresthill.org.uk/news/

I am more than happy to send a word document if anyone emails me.

cllr_paul.upex@lewisham.gov.uk

I also did try to attach the document but it would not attach!

Finally I wanted to ensure that you were all aware that this issue will be on the Agenda of the next Ward Assembly meeting taking place on

Tuesday 24th March, 7pm at the Honor Oak Christian Fellowship, 39 Honor Oak Road SE23 3SH

Best wishes

Cllr Paul Upex
@PaulUpex
cllr_paul.upex@lewisham.gov.uk

The report uploaded today (04/03/2015) in the section regarding:
Education provision and impact on school places
Is all based on the assumption that children that will resided in Hamilton Lodge already having a place in another Lewisham school.
So what will be the situation when this is not the case?
For instance when the family come from outside the borough of Lewisham.

Reverting Hamilton Lodge back to a residential care home for Lewisham’s elderly would make far more sense than creating a hostel for homeless families, as it would not have an impact on our three already overflowing local primary schools.

But then again maybe Lewisham councillors don’t care about the elderly of the borough!
(If they need to be in a care home then they are unlikely to be capable of getting to the polling booths.).
It’s a shame this next election is not a local council election!

The point about Hamiton Lodge presenting a rare opportunity for dealing with local oversubscribed schools seems to have been missed somewhat. Perhaps deliberately and obtusely. Lewisham do not seem interested in resolving the education crisis at local level.

localbigwig, my sentiments exactly on the issue of children at this address being eligible for making an application for admission in this area, see my post dated 24/10/14 in this thread. I did write to Lewisham on these issues but got no response !.

I personally think it should be used for an elderly housing for care scheme -there are new models of housing with the care element - these encourage promotion of independence & privacy ; improvement in quality of life for elderly i.,e. a flexible provision of care and support as an alternative to residential care & sheltered housing schemes. Lewisham has a very rigid structure for adult social care in the borough, not sure when the policy was last reviewed but all they appear to be doing is talking about adult social care charges. If I am wrong maybe someone can put me right.

The hostel is a fait accompli (one-party borough), no chance of a school extension, and a very large opportunity missed. The change from nursing home to hostel involves an expensive planning application, yet none is required if changing to a school.

The council will throw all sorts of economic arguments about the expense of creating a school, permanent housing, or elderly care, but they are all outdated. Even the ‘school meals and pupils having to tread between the sites’ argument will be raised as a safety concern. A small amount of appropriate railing would solve that (most of it’s already in place).

Obviously homelessness is horrible and we should do what we can to alleviate it. Silly house prices, no affordable housing (losing your privately-rented home now accounts for 30% of cases), and benefits cuts are driving this.

Let’s hope once open there is little anti-social behaviour, but why do the homelessness units in Catford sport security guards in stab-proof vests? The Council did some poor research around anti-social behaviour and their hostels, which they will wheel out to support their case. We should have access to all the empirical evidence and methodologies used, not just the (almost fixed) results and conclusions.

The application will be fast-tracked (unlike us poor s*ds, who often have to wait soooo much longer than the 13 weeks this will take if we wanted to, say, add a shed to our roof!!).

Let’s hope this thing’s got laundry facilities, as they’ve all closed down round here (one’s an estate agent).

Watch “No Place to Call Home’ on BBC iPlayer: it’s shocking how much the kids’ behaviour deteriorated in hostels. They’re locked in and isolated, and no friends or family can visit them. A quarter of London’s homeless spend 2 or more years in temporary accommodation. Lewisham says 23 weeks will be the average at Hamilton Lodge. Welcome to Piccadilly Circus everyone…

I'm only just hearing about this...and I live just round the corner.

Whatever 'consultation' has taken place, it clearly hasn't reached local people that may be affected by this application. It's typical, when the council wants something it gets slipped through the planning back door!

Can Cllr Paul Upex please let me know how the consultation was organised and how local people were told about it? When will we be consulted regarding the planning application?

Thanks
TH

Roz said ""The point about Hamiton Lodge presenting a rare opportunity for dealing with local oversubscribed schools seems to have been missed somewhat. Perhaps deliberately and obtusely. Lewisham do not seem interested in resolving the education crisis at local level."

I am not an expert on this area, but I think an organisation of parents could set up a free school using these premises!

Sherwood, you're probably right about the Free School, but the point is that the local children would be served much better if this space was given to one of the excellent local schools (Fairlawn or Horniman), to take the benefit of their vast experience to bring another good quality school to the area. Unfortunately, Free schools aren't always the answer, as parents aren't the experts when it comes to running schools (myself included in that statement!)

However, that would involve local government agreement (rather than the national decision for the Free School). And that's where things fall down...

So it all comes back to the local Councillors not representing the interests of local residents. Suggest we vote them out next time round.

I must confess I'm less than impressed by the visibility or involvement of our local councillors on this forum.
Where I used to live the local labour councillors were really pro-active getting involved with everything from an unruly hedge blocking a pathway, dog mess fly-tipping as well as crime and regeneration/building proposals for the area-In fact I still receive a monthly email from them telling me whats come to the councillors attention in the past four weeks and outcomes etc.
I really feel that like the forest hill SNT our councillors should do a monthly post on this forum telling us what has come to their attention in our area and what is being done about it.
I've always voted but having found our NEW local councillors so detached on this forum which to my mind is the ideal platform for them to keep up to date with and address local concerns I will most definitely NOT bother voting for them in the next local election.

sorry, mistake

This post was last modified: 16-03-2015 06:48 PM by nottinghillbilly.

Honor Oak Road has a 20 mph speed limit and the enforcers are the speed bumps. Perhaps a speed camera to catch the speeding van-drivers who don't care because they don't own the van?

To jaradras: I, too, would like to see Hamilton Lodge turned into a sheltered housing scheme for the elderly, but it would need to be a proper scheme with on-site managers and genuine assistance on call. What we are seeing now is managers with several blocks to care for, so nobody is actually on site for long periods of the day, if at all.
Residents are given those emergency call pendants, but what they really need is a permanent presence on site and somebody to knock on the door or call in to check that someone who has missed their regular activity in the home is feeling all right.
The sheltered housing scheme in Crofton Park Road is a shadow of its former self since Lewisham Homes became responsible for running it.

The planning applications have now been submitted for these two sites and gives local residents the opportunity to express their views, just use the links below. I am also happy to put forward the views of residents if they wish to email me direct cllr_paul.upex@lewisham.gov.uk

http://tinyurl.com/o2nbeqa

http://tinyurl.com/p7229lc

Why do we need to be informed about this via the forum? There was a promise about proper consultation, this has not and is not happening. We are being taken for a ride again, and it appears the local politicians are the drivers. The one’s that bother to comment that is!

Our MP, Jim Dowd, recently sent out a leaflet with a header “Better Housing for Local Families”. Come on then, make these properties just that, instead of subjecting those families yet more upheaval.

On the 24th October 2014, I posted a comment :
"The Council paid £3.3 m for these two sites ?. Where did these funds come
from ? from Council Tax payers ?; the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) or the General Fund (GF) ? would be interesting to know as money from any of these budgets can only be spent for a specific purpose & the necessary stakeholders consulted from what little I know, maybe someone can clarify this for us."

I wrote to Lewisham Council on this matter but got no response.

I am bringing up this issue because if the funds & the source of these funds were for a specific purpose i.e. for alleviating the pressure on homeless households and the Council expenditure for this purpose i.e. rehousing homeless families - then there was no need for this so called consultation charade as the decision to purchase, spend money had already been made and all that was required was planning permission for some changes - this is what they have done !.

Individuals on this forum have made very useful contributions on this issue and the local ward Councillors have encouraged this, knowing it was not going to make any difference on what we want or do not wish to have in OUR neighbourhood ?. It is exactly this lack of transparency by the Council and its elected politicians that discourages people from getting involved in issues that matter to them and the country. We are already seeing the fragmentation of the two party political system nationally - largely due to the politicians from the two main political party's NOT listening to our concerns. Politicians are talking down, whilst we are all having a conversation. This fragmentation is also happening regionally - cannot wait for this to be accelerated in London - as politics needs a good shake-up.