A unit of residential accommodation (usually a house or flat) which belongs to a charity, is provided exclusively to meet the charity’s purposes (for example, the relief of financial need or infirmity) and is occupied or is available for occupation under a licence by a qualified beneficiary.
An almshouse charity is typically a charity which is established for purposes which are to be furthered by the provision of one or more almshouses.
An almshouse charity is usually a charity for the relief of financial hardship by the provision of housing and associated services or benefits which must (or is authorised to) provide its primary benefit by granting a licence to occupy the accommodation that it owns to its beneficiaries.
Find out more - almshouses.org
Interested? Register your interest, or contact us today on 01482 881 052.
Before joining our mailing list, contact our engagement officer, Claire Scott on 01482 881052. You will be asked a few simple questions and we can guide you to our mailing list, or highlight other organisations that may meet your housing needs.
We do not operate a waiting list for our properties. We advertise all our vacant accommodation on our mailing list which you can join free of charge to keep up-to-date with all the news relating to Beverley Housing Charity.
Our housing is provided on an application basis and to apply, you must be able to move within 1-8 weeks, you must not have a property to sell
Properties will always go to those in greatest need and you may be requested upon application to provide evidence of need.
Our current criteria states no pets. However, this is under review.
I’m not from Beverley, can I apply?
We prioritise those in greatest need who have lived in Beverley for ten or more years at some point in their life. However, when accommodation is available, the housing committee do have the ability to look beyond Beverley, Molescroft, Woodmansey, Tickton and surrounding areas, when there is a significant need for the individual or couple.
We no longer accept requests for our housing for those with more than £200,000 of their own assets. This includes property, investments or bank accounts. We wish for our housing to be for those in most need and will always prioritise those on housing benefit or with limited monthly income.
We recognise that the world is changing and the drive is for people to live in their own homes for as long as possible. Therefore, we recognise those who are living independently as. We do not provide any care provision in any of our accommodations. However we recognise living independently as the following:-
When additional care needs are highlighted and provision put in place, we request that information is provided to our team on enhanced next of kin, carers details and or care company details.
In cases where a care need is recognised by us through the following: charity visits to the properties, residents call into the office or distress highlighted by a resident, relative, neighbour, health & social care professional or friend. We will closely monitor the provision of care implemented.
We reserve the right, as per our constitution, to highlight to the resident and next of kin if we believe from evidence gathered that independence is no longer achievable. This will begin the process of support to find alternative accommodation. In rare cases, this can lead to the licence to live in the property being revoked. (This happens in extreme cases, and is the last position we wish to enforce).
We will always work with our residents, family and partner services to aid our residents to live, not simply exist.
We can in extreme cases provide grants for new moves or internal moves. Greater evidence of financial need will be requested and a grant application must be completed with our team.
All our properties are of high quality and most have standard fixtures and fittings. We do not provide curtains, blinds, furniture, cookers, or white goods. A limited number of our property’s energy costs are factored in.
Car Parking: Many of our properties are based in or within walking distance of Beverley Town Centre. Some do have access to car parking, but this may be an additional cost, or you may have to arrange parking through East Riding of Yorkshire Council with a monthly or annual fee.
Once within our community, wherever possible we will work with you and your family to provide the most appropriate accommodation for your needs. We will work with you and statutory partners to provide adaptations where possible but we must work with you to ensure that your home aids you to live, not to simply exist.
We will regularly communicate with you, about alternative accommodation within our community. Ensuring you can see the quality across our properties as you look to possibly downsize or live in a more accessible home with greater aides.
To aid you to live independently, we work closely with teams from Help to live at home this can help to make your home safer, provide digital connectivity for falls or floods, and they can also help you in staying active.
Our quality housing is in very high demand and as such, it is not always possible to provide a property for those who apply. We therefore only provide full applications to those who have had a pre-interview with our team. If unsuccessful at the application stage, we will provide honest and transparent feedback.
Each full application is assessed by our operational team, before going to our Housing Committee for review. We will work with you to ensure that we have the full information required before your application is submitted. When applying, it is vital that the information you provide is correct at the time of application, as evidence of need in line with our criteria, is requested before allocation of our homes.
If unsuccessful but your application meets our criteria, we will offer alternative accommodation as soon as it becomes available.
Can I apply for a different property once living with you?
Yes, we support internal moves especially when your needs have changed and the accommodation is too large for you, or your accessibility needs have changed. Our team will work with you to complete an internal move application for review by our Housing Committee.
With the current economic crisis and rising energy costs, we regularly share money-saving advice, and we are continually looking at ways to ensure our homes are as energy-efficient as possible. However, we recognise that many of our residents may find themselves in financial crisis. We want all residents to be reassured that we are here to support you to live, not to simply exist.
No resident should go without heating, hot water or food. We do not wish for anyone’s pride or concern about troubling us, to prevent you from gaining the help you need. You can call Claire, our Resident Engagement Officer in confidence, to book an appointment to review your current financial concerns. An application may then be submitted to the Housing Committee.
A decision can be made promptly if there is an immediate identified need.
We recognise people wish to make our accommodation their home and we actively encourage this. General decoration when living with us covers:
For all other items, we politely request that you contact the Beverley Housing Charity team before purchasing or implementing any changes to the property. We cannot retrospectively fund any expenditure that you may incur in the enhancement of our property, in any instance that this happens you may also incur costs for our surveyors to assess any work done.
We have a live proactive maintenance schedule and invest strongly in modern enhancements and upgrades to our properties. If you do not wish to wait for a planned visit to your property, you can request a visit by contacting the charity team on 01482 881052.
We request that you inform us of any major changes to your status from your original application to become a resident with us this includes the following.
We are delighted to welcome Claire Scott to the Beverley Housing Charity team. Claire joins us to enhance our capacity as we come out of the Covid pandemic. Her focus will be on supporting our residents to re-engage in our community after a difficult two-year period. Her work will include:
Yes, we are a leading local charity providing high-quality accommodation for older people from Beverley, Molescroft, Woodmansey and Tickton. We would actively encourage people to consider leaving a gift in a will to charity to support our residents or development fund.
100% of your gift will support residents and can provide activities, or enhanced services on-site from our gardens and well-being spaces to artwork in our shared accommodation.
Alternatively larger gifts can enable us to continue to purchase land in Beverley and develop new sites to help meet the growing demand for our housing. Gifts such as this have enabled us to help over 250 residents each year providing over 150 homes.
Contact our CEO Tel: 01482 881 052 or email andybarber@beverleyhousingcharity.org
We try our very best to maintain our properties to a high standard with you. But like all homes sometimes things go wrong. Whether it's a dripping tap, a creaky door or storm damage we need to know. Our office open hours are Monday to Friday 9 am to 5 pm and the landline number is 01482 881 052.
We love to hear from you, we do not believe in being kept on hold, press 1 for this and 12 for that! We will answer your call, or if we happen to be engaged, leave us a short message and we will call you back the same day Monday to Friday 9-5 pm.
In the case of an emergency, Plumbing or Electrical Contact the Gas Company or Ecolec directly:
DETAILS NEEEDED
We only work with trusted suppliers, high quality local contractors. This can cause some delays as they are in high demand, not just working for us but other lucky people in the area.
At point of call we will categorise your repair.
We know that when you take the time to report a repair, it is extremely important to you but also to us. We must stress we do not have any in-house trades, all work is arranged through contractors for the charity and, as such, we cannot always determine specific times when someone will attend but we will always endeavour to.
All jobs are registered on our system at the point of your initial call. It’s imperative we get as much detail as possible, we will then closely monitor the progress of the works, keep strong communication between yourself and our contractors to ensure you can go about your daily routines, or external commitments wherever possible.
At times we may contact you for feedback on the work completed. This will be to provide feedback to our contractors and as well as the successfully completed job, we are interested in your feedback on friendliness of the contractor, timeframe and cleanliness.
We have an extensive range of one and two bedroom accommodation in the heart of historic Beverley. These include houses, ground-floor and first-floor apartments and bungalows. We aim to have a range of high-quality retirement living that enables our beneficiaries to live, not to simply exist.
Emergencies are deemed as safety risks to you or the property or something that will prevent you from securing the property or feeling secure yourself.
Health Emergencies: Tel: 999 or for non-critical health concerns Call NHS Tel: 111
Beverley Urgent Treatment Centre: 01482 478 880. Urgent Treatment Centres
Samaritans: Tel: 0330 094 5717
Crime or security: Tel: 999 Humberside police or non-critical 101
Social Care: East Riding Council 01482 393 919. Non-emergency 01482 396 040, email lifeline@eastriding.gov.uk or visit eastriding.gov.uk
Gas Leak emergency: Tel: 0800 111 999, Emergencies and safety advice
Water leaks: (Yorkshire Water) Call: 0800 573 553, Yorkshire Water - Report a problem
Broken boiler, heating, electrical problems: 5pm to 8:30am Monday. 01482 474 646
Emergency: Dial 999.
Safeguarding: If you have a safeguarding concern for one of our residents, please contact the Adult Safeguarding Team website and follow the current guidelines for reporting a concern. Email: ersab.org.uk Tel: 01482 396 950.
General concern: Please don’t hesitate to contact us on 01482 881 052. We regret that we may not be able to share any personal information with you as we are only able to talk to the named family members or next of kin record on our system. We may be able to put your mind at ease, should, for example, a resident have not been seen for a prolonged period or an ambulance has visited their address.
It’s always lovely to get feedback whether verbal or written and you can contact us on 01482 881 052, or email the general office contact on charity@bhcharity.org. We use feedback to continually improve our services.
Gifts: We cannot accept gifts to individual team members or the team; However, a card or a note of thanks is so gratefully received.
Who can make a complaint?
We recognise that friends’, family members and sometimes neighbours wish to support a resident to get support or have their voice heard. However, in the unlikely situation that a complaint needs to be made we must stress that we can only receive these initially from.
Step 1: Please speak to us, pick up the phone, have a natter, even if you think it’s just a moan or a groan! Our team is very approachable and aims to ensure we meet our own high expectations each day and provide you a high quality of living.
Step 2: In the unlikely situation that you are not satisfied with our service or the service of any of our contracted works, you can raise your concern to our CEO CEO@bchcharity.org.
Step 3: Should you not be satisfied with this response, your complaint can be directed to our Housing & Residents Committee for consideration, this committee sits bi-monthly and reviews all feedback, compliments and complaints.
Step 4: Our Housing and Residents committee will bring to the attention of the Board any significant complaints and or themes relating to our properties, people, or processes.
We also recognise that in extreme cases, a resident may enlist the support of a Councillor, MP, Citizens Advice or a solicitor with power of attorney.
We regret to say that sometimes, as a charitable Almshouse providing quality but affordable living, we cannot always meet the expectations, despite our best efforts. This is very rare but a reality, in this difficult situation we will look to resolve the issue amicably, but this may result in us suggesting that our accommodation offer is not suitable for you.
In this highly unlikely situation, we will come to an agreement that gives you enough time to source alternative accommodation. However, during that time if you break our terms and conditions or provide false information, we may need to take legal advice to protect the charity and our wider beneficiaries.
In the case of a non-property complaint anyone else affected by the services of the Beverley Housing Charity, emailing KerryConner@beverleyhousingcharity.org or writing to CEO Beverley Housing Charity, 22 Wilbert Lane Beverley, HU17 0AG
Join the Beverly Housing Charity mailing list. Be informed when any of our properties become available, and get news on new developments, investments in our local community and events. Hear how our homes change people's lives.
Registered Charity Number:
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