Back to the future for Housing 21

Housing 21 is proud to announce that it is going “back to the future”, changing its name back to Housing 21 effective from 2 April 2019.

Bruce Moore, Chief Executive said: “We listened to feedback from our residents, who told us that one of the things they like least is being seen by others as living in a residential care home. Unfortunately having ‘& Care’ in our name often gave this impression. Care will still be an important part of our Extra Care service but we are delighted to announce that we are going back to being Housing 21.

“We have also taken this opportunity to refresh our strategic priorities and remain committed to providing high quality, affordable homes for older people of modest means. Focusing on expanding our Extra Care and Retirement Housing offer, we have embarked on an ambitious build programme, with 35 schemes starting on site this year, to ensure that more older people can live in housing appropriate to their needs.

“We are committed to our distinctive, quality offer, which includes retaining our Court Manager service, as residents have told us it is one of the things which matters most to them. We are devolving more responsibility to a local level, and ensuring our Extra Care services are rated as “Good” or “Outstanding” by the Care Quality Commission. Our resident satisfaction is increasing year on year as we strive to provide the best possible service for them and I’m delighted to say we are in a strong position to continue to do so as Housing 21 in the years ahead.”

We initially changed our name to Housing & Care 21 in 2014 as “Housing 21” was considered unsuitable when we were trying to recruit care workers for our Home Care service, which was not linked to a housing offer. We no longer have a Home Care service, however do still provide over 42,000 hours of care a week via our Extra Care schemes throughout England.

George Spry, resident at Lawrence Hill Court in Gateshead said: “Along with my wife Grace, we’ve lived happily at Lawrence Hill Court for the past 16 years.

“The announcement about the name change was made at our recent Resident Conference and we were delighted. Housing 21 has a long history of involving its residents in the policy and decision making process, and long may it remain!”