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been delighted to do so, but the waiting list for flatlets
is still very long and many of these persons were
not eligible. The waiting list for the Welfare Homes
andHostels is also long, an average wait being about
18 months to 2 years.
A large number of my interviews were with
persons who were awaiting a flat or welfare accommodation.
The waiting period is frequently a time of
great strain. To live under the same roof as offspring
who have made it clear that your presence is distasteful
to them or to suffer insults from a landlady
who has picked some quarrel with you, or who constantly
reminds you that you are preventing her from
selling the property, and acheiving some ambition
with the capital, must be hard indeed to bear. It has
sometimes been possible to make satisfactory alternative
arrangements such as admission to privately
owned and administered Guest Houses for the elderly,
or the sharing of accommodation with another old
person with room to spare. The Ilford Social Services
Association now has an experimental boarding out
scheme, and some cases have been passed on to
their boarding out officer. She cannot always place
the applicants but it helps them to know that they are
borne in mind. Some persons who have longed for
the day when a flat would be allocated to them panic
when the dream becomes reality. Their furniture is
too large, their curtains the wrong size, they have
no cash to pay the removal man, or they are too
frail and crippled to go about getting estimates for
moving, buying curtain material etc., and they worry.
Ihave been able to help several by undertaking some
of the running about for them. The Housing Assistants
also give help in this way.
Arguments with neighbours are a common cause
of distress among the aged and I have been the channel
through which oil has been poured on the troubled
waters on many occasions. Untidy gardens and overgrown
hedges are irritations that lead to an exchange
of rude words and black looks. The Frenford Boys'
Clubhave some kindly young members who undertake
to do a little gardening without charge, and through
their generosity some of these misunderstandings
were swept away with the grass and hedge cuttings