In the whole of the Scarborough Borough there is just one house which has been specially adapted for people with visual impairments, despite there being around 5,000 visually impaired residents in the borough.
Yorkshire Coast Sight Support is to receive up to £80,000 of council funding to help address the lack of accessible housing available to visually impaired people in the Scarborough borough.
The charity will provide matched funding and aims to buy and adapt a property to the required standards.
The council's Housing Strategy Officer - John Burroughs - told councillors there is a lack of suitable housing in the area.
The project aims to address the lack of accessible housing that is available to visually impaired people in the borough by purchasing and adapting a property to the required standards.
The charity will cover half the costs of the project which is expected to cost up to £160,000, with £123,000 set aside for the purchase of a two-bedroom ground-floor flat.
Colin Eastwood, manager of Yorkshire Coast Sight Support welcomed the approval of the funding for the “excellent project” and said it would allow the charity “to focus on housing needs in community areas”.
Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, he said:
“Big thanks to the local authority officers who worked with us on the project. It has been quite a long, arduous project going through Covid.”
Councillor Carl Maw is the Portfolio Holder for Stronger Communities and Housing, he says the project will help fill a gap that the large developers overlook.
The grant was approved at a meeting of Scarborough Council’s Cabinet on Tuesday October 18, with members voting unanimously in favour of the proposal.
Council Leader Steve Siddons has welcomed the project.
Yorkshire Coast Sight Support has a charity shop on Falsgrave Road in Scarborough, which also has a two-bedroom flat above it. Originally, the charity had planned on renovating and making that property suitable for a visually impaired person.
However, this year the charity was “unexpectedly bequeathed with a sizeable sum of money” which has allowed it to search for a more suitable, ground-floor property.
Mr Eastwood, the manager, said the charity hopes to have the new property renovated and ready for an occupant “within the next six to eight months”.
The Royal National Institute for the Blind has estimated that with an ageing population, the number of visually impaired people in the borough could rise to 5,900 by 2030.
Yorkshire Coast Sight Support is a local charity, which supports visually impaired persons across Scarborough and the surrounding area. It has been in existence for over 80 years.
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