Homes for OAPs
Tenants now settled in
Residents of Abbeyfield House in Crieff have found new homes.
In September last year it was announced the supported accommodation in Sauchie Road – which has been operating for more than 30 years – was to close.
The home is run by trustees of Abbeyfield Crieff and Muthill Society, which supports older people in the community.
The trustees pledged to work with the seven remaining residents to find alternative accommodation.
Financial constraints and lack of demand for the outdated flatlets were cited as the reason for the difficult decision to close the facility.
Abbeyfield Crieff and Muthill Society had provided the sheltered housing with the provision of two meals a day since the home was built in the 1980s, but it was said to be no longer meeting the needs of residents and was not financially viable.
Substantial internal refurbishment and modernisation would have been required to bring it up to standard and it was also becoming increasingly difficult to find tenants wanting to move into bedsits without en-suite facilities.
As a result Abbeyfield House was not running at its maximum capacity and was carrying two empty properties.
The society worked with Perth and Kinross Council to find suitable new accommodation for the seven affected tenants.
This week, a spokesperson for Abbeyfield Crieff and Muthill Society told the Herald: “All the residents of Abbeyfield were found suitable re-housing before Christmas and all are settled in their new homes.”
When the Abbeyfield home in Comrie closed in November 2003, the proceeds of that sale were used to fund an outreach worker for the elderly in the village.
The society spokesperson continued: “With regard to the building, no decision has been reached as yet, but some negotiations are ongoing and we will provide an update in due course.
“We are ensuring that the legacy left from the Comrie Abbeyfield and the Comrie outreach worker budget is being transferred to a suitable charity and negotiations on this are also progressing.
“The outreach worker has been very helpful in supporting people in their new homes both in Crieff and Comrie.”