Key Worker family faces homelessness on Tiree

LINDA AITCHISON reports on a family of Key Workers facing housing challenges.

Key Workers face many challenges. A family-of-three sharing 21 jobs on Tiree could be forced to leave the island at the end of July unless they find a new home.

Time is running out for 30-yearold Louise Reid, her fiancé and sister, who currently share a privately rented property on the Inner Hebrides island whose owners are returning to live on the island full-time.

Louise, who works as a dispenser at Tiree GP surgery and is a student nurse, has lived on the island since she was four. Her sister Megan, 28, is a caretaker at the High School, and fiancé Richard works from home for the Met Office. They are all Key Workers.

Taken together, the family performs the following Key Worker roles: they are all members of the five member Tiree Coastguard Rescue Team; one is a member of the six member Scottish fire and rescue team; one is a future nurse; two are school caretakers; one is a Met Office employee; one edits the island paper; one is a senior social care worker; one is a meals on wheels volunteer; one is a solar volunteer; one is a heart start volunteer; one is a hospitality worker; three are fully trained community first responders; one is a member of Tiree Medical Practice Staff; three are British Divers Marine Life Medics.

Louise told the Oban Times: “We have explored every possible option on this island for accommodation, we are constantly out priced on anything that might become available to buy and with zero movement in the social housing stock we do not stand a chance amongst others who are in similar positions to ourselves.

“I am aware of at least three people who have similar points scoring on the social housing list and two are formally registered as homeless. This doesn’t seem fair or correct when there are a number of properties lying empty.

“In a mainland setting, the deposit we have we could purchase a property outright. On Tiree it does not even touch the edges.

“The cost of buying a house on Tiree is estimated at being seven times average wages on the island,” said Louise, who is desperate to stay.

“There is a crisis here. There is no quick fix to this issue and although I believe there will be a solution in the future, sadly I think we will be long gone when it comes to fruition, along with others of a similar age group and demographic to ourselves. There will be a whole generation of people forced to leave Tiree due to this housing crisis, a generation who are the island’s Key Workers and population growers,” she said.

Tiree Community Development Trust chairperson Rhoda Meek said the organisation has been raising concerns about the housing situation for a number of years now. “We are in the early stages of progressing our own housing development - but that is a long and slow process. We are actively looking into solutions which might help in the short to medium term, but again, the wheels grind slowly.

“We are enormously frustrated for this family - they contribute to our community in so many ways and we cannot emphasise enough how absolutely devastating it would be to lose them.

“All we can do is appeal to the 46% of property owners in Tiree who are not permanently resident in our community to consider whether there is a way they can help here. This is a very real and upsetting example of how the housing crisis is hollowing out our communities and should give us all - at a personal and at a Government level - pause for thought.

“If anyone who owns property in Tiree is interested in converting to a long-term let, the trust staff are trained and able to advise and support the owners through that process. We would love to hear from them.”