Provision of Social Housing

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From its beginning, CAHAL provided a ‘safety net’ for those unable to get council housing, and was active in the improvement of the Caldmore area. CAHAL borrowed Government funds to acquire and renovate existing houses that were becoming derelict and let them at economic rents to local people.

 

In September 1972 the CAHAL minutes record the following policy with regard to tenant selection.

‘The Association is founded to cater for those people in necessitous circumstances. The Local Authority will nominate about half our tenants (However we will have some power of approval or otherwise). There are certain to be more tenants than accommodation, thus we must lay down some broad framework for tenant selection. It seems that the area of greatest social need will lie among such cases where the Local Authority is powerless to act e.g. one-parent families.’

 

Council tenancies were allocated according to a points system and only people resident for at least eighteen months were eligible to register. ‘Points’ were awarded according to: marital status, family size, medical considerations, existing accommodation, overcrowding. Tenancies were awarded for families with 120 points or more. In practice, this meant that only local residents with three or more children and families living in confirmed clearance areas were likely to meet the requirements. CAHAL identified that the points system was weak in providing for single people, childless couples, new arrivals to Walsall and single parent families.

After 13 Caldmore Green, the first property owned by CAHAL was 17 Redhouse Street, which came to the Association with vacant possession on 3rd November 1972. This was followed by 52 and 54 Thorpe Road on 17th November 1972, both of which had sitting tenants. The tenants of 54 Thorpe Road have remained with CAHAL and although thirty years on, they live in sheltered housing in Camden Street, they are still active within the Caldmore community.

The Development Officer’s report of 5th February 1973 makes the repairs to the new acquisitions sound straightforward,

‘A new kitchen, bathroom, repairs and modernisation to this house are almost completed. Once again there has been a delay in the damp coursing, hence the decorating cannot be finished’.

Witness

Mr L states,

‘They did the kitchen area and the toilet outside and all the time that was being built, we had a toilet at the top of the stairs called an Elsan…they actually modified the house, around us because there was no other properties available at the time’.

 

On The 31st December 1973, the Association owned eighteen properties (including offices with a flat above) with ten other properties at final contract stage.

During 1973, the shortage of appropriate property and development sites within the Caldmore area caused CAHAL to rethink its purchasing policy. At the Annual General Meeting on 20th May 1974 at The Crest Hotel, Birmingham Road, the Development Officer reported,

‘Committee decided on one major policy change during the year, which had a direct effect on our property purchasing and development. This being that the Association could buy outside the Caldmore Area, but that families from Caldmore should have priority in the offer of any accommodation.’

In 1975, representatives from CAHAL met with Local Authority Officers to discuss ‘the rolling programme’. This was the council’s plan for large-scale clearance and renewal of many parts of Caldmore over the following five years. The plan was to systematically demolish houses in Corporation Street, Rutter Street, Victor Street and Camden Street and rehouse the occupants locally.

By 1977, the Local Authority’s policy on large-scale slum clearance had changed and property owners were given the opportunity to improve or sell for improvement. CAHAL’s role in rescuing traditional housing in order to maintain the structure and identity of the Caldmore area was of fundamental importance.

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