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My name’s Walter Richardson. I’m 41 years old.
I served in the British Army for the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders.
I signed up in 2007, and I got out in 2017 through injury.
My housing situation before, I lived in Airdrie, North Lanarkshire, a private lease. We’d lived there for five and a half, just going six years.
Things took a turn for the worse, when the landlord decided to sell underneath us and practically left us homeless.
During that period of time, I was slowly going in to a depression.
To be honest with you, I was carrying unbearable weight on my shoulders and I didn’t know how I was gonna cope with any of it.
I tried to do most of it myself but it was a bigger task than I actually thought it would have been.
I’d been in contact with numerous charities. I had got in touch with North Lanarkshire Council and they weren’t very helpful. I was told I was self entitled and that they couldn’t meet the demands that I put across.
I then got in touch with SSAFA who helped me find another charity, ABF, who then directed me to yourselves.
The process of contacting Military Matters was pretty straightforward. I phoned, you guys phoned me back, and from then on in, you took over and dealt with everything for me.
It just lifted a complete weight off my shoulders.
The advice that Military Matters provided was near enough everything because we got before we got in touch with Military Matters, this property I’m in just now, I got told my family’s too big, overcrowded.
Spoke to Military Matters, you went on my behalf to Veterans Housing and before I knew it, within a couple of days, I had an interview for the house. Spoke to them about it, and I managed to successfully get the property.
If it wasn’t for you guys, that would never have happened because I would’ve just took that as it was, I’m not getting the property, and moved on and tried to get somewhere else.
Veterans Housing Scotland were also fantastic in the end, they’ve done everything they could to help me out and secure this property.
After our interview, they phoned me to congratulate me and saying that I was a great candidate for the property they were offering.
I love my new home. I never thought this would be an area that I would have moved to or lived in my life. I’ve always lived in cities.
We’ve been out here in a little seaside town. It’s brilliant, it’s amazing.
Where we used to live, my kids didn’t have much of a life. They come in from school and that was them until the next day ‘cause it wasn’t safe enough to let them out. Moving up here, I’ve never seen my kids happier.
They’ve got a spring in their step, they’re out every single day. They’ve got a wee group of friends and now I’ve got work. I’ve got, you know, it’s changed my life completely.
I’m on top of the world to be honest.
If I hadn’t contacted Military Matters, I think we’d have been living in a homeless unit for god knows how long. As the council said, I could have been there for a week, months, years.
If it wasn’t for Military Matters, that could have been the worst case scenario or homeless.
The advice I’d give to anyone in a similar situation to myself is don’t do what I done and try and do it yourself.
The best thing I ever done was reached out and Military Matters was there to gimme that helping hand.
Housing Options Scotland supported Walter to find a new home for him and his family after he left the British Army through injury.
“I was lost, and that was affecting my mental health”.
When Walter contacted Housing Options Scotland, he was unemployed and living in an over-crowded, privately rented flat with his wife, four children and their dog. Their landlord had just served them a Notice to Quit, giving them three months to find somewhere else to live.
Adjusting to life back on “civvy street” had not been easy for Walter. After serving ten years in the British Army with the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, Walter sustained a leg injury during active service in Afghanistan. Not long after his return home, he had lost his job and was suffering from depression, rarely leaving home to connect with the outside world.
With his wife working from home, the eviction notice and a likely move into temporary accommodation would certainly have had further financial consequences on the household. Walter already knew how difficult it would be to find a new home. The family was privately renting because of a shortage of social housing in their area. He’d registered with his local authority housing services but when he contacted them after receiving the Notice to Quit from his landlord, he discovered that they had been removed from the waiting list. It was a grim situation and Walter felt unsure of what to do.
This was when his local Citizens Advice Bureau and veterans’ charity organisation suggested he seek support from Housing Options Scotland. “I had no idea where to start looking for housing, and then Ryan at Housing Options Scotland got in touch with me. He came in and took charge of everything. He got in touch with housing associations, with SSAFA, and from there, everything went in a positive direction […] I wouldn’t have known where to go, all the processes, I had no idea how to do it all, and you guys stepped in and made it so much easier for me”.
Walter eventually accepted an offer for a three-bed house from one of the housing providers we got in touch with, and this had an immediately positive impact on the wellbeing of the whole family: “When they made me an offer on the house, I took my family with me to look at it, all at the same time. And I watched my family, and for the first time in years, I could see them happy. They were so happy; that’s what made up my mind [to accept the offer].”
“The beach is about five minutes’ walk, the house is surrounded by play parks, there’s a stadium, we’ve got everything at a walking distance.”
On the difference our support made in helping his family find the right home Walter says: “My family would have been homeless or in emergency accommodation if it hadn’t have been for Housing Options Scotland.”
To others in the same situation Walter says: “Try not to do it all yourself, on your own, because this can drag you down, ask for help from Ryan and Housing Options Scotland.”