Houses for Heroes
0131 557 1188
Her Majesty The Queen visiting
Scottish Veterans Edinburgh 2007
Our origins...
Patron
Her Majesty The Queen
A VETERAN'S WIDOW
"Thank you on behalf of my late husband and myself for 55 years living in a good house in a nice place"
Mission
The mission of SVGCA is to provide reasonably priced rental housing for disabled veterans
Background
The Scottish Veterans’ Garden City Association (Inc.) (SVGCA) was founded during the First World War by a group of eight enlightened Scottish professional and business men in Edinburgh. It was they who noted the plight of wounded Veterans returning from the Front, who had little or no prospect of suitable accommodation ahead of them.
Volunteers
From this, a large network of volunteers grew up to raise funds and to acquire land on which to build houses. Local Authorities played a considerable part in assisting this project and have continued to maintain strong links with SVGCA over the years. The estate currently consists of 614 houses on 74 sites in 37 Districts covering Scotland from the English Border to the line of the Great Glen. The largest District is Edinburgh, Leith & Lothians which looks after 196 houses on 14 sites. At the other end of the scale, there are a small number of Districts with only a single house. A list of Veterans houses across Scotland by location may be viewed here.
Houses and Disabled VeteransSince its foundation in 1915, the principal activity of SVGCA has been to construct and maintain houses for selected individuals, and their dependents, who have served in the British Armed Forces, Merchant Navy, Police or Fire Brigade and who, whilst serving or after completion of service, have been partially or totally disabled, or have been discharged through ill health. Although all our houses are in Scotland, tenants are considered and welcomed from the Veteran's community across the whole of the United Kingdom.
Central Housing Register - Scottish Veterans Housing
SVGCA is the largest charity in Scotland providing housing for disabled ex-Servicemen and women in the UK and we work closely with, and fully support, the new Housing Pillar initiative of Veterans Scotland. The aim of Veterans Scotland housing is to provide one simple application point, which will allow a veteran to register for all the ex-Service housing charities operating in Scotland, dependant on meeting the individual housing charities' specific criteria. We (SVGCA), operate this application process known as the Central Housing Register on behalf of Veterans Scotland.
Public Benefit
In providing public benefit, the aim of SVGCA is to provide good, rented housing for permanently disabled veterans who qualify under our criteria. Our volunteer Districts work towards setting rent at 75% of the Local Authority level, with rental income being used to maintain and improve housing stock.
The Need
With our Forces deployed on active service at current levels, an increase in demand from younger Veterans for housing is inevitable. The present priority, therefore, is given to the qualifying younger ex-Service personnel who are homeless or potentially homeless with a family.
New Properties
On 29th October, 2010 we opened another four newly built houses in Penicuick and a yioung disabled veteran, wounded in Afghanistan recently, was one of the first to take up residence. On 22nd July, 2011, we opened two more cottages in Airdrie.
Help us provide houses for disabled ex-Service personnel
The Gift that goes on giving...
Donate by Text
You can donate using your mobile
Example: To donate £5 text HHFH15 £5 and send to 70070
