Wells Almshouses
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What are Almshouses?
Almshouses are unfurnished dwellings consisting of lounge kitchen bedroom, shower or bathroom usually but not always designed or adapted with the needs of the elderly in mind. The intention is to provide convenient and comfortable accommodation in a setting where residents can enjoy independence and come and go as they please. Almshouses provide security and residents are encouraged to make friends and to share a wider social life through the use of the community facilities such as the garden Chapel and the Guild Room.
How are the Almshouses run?
The Almshouses Trustees and Treasurer who give their services voluntarily, and a Secretary run the City of Wells Almshouses Trust, which is administered under a scheme prepared by the Charity Commission in 2004.
The Trustees always include the Dean of Wells Cathedral and the Mayor of Wells together with trustees nominated by the Chapter of the Cathedral and the Council of the City of Wells.
As with any community there are mutual obligations and this inevitably means rules the trustees try to keep such rules to a minimum but they have to satisfy the Charity Commission and the Housing Corporation that the almshouses are being run safely efficiently in the interest of all present and future residents.
Qualification as a resident.
Benefit area: The City of Wells and the in and out Parishes of St Cuthbert.
The Trustees consider applications without regard to religion or ethnic origin of the applicant. The term "persons in need hardship or distress" is interpreted by the Trustees to mean not only an applicant who does not have adequate financial means also one who lacks family or social support or is otherwise living in circumstances which do not allow an independent life in security and dignity.
The definition of a person in need hardship or distress is in every particular case at the discretion of Trustees who make a judgment both of the applicant's circumstances and of the benefit which the applicant is likely to derive from being a member of the City of Wells Almshouses community.
The trust has no care facilities, applicants must be sufficiently healthy to live independent lives, while there are no age restrictions the CWA provided accommodation primarily for older people.
The Trustees of the City of Wells Almshouses invite residents in the Wells area to apply for the vacancies, initial enquiries, which will be treated in the strictest confidence, should be made to:
Cllr Christina Borastero
The Guildroom, Bubwith Almshouses,
off Priest Road, Wells, Somerset BA5 0QE