It’s been a very active first few months for the Housing Options Scotland project. Set up in May this year, Military Matters is the title of the project run by ex-RAF navigator Claire Birch

Her remit is to provide free and independent specialist housing knowledge and peer-to-peer support to current and ex-service personnel, whose disabilities mean they have highly-complex housing needs, assisting them in finding the right home in the tenure and location of their choice.

Military Matters is due to be officially launched at the 15th Anniversary event of Housing Options Scotland on 14 Nov 12. In honor of this Military Matters has worked with War Blinded Scotland Veteran Derek O’Rourke and commissioned an original piece of his work especially for Military Matters. Look out for the painting on our new leaflets and on our website.

The painting itself has been kindly donated to Housing Options Scotland by Derek and we are looking forward to auctioning it at our Anniversary event. All proceeds will be split between Housing Options Scotland and BlindVeteransUK at Derek’s request.

Military Matters is delighted to announce a recent funding success from Poppy Scotland. £5000 has been awarded and we are busy rolling out our service to the wider veteran community, through contacts made with Poppy Scotland’s help.

Of note, we are looking forward to working closely with Armed Services Advice Project (ASAP) and the Scottish Personnel Recovery Centre (PRC). We hope to offer our advice not only to all disabled veterans but also to those approaching their exit date from the Armed Forces.

If you are struggling with housing advice and are disabled in Scotland, or are a friend or family of someone in this situation please don’t hesitate to make contact via our website www.housingoptionsscotland.org.uk and click on: Get Help.